by Tom Johnson Cohen works a kind of outsider-art aesthetic in his unusual pop-songs. Like Dylan at his most uncomfortably nasal, this is not for everyone, but the rewards for patient, open-minded listeners are great. Cohen’s a bit of a mystery; finding information on this guy is pretty tough. He’sRead More

by Mark Saleski Good gawd, the man is a veritable Fort Knox of ideas. From barroom stompers to pensive ballads to clattering percussion to spoken word oddities. Waits reciting Bukowski? Yes, please! Waits is the weird uncle you’re fascinated by and scared of at the same time. You still loveRead More

What Grayson Capps brings to country music, if you can call it that, is a real sense of danger. From the first of “Highway 42,” a tune that jangles like a loose fender, I was thinking about those long-haired rebels of the 1970s You May Also Like: No related posts.

Originally named for a Rufus Wainwright song, it was perhaps inevitable that Vicious World would eventually devote an entire album to this underrated contemporary singer-songwriter. That doesn’t make the prospect any less daunting You May Also Like: No related posts.

Opening with the old-world charm of an accordian and trumpet, at once lonesome and timeless, Brooklyn-based Katie Costello’s “Isn’t It Lovely” slips into your head like a thief. The whole song has a similar cunning, never going too far yet always beckoning You May Also Like: Animal Logic, “Can YouRead More

From a small town up in Idaho a fourteen year old kid picks up a guitar and ten years later he’s already done so much with that instrument and his voice, but eager to do more. You May Also Like: No related posts.

There is this deeply personal texture to A Lifetime, a redemptive 10-track journey through love’s rocky terrain. French jazz-pop singer-songwriter Dawn Harden wrote or co-wrote, with pianist Patrick Pernet, all but one of the songs, giving the record a lasting resonance. She starts with “Traces,” a lovelorn tale of aRead More

by Tom Johnson With his 2001 release, Poses Wainwright (yes, the son of Loudon Wainwright III) gave the world a breath of fresh air. Often set to what amounts to modern day Tin Pan Alley tunes, Wainwright uses his voice to display something that so often goes ignored these daysRead More

Musician and street poet Gil Scott-Heron, best known for “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” died today. Cause of death was not immediately known; he was 62. Scott-Heron started out at the dawn of the 1970s as a jazz-inclined R&B singer and spoken-word performer, a rapper years before the genreRead More

We love these songs. The words become a part of us. Does that mean we “know” the artist? When Bruce Springsteen appeared on VH1’s Storytellers, a fan asked him that very same question. Bruce’s response was a resounding (and laughter-infused) “Nope!” It makes sense really You May Also Like: GregRead More