This week, Boston’s Berklee College of Music hosted the Rethink Music Convention. The official conference subtitle was “Creativity, Commerce, and Policy in the 21st Century.” An NPR segment on the conference featured a terrific quote You May Also Like: Matthew Shipp, Mat Maneri – ‘Conference of the Mat/ts’ (2018) RodRead More
A young guy who hails from a small town north of London armed with photo-friendly mop top looks, an acoustic guitar and a soulful voice, Lee MacDougall might be the next in a wave of male British singer-songwriter sensations You May Also Like: Lucas Lee – ‘Lowered Expectations’ (2018)
Some people just have a gift for the odd twist of phrase that makes a song mean so much more than just a bunch of words or even just a mood. Bruce Cockburn, the Canadian sorta-Christian singer/songwriter is one such guy You May Also Like: The Immediate Family, “Cruel Twist”Read More
Speaking from the heart is one thing, but to sing from that tender place — to reveal just how vulnerable you are on stage — takes a different kind of courage. And Haley Dreis, the South Carolina classical fiddle player turned budding popular songsmith, has that courage. You May AlsoRead More
by Nick DeRiso Upset over a world that wronged him one too many times, Troy Lindsey begins his bumpy Ride Across the Sun in a foul mood. Luckily, as is so often the case, a good woman can make all the difference. You May Also Like: Lindsey Buckingham’s Live atRead More
by Nick DeRiso There are songs you listen to with one elbow jutting out a car window, the gas pedal cutting into the floor mat. Then there are the things that open up different vistas, albums that bring you around to quieter places — sounds that force you to stopRead More
by Nick DeRiso First off, this doesn’t start off with any piano, but also not the churchy wistfulness of the Cowboy Junkies’ 1987 breakthrough The Trinity Session. Instead, there is a gnarled electric guitar from Michael Timmins, a mashed-down organ and an updated worldliness in Margo Timmons’ familiar alto. They’reRead More
by Mark Saleski In the past handful of years, I have jettisoned a few distractions: namely, sports and television, which are sort of related. Rounding out the list is politics. I have decided that, because my thoughts on “the right thing to do” are so far outside of the mainstream,Read More
by Mark Saleski In the recent Southern Music issue of the Oxford American, musician John Engle speaks of “The Vastness,” the idea that the world’s store of knowledge is so vast that “if you tried to take it all on at once it would crush you.” It’s true. And thereRead More
Photo by Lindsey Verrill, from Melissa Engelman’s MySpace page by Nick DeRiso Austin-based singer-songwriter Melissa Engleman explores life with a tough vulnerability on the urban folk set At the Hotel Café, often displaying a fortitude so quiet as to deceive. She gets knocked to the ground, while brilliantly fusing alt-country,Read More
