MUSIC REVIEWS

Ari Pappalardo is living his life on his terms – he brokers no compromises. One clue of that is in the title of his latest album, Minstrel Class. It’s a title fueled with self-identification rather than some two-word throwaway and places Pappalardo in a long tradition of iconoclasts who reject mainstream …

Francesca Beghe offers the world her version of “Trust In Me” nearly 30 years after its release. “Trust In me” was famously performed by Joe Cocker and Sass Jordan on 1992’s The Bodyguard soundtrack. To this day, The Bodyguard soundtrack is the best-selling film soundtrack of all time. Beghe who …

Bringing the feeling and concept of redemption to life in musical form seems like a tall order. It isn’t a common theme like love or hate which lends itself to clearer interpretation. Instead, redemption is as subjective as it comes, doesn’t immediately suggest particular sounds or structures, and seems like …

Singer/songwriter Holt Vaughn’s latest release These Songs, Vol. 1 features a dozen songs. Half of these tracks are highlighted by contributions with some of the best vocal and instrumental talents working today. It’s as impossible to categorize their specific contributions to each song as it is to slap a label on These Songs as …

Admit Nothing! Deny Everything! Lie! Lie! Lie! The debut album by Brit Ska rockers, King Goon, is a work that is 7 years in the making. The founder of King Goon, Joel Morgan, had amassed a collection of demos that he planned to use for multiple projects. That idea proved …

Dayton, Ohio’s Ludlow Creek emerged out of a long-standing cover band named Southbound and deep friendship binding together its five members. Each member is a singer and multi-instrumentalist which means, if nothing else, that their musical potential is more or less boundless. The band experienced considerable success as Southbound, eventually …

Between the synth, the keys, the guitar strings, and even the sleekly-appointed bassline, there’s an argument to be made that the new single “Yesterday’s News” is the most instrumentally complicated song of Rob Alexander’s career to date, but I don’t think that’s the full story on this track. Contrarily, while it might …

There’s a lot of hype around the international indie rock scene right now, and it makes sense when listening to a single like FiveDFit’s “Super Galactic.” The glare of the guitar’s melody mixed with the pounce of the percussion in this song is already enough to make anyone want to …

The foundations of country music are still quite relevant in 2022 despite an influx of experimentation coming out of the genre’s unique underground both in and outside of Nashville, and I think this is quite evident when listening to the new Matt Westin single “Ghost Train.” Although Westin is accompanied …

Traditional country has always had a slightly Christian bend to it, and we’re reminded as much right out of the gate with the straightforward new single by Lady Redneck, “After the Rain, You’ll Find the Son.” Although you could easily make the case that this is a Christian track more …