
ALBUM REVIEW: 49 Winchester Are ‘Leavin’ This Holler’ Without Forsaking Their Roots
It’s been said that there’s no place like home. It nurtures and teaches us, often informing our direction in life. Sometimes, though, we have to leave to really understand not only the gravity of home, but who we are without it.
Perhaps 49 Winchester’s Isaac Gibson sings

Jake Blount and Mali Obomsawin Join Forces for Social Justice-Centered Album ‘symbiont’
symbiont, the new collaborative album from Jake Blount and Mali Obomsawin, isn’t going to sound like anything you’ve heard before.
The album, coming Sept. 27 on Smithsonian Folkways, contends with the past, present, and future through the lens of racial and climate justice, tapping into ancient forms of

ALBUM REVIEW: Joe Ely Offers a Thrilling Ride on ‘Driven to Drive’
“I’m a rovin’ soul,” Joe Ely confesses on the haunted opening to “Drivin’ Man,” the number that opens and sets the thematic tone for his sparkling new album, Driven to Drive.
Since bursting out of Texas in the ‘70s like a Lone Star Springsteen, his rocking dynamism colored by

THROUGH THE LENS: A Double Dose of the Blues
This week’s column features a double dose of the blues: the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, Oregon (July 4-7) and the Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival in Winthrop, Washington (July 19-21).
These two fests have become staples for the column, and our intrepid correspondent Peter Dervin simply cannot get

IBMA Announces New Host City for World of Bluegrass in 2025
After months of intense speculation, the International Bluegrass Music Association announced today the new home for its annual World of Bluegrass conference and festival.
After one last hurrah this September in Raleigh, North Carolina, the event’s home since 2013, World of Bluegrass will move to Chattanooga, Tennessee, for 2025,

FRESH TRACK: Jobi Riccio – 'Instead'
Colorado-bred, Tennessee-based singer-songwriter Jobi Riccio has released the foot-stomping new single “Instead.” The track highlights her witty humor and acute self-awareness, complete with pedal steel swells and a singalong-able refrain that’s painfully relatable: “I drank too much and I was crazy.”
“‘Instead’ lovingly stems from a deeply unserious place,