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Andy Crump

ALBUM REVIEW: On 'Still+Bright' Amythyst Kiah's Anti-Optimism is a Hopeful Warning

ALBUM REVIEW: On 'Still+Bright' Amythyst Kiah's Anti-Optimism is a Hopeful Warning

Chattanooga native Amythyst Kiah’s sophomore album, Wary + Strange, functions like an emotional exorcism: 41 minutes of grunge-tinged folk, bluesy and anguished on some tracks, proclamatory in others, but altogether intended to unburden Kiah of the grief she has carried with her since her mother’s suicide in the early

ALBUM REVIEW: The Brother Brothers Pack Playful and Powerful into ‘The January Album’

ALBUM REVIEW: The Brother Brothers Pack Playful and Powerful into ‘The January Album’

The January Album, the fourth record from Adam and David Moss, those twin sons of Peoria, Illinois, known musically as The Brother Brothers, is a COVID-era record in the strictest sense: The Mosses wrote most of its 12 tracks during the first few months of lockdown in the US. But

ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘This Far South,’ Tommy Prine Makes His Own Way

ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘This Far South,’ Tommy Prine Makes His Own Way

If there was any question about whether Tommy Prine would address the spirit of his late father, John Prine, on his debut album, This Far South, it’s answered handily on the record’s fifth track, “By the Way.” Being the child of Americana royalty isn’t easy when your

ALBUM REVIEW: Drew Holcomb Draws Us in for ‘Strangers No More’

ALBUM REVIEW: Drew Holcomb Draws Us in for ‘Strangers No More’

At the best of times, music brings people together from all walks of life in the pursuit of a good time, and that’s the philosophy driving Strangers No More, the new record from Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors. It’s there in the title: A promise by Holcomb that

ALBUM REVIEW: The Wood Brothers’ ‘Heart Is the Hero’ Puts Compassion in Charge

ALBUM REVIEW: The Wood Brothers’ ‘Heart Is the Hero’ Puts Compassion in Charge

Through their songwriting, roots music vanguards The Wood Brothers exemplify what we gain when we heed our senses: We learn, we grow, and at the baseline, we live. But the title of their eighth studio record — Heart Is the Hero — encourages us upfront to ponder the role the heart, not

ALBUM REVIEW: Snarky Puppy Packs Raw Sonic Force into ‘Empire Central’

ALBUM REVIEW: Snarky Puppy Packs Raw Sonic Force into ‘Empire Central’

In most cultural mythologies, anything with more than one head tends to be bad news: the balaur, the Lernaean hydra, Yamata no Orochi. In some cases, though, two heads are more benevolent than one, and one such case is Dallas’ genre-fluid Snarky Puppy, a beast rocking as many as 25

ALBUM REVIEW: Amy Ray Tells an American Story, Unvarnished, on ‘If It All Goes South’

ALBUM REVIEW: Amy Ray Tells an American Story, Unvarnished, on ‘If It All Goes South’

There’s nothing quite like watching people do the thing they’ve spent a lifetime training to do: Winning Wimbledon, dancing lead in Giselle, breaking a 1,000-year-old Viking weightlifting record, cooking dinner in 8 minutes and 37 seconds. Listening to If It All Goes South, the latest solo outing