CD and DVD reviews
URL: https://danielbennett.net/we-are-the-orchestra Daniel Bennett’s “We Are the Orchestra” is an 8-song EP of “Avant-Pop” compositions and arrangements of opera themes by 19th century composer Giuseppe Verdi. I wouldn’t know of any such opera composers, so the traditional arrangements can’t get any opinion of me other than to say it is worth noting that it can…
URL: http://www.garydouglasband.com/ The iron and steel of the American heartland comes alive under the brilliant command of singer/songwriter Gary Douglas and his self-titled band in their new album Deep in the Water, which is quickly becoming one of the most hyped country releases of 2018. I’ve been following the Gary Douglas Band for a couple…
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Eres-Fuerza-Toby-Holguin-Carlos/dp/B07HHKYPXM Columbian composer Jose Holguin has teamed up with the equally talented Luis Carlos Toro for “Eres Mi Fuerza,” the most exciting and thought provoking entry into the Latin gospel discography of 2018. Fusing lush Latin pop and traditional gospel lyrics, Holguin and Toro unite the most ethereal attributes of both styles in a…
Have you ever been to New York or New York City? A sky covered with the world’s Most eclectic skyscrapers, or even a place once attacked in one of the most remembered days in the entire world’s eyes—September 11…No, although no one will ever forget that day, it is nice to have pleasant movement coming…
BANDCAMP: https://ajaymathur.bandcamp.com/track/forget-about-yesterday While the human race has developed countless ways of communicating with each other, it’s inarguable that music is one of the only universal mediums that all of us can understand effortlessly. Every culture on the planet has their own musical identity, and though no two are exactly the same, they all share the…
Zombie Garden Club starts things up on a riotous note with the physicality of “Judgement Blues”. Tapping into rock n’ roll’s bluesy roots, the piece has a communal, cathartic presence. Vocals float through the stomp rhythms in a hazy, dazed fashion. Things move into a slower speed on Bobby Rue’s “Before Our Eyes”. Such a…
Matt Kjeldsen’s Last Days opens with “Closer to Texas,” a kind of love song to the Lone Star state. One imagines a singer/songwriter can’t truly be from Texas unless he/she love that large Southern state. Kjeldsen looks like a wayward hippie in pictures. His singing voice, however, is sometimes gentler than one might imagine. He’s…
Rev Peter Unger taps into a unique exploration of faith’s soothing, comforting presence with the crystal clarity of “Two Seekers”. The production values feel absolutely flawless while everything comes together in a way that has a tender spirit to it. While the work at first has a deceptively simple quality, there is great ornate detail…
URL: https://freightrainband.com/ Outside Ourselves, a nine song studio effort from Robert “Freightrain” Parker and his band, solidifies Parker’s status as one of the pre-eminent figures in American roots music. The band has one previous release under their belt, Freightrain Live, illustrating the band’s kick ass stage presentation, but Outside Ourselves spotlights Parker’s songwriting and the unit’s talents in…
URL: https://sarahparkermusic.com/ Produced and arranged by her husband and award winning blues musician Robert “Freight Train” Parker, Sarah Parker’s debut collection Strawberry Moon establishes this Florida native as a major singing and songwriting force in the Americana scene. Her classic country influences are strong over the course of the album’s fourteen cuts, but deeming her an exclusively…
Recording artists, Faith and Harry might be only children at ages 13 and 11, however their sound is all grown-up, and filled with talent, sophistication and poise. Playing instruments since age 3, and now multi-instrumentalist, the British/American brother/sister duo have the ability to pack a venue and bring down the house. They command an audience…
Have you ever been to Fayetteville, Arkansas? Structured in the Southeast, a place where diamonds were discovered in 1906 by John W. Huddleston, or even where 102 different varieties of minerals exist, Arkansas has a lot to offer toward the history of the United States. Even more, there is something brewing in the musical scenes…
