MUSIC REVIEWS

Francesca Beghe Live presents the wildly talented veteran vocalist in fine fettle. The fourteen songs included on the release, drawn from Beghe’s first three live performances with a full band behind her in twenty-plus years, are an indistinguishable blend of originals and covers. I say indistinguishable because nothing Beghe does ever …

From the moment we press the play button on the warm, sunlit string play of “My Sunrise,” it’s obvious that we’re in for a special treat in the new Chris St. John album uncommon on the mainstream level of country music nowadays. While St. John isn’t reinventing the wheel with Fly …

Indie singer/songwriters are enjoying their moment in the spotlight right now, but it hasn’t come without a lot of divisiveness among critics. In her debut EP Tonight There Might Be Stars, Karen Turner isn’t putting her music in one particular aesthetical camp over another and is instead focusing on melodic charm …

Wreckless Strangers are like the carpetbaggers of jam and blues rock bands. Opening up a wide bag of sounds of lots of gems in the full-length debut When the Sun and a Blue Star Collide, at their core, this Bay Area group is bound together by a passion for a unique …

Experimental music and the esteemed city of Seattle are about as intertwined as cities and genres can be, with the genre of grunge exploding out of the Pacific Northwest back in the early ‘90s as a response to mainstream pop and punk, and then the modern indie genre spawning out …

Just Breathe is the galvanizing new album from singer/songwriter and disability rights activist Pidgie. With themes of empowerment and creative perseverance Just Breathe is a breath of fresh air. Packed full of inspirational rock anthems and a dynamite cover of Nina Simone’s “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel …

Pennsylvania’s Little Wretches has carved out a niche for themselves in the Americana/roots music community based on exceptional playing talents and idiosyncratic songwriting. The band’s 2020 album Undesirables and Anarchists racked up impressive sales, garnered critical praises from multiple outlets, and rode higher still thanks to its memorable single “The Ballad of …

Instrumental albums are too often associated with pomp and elitism, when in fact they can be some of the most endearing listens a pop fan can stumble across. There are no synthetic hooks or rap verses to be found in the elegant Jaguar Love Letter from pianist Chris Goslow, and yet the …

While one of the more deliberately paced numbers in the tracklist, the title song in David Sparrow’s new LP Beggars & Choosers is certainly one of the more urgent compositions included in the album. Sparrow has a restrained adrenaline here that is almost as brooding as his lyrics are, and although his …

Juan Tigre’s Azúl Arriba, Blue Below isn’t your typical instrumental collection. It’s full-on progressive for me with strong classical influences any attentive listeners will pick up on. A description like that may prime you to believe Tigre’s eleven songs are stereotypically remote or overly cerebral fare. It isn’t the case …