MUSIC REVIEWS

A gentle piano emits an optimistic melody as brittle acoustic guitar strings attempt to replicate it in the opening bars of “Million Miles Away,” the latest single from the Gary Douglas Band’s new album Deep in the Water. When Douglas starts to croon in his smoky voice, his vocal wraps around …

Eclectic melodies and surreal soundscapes comprise The Girl from Cherry Valley, the stunning debut album from Jas Frank & the Intoits, which is now available everywhere that independent music is sold and streamed. Frontwoman Jas Frank leads the way with her sultry vocal in the centerpiece single “All the Highs All …

URL: http://www.acrosstheboardmusic.ca/ Fleeting string melodies flanked with a shimmering vocal track will get you hooked on “Alpha Wolf.” A stutter-step groove making merry with a bulging blues bassline will draw you into the firestorm that is “Graffiti.” Though littered with an illustrious keyboard part, it’s the treble-saturated lead guitar that …

URL: https://francinehoney.com/ Francine Honey has traveled the world taking her music to audiences from the U.K. to continental Europe, but her beating heart is the icy lands of Ontario, Canada. The music of the American South, namely country and blues, shares space in her heart with that Ontario upbringing, but …

SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/para-lia/para-lia-soap-bubble-dreams From Cottbus, Germany comes Para Lia with – Soap Bubble Dreams, an album with just as much new school to be heard as old school on what is a 50/50 blend, with somehow an overall respect paid to both audiences by musicians René and Cindy Methner. Their blend …

Some young songwriters have no trouble being followers instead of leaders in their scene, but Derrick Davis definitely isn’t among their ranks. Davis is treading some sophisticated waters in his new album Anti-Social, clobbering anyone who presses play on the stunning “End of Days,” “All I Need to Know,” “Best I …

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/mattshapiromusic/ Fade In, the all-new EP from the critically acclaimed Matt Shapiro, is a record that knows no stylistic boundaries or limitations, but if you think that this would make it anything other than a focused and shockingly tight 6-track treasure chest of harmonies, then you don’t know its …

THE VICS LIVE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ214NAbCx4 From the very moment that it first appears to us, the vivid vocal track that penetrates the master mix in “Proud,” one of The Vics’ new singles due out this month, is entrancing us with its otherworldly sway. Like a pendulum inducing hypnosis, it ebbs and …

URL: http://www.jonathanband.com/ Drumsticks click with a vibrant exuberance. Soon, they’re joined by a colorful guitar lick that dances around the beats with a childlike joy. Tender vocals enter the frame, and before we know it, we’re lost in an ocean of textures that will carry us through the poignant passages …

The music video for “Some Girls” by Penelope Robin opens in darkness, fading into a scene where Robin is playfully dancing in a park in a picturesque city. A melodic piano strikes away at glassy keys, and she starts to sing in her trademark velvet-soft voice. “Some girls want everything” …