Rock singles in the 21st century seldom possess the punch and immediacy we hear with The Danbees’ “Down at the Bar”. This opening salvo from the New York City quartet’s second studio release, an EP entitled The Veggie Tapes, has a meat and potatoes approach to rock music that’s been missing from the scene quite…
Making it in pop music in 2018 has little, if anything, to do with selling catchy hooks anymore. For today’s sophisticated audience, it’s about capturing the moment, the vibe, the raw emotion of a culture that is rife with creative thinking that goes well beyond that of generations who came before. Making it in pop…
Angeles tackles that perennial Halloween favorite “Monster Mash” with the utmost of grace and style. Embracing the garage rock soul of the original, they have a playful swinging style of the piece. From the choir to the surf rock guitar inflections, it all comes together in a great way. “Kickin’ It At The Crypt” goes…
While some jazz artists of the modern generation have been fine toting around the same rhythms of musicians who occupied years gone past, extreme flutist Bill McBirnie and Bernie Senensky are determined to push the genre forward into the next decade with their new collaborative LP The Silent Wish. Methodically arranged and produced with the upmost…
2018 has been a big year for singer/songwriters, but no one has been getting more buzz than James Lee Baker, a Midwestern folk singer with a country bend whose new album Home Again has taken the world by storm. Home Again isn’t your average collection of roots rock songs – it’s a larger than life…
Aptly named, Jason Rylan’s “Strong” proves to be a truly inspirational piece of work. Representing the best of what pop has to offer, Jason Rylan’s powerful, deep vocals add to the song’s undeniable emotional core. Everything comes together in a pitch-perfect sort of way. His understanding of how to build a song up has a…
Singer/songwriter Monica Uhm goes by the name Trio Of Awesuhm. Her album, a collaboration with fellow New York musicians, is a folkish collection of sincere songs. Many of these compositions lean toward progressive social messages, best exemplified by the determination expressed with “Nevertheless.” The album’s overall sonic vibe might remind you of Natalie Merchant and…
World music and culture are heard and seen throughout the entire globe daily…When people travel from one part of the world to the next, some of the memories that follow through the mind always trickle back down to the music that was experienced while traveling. When people hear something that intrigues them even for a…
The chime of Abby Zotz’ acoustic guitar guides us into the temperateness of “Stability,” the opening track of her new album Local Honey, like a cool breeze blowing through tall grass on a hot summer’s day. Dispatched at the pace of beating heart but with a sensitive, loving melody to cushion its delivery, “Stability” welcomes us…
This is the third time reviewing Fabp going back to July 2018 as he seems to have quite a hefty catalogue of music. The Freelancer is able to whip up lyrics & beats at the drop of a hat! Fabp offers listeners a whopping 39 tracks on this Mixtape titled ‘From Then Til’ Now 2011-2015′.…
With a countrified guitar lick serving as her salutation, Sarah Clanton pulls us into her orbit with the song “I Can See You,” the opening track of her incredible new album Here We Are. Over the next three minutes we listen to Clanton dispatch the most enchanting melody of 2018 like she’s reading us a recipe…
Introducing a new, heartfelt, and gifted band first created as a songwriting vehicle! This band first began by two of the members, Mike Gladstone and Rob Smith. Later on, they added Emmett Lentilucci and Don Torpy, who are known as New York’s top rhythm sections! This album as known as JunkYardFieldTrip, released by the Spectra…
Shane Palko’s biography describes the performer as an “alternative folk musician and socioenvironmentalist.” He’s traveled a lot internationally and has already released nine studio albums. Speaking of mobility, the song that opens the Pick Me Up album is “Traveling / Wandering,” which meditates upon the differences between traveling, and mere wandering around. With “Circus Dog,”…
An earnest spirit flows through the whole of Kassie Tyers’ “Blue Skies”. Kassie is a proud Canadian from Northern Ontario. Her storytelling abilities reveal a poetic quality, as the whole of the piece unfurls with a soothing aura. The arrangement has a great balance, making sure that everything falls into place with such perfection. Guitars…
