BONUS TRACKS: Brutal News From Bandcamp, The Birth of a Folk Standard, and More
In a music business landscape where independent artists are getting punched from just about every direction, Bandcamp has long offered a more loving embrace. It truly seemed aimed at connecting artists and fans, and allowing artists to be fairly compensated for the music and merch they sold on the platform.
ALBUM REVIEW: Alice Gerrard Continues Old-Time Trailblazing With Outspoken ‘Sun to Sun’
It’s been eight years since Alice Gerrard’s Grammy-nominated 2015 album Follow the Music, so it’s a treat to have a new project, Sun to Sun, from her.
For the past 60 years, songwriter/singer/multi-instrumentalist Gerrard has been passing along and preserving old-time Appalachian
ALBUM REVIEW: Across ‘About the Winter,’ Barbaro Weaves Big Messages From Small Details
Minneapolis-based Barbaro mines life’s most intimate and seemingly mundane moments in an attempt to extrapolate larger lessons about life itself and the nature of our fragile existence. Songs like “The Lil Sweaters” and “Apples to Apples,” from their newest album, About the Winter, are illuminated by minutiae like
ALBUM REVIEW: Nathan Graham’s Debut Confronts Uncertainty With Courage
Right out of the gate on his debut record, Saint of Second Chances, Nathan Graham lets listeners know who he is. A powerhouse singer with a deep drive to connect, the Chicago-born-and-raised Graham tenderly wraps his fears and anxieties in velvety arrangements infused with a wide range
ALBUM REVIEW: Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed Applies Soul Appeal to a Wide Range of Covers on ‘Hits and Misses’
For the last two decades, Eli “Paperboy” Reed has been screamin' like a lost soul trying to find his way home. The Brookline, Massachusetts, native started vocalizing like a '60s soul demon after moving to Clarksdale, Mississippi, shortly after his high school graduation, honing his craft in the
THE READING ROOM: Rounder Records’ Music-First Recipe for Success
Ken Irwin was born a ramblin’ man, searching out the music where its notes filled the air at old-time gatherings and festivals. In the early 1970s, he and his partner Marian Leighton staked out a claim on picnic tables at such locales, loaded them up with stacks of albums,