CROWDFUNDING RADAR: Maya de Vitry, Rio Tripiano, and David Wax Museum
Most months, all three of my featured campaigns come from Kickstarter. That's because Kickstarter is, by far, the biggest crowdfunding platform around for music. But there are others, including some unconventional ones, which deserve attention as well. This month they get it as all of my featured campaigns
THE READING ROOM: Craig Havighurt’s ‘Musicality for Modern Humans’
We often refer to certain pieces of music, usually popular songs or albums associated with memorable experiences (whether happy or sad) or significant swathes of time, as the soundtrack of our lives. Every now and then, a song comes on the radio and in that moment we’re transported to
ALBUM REVIEW: Cinder Well’s Austere ‘A Blooming Body’ Finds Fascination in the Everyday
Amelia Baker delivers her austere songs with the sober bearing of someone imparting fateful news. For a decade the California native, who records as Cinder Well, has excelled at an unadorned brand of folk that rewards full attention, performing spare tunes in a gently commanding voice. Teasing deeper meanings from
In The Deep End With Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell’s been around the block, literally and figuratively. As a sometimes secondary character in alternative country music’s schism from establishment norms in the 1970s, he formed fast friendships and collaborations with stalwarts like Guy Clark and Emmylou Harris (with whom he played in her Hot Band and
ALBUM REVIEW: ‘One Track Mind’ Explores the Early Songs of Honky-Tonk Genius Gary Stewart
Gary Stewart upended the Nashville scene in the mid-‘70s with a string of fierce honky-tonk singles powered by his wild abandon. Hits like “Drinkin’ Thing,” “Your Place or Mine,” and “She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles)” carry the same electric charge on the first hearing or
ALBUM REVIEW: Slow Accordion Improvises an Infectious Self-Titled Debut
Let’s get this right out of the way: Despite what the name implies, no accordions were harmed, or even used, in the making of Slow Accordion’s eponymous debut.
What is present on this record is an intoxicating, purely improvised conversation between four seasoned players operating on pure instinct.