Madyx’s “Girl Boy” is an intentionally line-blurring single. Its first verse begins with the singer/songwriter stating, “I never had a boyfriend, kiss me like a girl can.” Not only does she point to Katy Perry as an artistic inspiration, but she’s also released a song that sounds like a cousin to “I Kissed A Girl.”…
Dhruv Visvanath offers a gentle form of twee pop on the intimate sound of “Wild”. Keeping things to the essentials his vocals have a tremendous kindness to them. Arrangements feel reminiscent of Fleet Foxes’ earliest releases, for the airiness of the composition works wonders. Going for a more rustic quality Radiator King’s “So Long (Charlie)”…
Folk music and activism have always come as a pair throughout American history, and Nate Smith has conjured up an exceptional collection of patriotic anthems derived from his deepest thoughts in Some Kind of Dancing, his follow up to 2015’s Around and Around. Currently there’s no disputing among the music journalism community that music consumers…
Drawing comparisons to modern rock throwbacks like Greta Van Fleet and The Struts, as well as boasting inspiration from iconic bands of yore like The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones, Wyves are primed to make major waves with their album R U OK? The Phoenix, Arizona based four piece are rapidly building a substantial…
From one corner of the globe to the next, the indie music media can’t seem to stop talking about Mikey See, the New York-born, Los Angeles-based singer and songwriter who lit up the American underground earlier this spring with his self-titled EP. Unlike most instances in life, where I would be the first to tell…
Wild, unpredictable, Danny Bacher’s “Still Happy” represents the very best intersection of jazz, pop, delivered with the utmost of joy. Positively bursting at the seams, everything about the album passes by in a glorious blur of color. A kaleidoscopic range touches upon every aspect of the album, from the intense saxophone work to Danny Bacher’s…
Rick Monroe goes for an acid-fried country flavor on the rollicking rock n’ roll of “Smoke Out The Window”. Sung with fire and fury, the whole of the album barrels forward with an intense energy. Throughout the whole of the album Rick Monroe draws from soul, the blues, garage rock, and country in a fantastic…
The blood of ancient Appalachia and all of the incredible music it has yielded runs through the veins of Cindy G’s new album Moonshiner’s Daughter like a furious river fighting to reach the ocean. I’ve always said that it’s harder to make a stylized bluegrass record in the modern age that encompasses the wide ranging color that…
This is unique, but accessible. Alya Michelson’s single “Puppet Strings” will be an enjoyable introduction to her talents and the Russian native has obviously toiled to realize her craft in a way not enough modern songwriters and musicians aspire to. The obvious care and deep feeling invested in this single will win over anyone willing…
There isn’t much to say about where mainstream pop music is right now, and that isn’t just a problem for the artists who rake in two or three Grammys every year, but more of a problem for our artistic world as a whole. When the top starts to crumble, it’s up to the artists occupying…
If you’re looking for something vastly unusual that is like nothing you’ve ever heard or experienced before, then The Interplanetary Acoustic Team’s “Light Sketch” is your golden ticket! The song is like something from another galaxy just free-floating in space & time for all lifeforms to witness. Right away, I was taken a back and…
“Seawall” is a track that begins with a guitar strummed pattern, before being joined by a fluid bass line. It’s later accompanied by an acoustic piano pattern. Garth Adam sings its words to someone who’s lost a faith of some kind. A seawall is defined as “a wall or embankment erected to prevent the sea…
Have you ever stopped to think about your life? Stopping to think means to actually sit down and ponder the entire years, months, and weeks that have entered your circle of hours altogether; and then actually think for that particular moment about what you might have been doing that you already aren’t doing in your…
Rock music has never been defined by those who play by the rules, and it’s going to take a generation who respects the foundational fortitude of anarchy to ensure rock n’ roll’s survival in the future. When you think about it in those terms, Broken Baby are one of the only bands up to the…
