Sure, there’s plenty of musical diversity at SXSW. There’s also variety in the venues, not to mention the time of day. This video playlist is a sampler of the performances that happen in hotel ballrooms (Nathaniel Rateliff, SMYL, The Lost Brothers), chapels real (Quiet Slang at St. David’s) and not (Margo Price at Luck Ranch […]
SXSW 2018 – The Sounds, Part 2
RUBY BOOTS I’d previously only seen Nashville by way of Australia songwriter Ruby Boots play acoustically. SXSW offered the perfect time to remedy that as she had band in tow. It represented a better reflection of the recently released Don’t Talk About It, which rumbles with electrified melodies and a healthy back-beat. Boots and company […]
SXSW 2018 – The Sounds, Part 1
LEE BAINS III & THE GLORY FIRES If you haven’t seen Bains and company live then you’ve been missing something special. Well, perhaps special isn’t the right word; maybe cathartic? The quartet unleash a fury of rock and roll complete with blaring guitars, roaring vocals and enough energy to power a small town. Bains bounded […]
SXSW 2018 – The Scene
For me, the true harbinger of spring is the arrival of the SXSW Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas. Or rather, spring begins for me when I arrive in Austin for SXSW. With upwards of 2,000 bands and more than 20,000 attendees from around the world, SXSW is the world’s premiere music conference. Even […]
Monday Morning Video – Play Ball with Josh Kantor
It’s that time of year – Opening Day is this Thursday. What better way to celebrate than a video from Josh Kantor, Fenway Park organist and indie music enthusiast. Here’s his take on the Replacement’s “Here Comes a Regular.”
Monday Morning Video – Deer Tick Go to the Bar
Feel like starting the week with some rock and perhaps a sing-along? Deer Tick have got you covered with the raucous “Let’s All Go the Bar.”
Mayer’s Playlist for Winter 2018, Part 2
Simple Scenes, Marie/Lepanto (from the Big Legal Mess Records release Tenkiller) It perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise that Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster (Water Liars) and Will Johnson (Centro-Matic et al) named their new project after a rural road sign that marks an intersection near two Arkansas towns (Marie and Lepanto). Tenkiller exudes a sense of […]
Mayer’s Playlist for Winter 2018, Part 1
Time Will Be the Healer, Glen Hansard (from the Anti- Records release Between Two Shores) Songwriting is arguably a numbers game. For many artists, the quantity of songs released is a fraction of those that are written. It’s a shame, really, as some quality songs can get left on the shelf gathering dust. For his […]
Monday Morning Video – Northcote Hopes the Good Things Never Die
Canadian singer-songwriter Matt Goud, aka Northcote, is overdue to release some new music into the world (hint, hint). In the meantime, here’s a favorite from 2013’s Northcote.
Monday Morning Video – John Hiatt and the Goners
With one notable exception, my live concert year is off to a phenomenal start. The most recent addition to the list was John Hiatt, joined by Sonny Landreth and the Goners. The foursome revisited Hiatt’s seminal album Slow Turning in its entirety, every musical nook and cranny resounding with an infectious energy. Landreth, in particular, […]