Features

LONG LOST & FOUND: Lord Huron makes newly beautiful bygone music

Author Ralph Ellison wrote in a 1964 op/ed piece in Commentary magazine that “The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.” Released in May 2021, Long Lost, the fourth studio album from the Americana rock quintet Lord Huron, dives into a past filled with…Read more LONG LOST & FOUND: Lord Huron makes newly beautiful bygone music

LABORS OF LOVE: How UB40’s Ali Campbell became one of reggae’s greatest hitmakers

In the summer of 1978, a group of lads born into working-class families from Birmingham, England, congregated in a basement to rehearse some songs. This auspicious rendezvous marked the early beginnings of the band UB40.  Initially labeled a jazz-dub-reggae group, UB40 comprised six founding members: Norman Hassan, a childhood friend of the Campbell brothers, Robin…Read more LABORS OF LOVE: How UB40’s Ali Campbell became one of reggae’s greatest hitmakers

SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS: The immense journey of Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe

In the late 1960s, saxophonist Bobby Keys made his debut with the Rolling Stones on “Live with Me,” a song recorded on the album Let It Bleed and in 1982, he joined the touring band (for a second time) and remained until 2014, the year of his death from liver cancer, just weeks away from…Read more SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS: The immense journey of Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe

BLUEGRASS & GREEN: Greenksy Bluegrass pickin’ for love

Some bluegrass enthusiasts believe the genre’s quintessential sound dates back to 1939 when Kentucky native Bill Monroe, regarded as the father of bluegrass, appeared at the Grand Ole Opry. Others insist the sound gelled in 1945 once Earl Scruggs joined Monroe’s band.  While the origins of the traditional  bluegrass sound may be up for debate,…Read more BLUEGRASS & GREEN: Greenksy Bluegrass pickin’ for love

UNION IN SONG: The War and Treaty’s marriage of music and life

When thinking of married music duos, who comes to mind? John and Yoko?  Ike and Tina? Johnny and June? Sonny and Cher? Before becoming defunct for one reason or another, it  seems life’s joys and sorrows shaped not only a marriage but the music associated with it.  Every marriage has its highs and lows, even…Read more UNION IN SONG: The War and Treaty’s marriage of music and life

Son of the Red Headed Stranger: Lukas Nelson embraces his destiny

When listening to Lukas Nelson, you now and then think he sounds like another country singer, a Texan with long braided hair and a red bandanna across his forehead. But it’s only natural to sound a bit like Willie Nelson when he’s your father.  Lukas Nelson—like Rosanne Cash, Jakob Dylan, Charlotte Gainsbourg and the Marley…Read more Son of the Red Headed Stranger: Lukas Nelson embraces his destiny

BLAK & BLU: Gary Clark Jr. Forges a New Kind of Blues

The blues is everywhere in American music. It is the aesthetic foundation of all American music. The blues, like water, is formless, because the blues was called upon in the invocations of the enslaved. The blues could not take a particular shape as it had to navigate a cruel and brutal institution and give voice…Read more BLAK & BLU: Gary Clark Jr. Forges a New Kind of Blues

MISTER JONES & EVERYTHING AFTER: The Suite Sounds of Counting Crows

What does it mean to give yourself over to a thing that does not care whether you quit or persist, a thing indifferent to your failings or triumphs? Known under many descriptors—painting, dance, music, stand-up comedy, theatre—this thing, art, can appear in moments of creative expression, moments we’ve all surely experienced, even if only as…Read more MISTER JONES & EVERYTHING AFTER: The Suite Sounds of Counting Crows

PANIC SWITCH: SilverSun Pickups Keep On Picking Up

“We made a conscious effort to rein in the electronic stuff a little bit, and have more pianos and organs,” says keyboardist Joe Lester about the latest album as a member of the band, Silversun Pickups. “There’s still synthy stuff on there for sure. But we have strings again, which we hadn’t done for a couple of…Read more PANIC SWITCH: SilverSun Pickups Keep On Picking Up

As The Crow Flies Performs at the BeachLife Festival

In 1984, two teenage brothers from Marietta, Georgia, formed the rock band, Mr. Crowe’s Garden, and by 1990, these two brothers, Chris and Rich Robinson, had changed the band’s name to The Black Crowes and recorded “Shake Your Money Maker,” the group’s debut studio album that went on to sell three million copies on account…Read more As The Crow Flies Performs at the BeachLife Festival