It was just a few years ago that Drayton Farley was recording songs in his bedroom. His new release, A Heavy Duty Heart, boldly announces that though they were recent those days are long in the rearview. Like his previous album, the project was produced by Sadler Vaden, guitarist for Jason Isbell and the 400 […]
Rick Vito – Slidemaster
If you’re like me, and you love some slide guitar, commsummate musician and sideman Rick Vito has an offering for you. Vito, who was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1987 until 1991, and who toured or sat in on recordings with the likes of Bonnie Raitt, John Mayall, John Fogerty, Bob Seger (Vito played […]
The Montvales on Rehearsal Space Interlopers and How They Financed Their 2nd Album
Cincinnati-based duo the Montvales talk about touring survival mechanisms, investing in one’s relationship with creativity, and the time that they were billed as a French-Appalachian folk group.
Monday Morning Video – Taylor Hollingsworth
Birmingham guitarist and singer-songwriter Taylor Hollingsworth has built a devoted following through his solo work and as a member of Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, earning acclaim for his cosmic fingerpicking and distinctive “folk-art-punk-blues” style. We caught Hollingsworth for the first time last year at a rocking solo show in Brooklyn, and we’ve […]
Paula Boggs Band – Sumatra
I suppose it’s only natural that a musician from Seattle would use a region’s coffee as a metaphor for the style of one of their albums. Sumatran coffee is generally considered to be bold and full-bodied, with notes of earthiness, spice and chocolate. That’s actually not too bad of a one-line review for Paula Boggs […]
Andy Thomas – Highway Junkie
You know the saying: you gotta dance with the one who brung ya. Having spent years being the frontman and/or guitarist for a few outlaw honky tonk southern rock bands, that was the obvious choice of style for Andy Thomas’ newest record, Highway Junkie. As you might have intimated from the album’s title, he had […]
Tim Easton Finds Light on “fIREHORSE”
At nearly 60, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Tim Easton is still chasing songs the way he did as a restless young troubadour roaming Europe with a guitar case open on cobblestones. His 14th studio album, fIREHORSE, feels both hard-earned and freshly struck — a record that balances revolution and romance, one-chord blues and desert highways, personal reckoning […]
John Hollier on Band Dinners and Sorrow, The Band’s Spiritual Guide
Nashville’s John Hollier explains why he changes guitar strings after every show and why he disgrees with a mentor’s advice.
Monday Morning Video – John Moreland
Few artists mine the depths of emotion like John Moreland. “Break My Heart Sweetly”, from 2013’s In the Throes, is a prime example—raw and heartbreaking, capturing that brutal moment when you know exactly where a relationship is headed but can’t bear to reach the destination. Stark, beautiful, and deeply moving, it’s Moreland at his most […]
Tedeschi Trucks Band – Future Soul
If you’re reading this, it’s a safe bet you know about the Tedeschi Trucks Band: a couple of hotshot solo artists who merged their bands and their lives and have proven the idiom that one plus one can equal three. They have a new studio album out next week, Future Soul. There’s an important piece […]