The single “Whiskey Still” from Chris Ford’s SuBourbon Blues Project’s second album Where Concrete Meets the Grass is a rousing blast of gritty blues rock. Ford makes no pretensions to purist status, but his songwriting captures many of the genre’s tropes without ever sounding wearisome. Yes, you’ve heard songs like this before, …
Read More »Jonmosslol “BE ALRIGHT” (SINGLE)
Jonmosslol (the “lol” stands for “loneliness over love”, not what you were initially thinking) taps into a particular raw place with his single “BE ALRIGHT”, an aggressively titled song that upon listening to, you realize the spelling might be more indicative of a calming command versus an over enthusiasm. One …
Read More »Elizabeth Sombart “Singing the Nocturnes” (LP)
Elizabeth Sombart enrolled at the Strasbourg Conservatory and first began studying piano at seven years old; her first public performance followed at twelve years old. She parlayed winning first prize at the National Piano and Chamber Music Awards into studies with renowned music teachers Bruno Leonardo Gelber, Hilde Langer-Ruhl, and …
Read More »Ian Bouras “A Cure for Reality” (LP)
Critics and pundits have labeled Ian Bouras’ music as everything from alternative, reggae, New Age, and world. I hear all that and more in his work. He’s long since moved on from the comparatively commonplace musical landscapes he explores over the course of A Cure for Reality’s fourteen songs, but …
Read More »Morten Nygaard “Tomorrow Never Comes” (SINGLE)
This winter has been one of the more memorable in recent years for pop fans, with a virtual watershed of content pouring through the underground and the mainstream the same. Saying competition is hot just wouldn’t be doing this generation of talent justice; to break into the modern pop spotlight, …
Read More »Kari Holmes “When I See You Smile” (LP)
Honestly, Kari Holmes doesn’t need much to sound like a truly divine force in a performance, but beside the delicate piano keys of “Making Heaven a Home,” she sounds even more provocative than she already would have. In her first full-length album When I See You Smile, this dedicated country singer …
Read More »Max Hawthorne “A Tyrannosaurus For Christmas” (SINGLE)
There’s nothing quite like childhood enthusiasm to get the ball rolling in a kid’s pop jingle, and Max Hawthorne wisely utilizes as much at the start of his new single “A Tyrannosaurus For Christmas.” He doesn’t need a lot of bombast or virtuosity to set the pace in this track; …
Read More »Streaking in Tongues “Christmas with Bigfoot” (LP)
In an almost post-theatrical fashion, Streaking in Tongues usher us forth into a church of poetry ala “Bigfoot and Little Women” that will soon expand across five additional tracks in their collaborative LP with U.P. poet laureate Marty Achatz, and for as brawny a runtime as this opening cut has …
Read More »President Hill “You Feelin It Shawty” (SINGLE)
Hitting us with everything he has in the chamber right off the top, President Hill is clearly not messing around when he kicks out the opening bars in “You Feelin It Shawty,” his all-new single currently out and available everywhere quality hip-hop is sold and streamed. Although he’s got a …
Read More »Jordan Wolfe “Different” (SINGLE)
Compared to how it was just ten years ago, there’s just not the kind of emphasis on guitar in rock music as there used to be, but that isn’t preventing artists like Jordan Wolfe from using the six-string as a catalyst for charismatic songcraft this winter at all. Contrarily, Wolfe’s …
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