PICK OF THE WEEK

  The strings on Christine Hand’s acoustic guitar are played in a variety of different ways on the Dallas-based singer/songwriter’s new album Standing on the Shoulders, but whether they’re slowly picked in the melancholic descent of “House of Bread,” forged into playful licks in “Take it Slow,” transformed into a melodically-faceted …

Living within the shadows, you’ll find the darkest secrets this planet contains, existing somewhere in the ethers between our realm and hell, constantly leaning in on us when we’re least equipped to manage the weight of their woeful untruths. Elektragaaz bravely enters this universe in their new record The Synaesthetic Picture …

The Sisters J, collectively Lily and Elisabeth Jackson, are extraordinary young vocal talents and siblings who’ve partnered as a singing duo. The latest single from Nashville’s latest musical exports is “Clearly”, a song that marries a top-notch AOR rock backing with the sisters’ outstanding vocals and harmonies. It may sound …

Onetime manager of Guns ‘n’ Roses, among others, Vicky Hamiliton’s Dark Spark Records are gatekeepers for Elsewhere’s full-length Life… is a Fraction. The first ten tracks of the dozen included on this release constitute a conceptual work telling a story about a character who discovers the Fractional Theory of Incremental Time …

In a determined clap of the drums, Jeremy Parsons launches into his new song “Tickin’,” and brings with him all of the intensity that a young singer/songwriter can muster in the recording studio and then some. The drums pitter-patter like a broken heart that has just found its other half, …

With decadence coming to us in the form of a sensuous melody just about anyone could fall head over heels for, “I Just Want to Love You” asks us to set our cares aside and enter a world that is uniquely Robert Miller’s this November. One of the ten gripping …

You don’t have to be the biggest folk fan in the world to know that when Webster’s Wheel enters the studio to make music, they mean big business for the genre, but serious folk aficionados are already aware of what their new album Yum Yum Pie means. Once again, Marie Robertson …

It’s hard to determine just where to go with a third album. For bands concerned with making pop hits, albums never seem to matter, but for rock groups, honing in on a refined and artistically crafted discography can make or break your group’s trajectory. In the historic case of the …

Louis Siciliano and Mauro Salvatore’s MUMEx Duo has carved out a rather impressive global niche for themselves in modern jazz unlike any other. One often encounters this sort of language in reviews, however, and you can immediately pin it down as customary journalistic puffery that has little, if anything, to …

Springy and as bright as a rising sun, the opening salvo of string melodies that chime through the air after pressing play on the new single from Roots Asylum, “Shuckin’ in a Cornfield,” is a brief but meaningful introduction to a simple, barebones Americana tune fashioned with a deeply evocative …