
THROUGH THE LENS: The 2025 Waterfront Blues Festival Presented an Eclectic Mix of Blues, Soul & Funk to a Discerning Audience

ALBUM REVIEW: Rick Faris Explores Life’s Ups and Downs on 'Life’s Parade'
With the release of Life’s Parade, his fourth solo album, Rick Faris cements his place in bluegrass music as a performer and songwriter. The songs on the album cover the gamut of bluegrass themes in a fresh way—love and heartbreak, loneliness and gratitude—sometimes offering sage advice for

BONUS TRACKS: "Ditch" 4 Tennessee Governor, Spotify Drama, and More New Roots Music News
Adam "Ditch" Kurtz may not be a household name...yet. But discerning roots music fans will have heard his sweet, dulcet pedal steel tones alongside artists including Joshua Ray Walker, JP Harris, and Silverada. Since Tennessee governor Bill Lee (R) has reached his term limit, Kurtz recently announced

ALBUM REVIEW: The Swell Season Reconciles an Emotional Past with a Grounded Future on ‘Forward’
When we last heard new music from the Swell Season, their 2009 album Strict Joy was a victory-lap of sorts. Ireland’s Glen Hansard and the Czech Republic’s Marketa Irglova had ridden their little-engine-that-could, the indie movie Once, all the way to the 2008 Academy Awards ceremony, where they

NO DEPRESSION SESSIONS at MerleFest: Thee Sinseers
No Depression set up the "studio" at the 37th annual MerleFest for a dozen sessions with legends and legends-in-the-making. The festival was founded in 1988 in memory of Doc Watson’s son Merle, and features “traditional plus” music, meaning a broad range of styles from the sweet falsetto

ALBUM REVIEW: Old 97’s Mainstay Murry Hammond Flies Solo on the Wistful ‘Trail Songs’
Murry Hammond likes to whistle. A lot. With his sophomore solo outing, the longtime second banana to Rhett Miller in Old 97’s shows the world he can put his lips together and blow with the best of them on every single song, sometimes dispensing with lyrics altogether. However, unless