MUSIC REVIEWS

Country is in an interesting state right now, and though a lot of critics will tell you that it’s moving in a more surreal direction than the previous generation of megastars would have allowed for, I think the rise in outlaw throwbacks like Marc Miner proves otherwise. Miner’s debut album Smile …

For some of us who keep up with the pop beat on both sides of the dial, the insularity of the mainstream and its most popular artists’ output has become more than a little hard to deal with in 2020 – honestly, it’s a rather shocking and deafening response to …

I cannot urge music fans too much to give this album a chance. There are too many who love music, truly value it in their lives, that remain sadly shut down to certain styles thanks to cultural or personal bias. We are told and taught music such as the songs …

Mardini gets his first words out with the enormously satisfying Out Of Pocket EP, his ultimately qualifying debut release that is one of such high standards it was produced by Grammy Marc Swersky (Hilary Duff, Joe Cocker, etc).  The top-notch skills of Tony Black (Alicia Keys, Jay-Z), and Mark Needham …

“For What It’s Worth” is the well-known folk tune most know and from where it originated, but this has an interesting coinciding pattern to it with Scot Celani being from Buffalo and the original being from Buffalo Springfield and who knows if that is an accident or not.  What matters …

The Bible says all is vanity and there’s nothing new under the sun, publications presumably in the know commission long examinations of the paltry value of modern music, but then you hear the Shayne Cooks of the world and realize the future is in safe hands. His debut song collection Epiphonetics has …

There’s plenty of romance and atmosphere to be found, felt, and heard in Ted Cline’s new single “Mexican Ana”. This respected veteran of the country music world has only recently made his first forays into the solo world and his tenure playing alongside formidable artists such as Ernest Tubb, Chris …

Canadian artists have been racking up a lot of positive publicity in 2020 on the strength of their putting a new spin on traditional Americana, and though I’ve caught myself getting intoxicated off of their experimentations quite often this fall, few records have left me as impressed as The Confusionaires’ From …

“Squatters’ Rights” from Christopher Hill and the Stardust Crush is a peculiar trip through pop art and electronica. Self-described as ‘death-folk-rock’ “Squatter’s Rights” plants it unforgettable imprint into the listener’s brain from the first dissonant note. Wildly and strangely unnerving, the song carries the listener into Hill’s poetic and dreamy …

In a creepy, uncomfortably discordant melody that seems to have been sourced from beneath hell’s big top, “Prologue to Poison” slithers out from behind a rock of silence and introduces us to the twisted world of tones and textures that will become Samson Y Hiss’ new album Poison Circus. If …