ALBUM REVIEW: Hermanos Gutiérrez Explore Their Cosmic Instrumental Roots on 'Sonido Cósmico'
The title of Ecuadorian-Swiss band Hermanos Gutiérrez's new album translates to “cosmic sound.” It’s a bit literal for the type of moody, cross-cultural, instrumental music that the band makes, but the name also seems to capture something deeper, more spiritual between brothers Alejandro and Estevan.
Although Sonido
No Depression Sessions at WinterWonderGrass Tahoe 2024: Shadowgrass
Watch Shadowgrass burn up their fretboards at the Gatekeeper's Museum in Tahoe City, part of our No Depression Sessions series during the WinterWonderGrass Festival. We get to hear two new songs, "Pleasantly Aimless" and "Uncertain Times," from their yet-untitled forthcoming record, and the Ralph
New Set Collects Unreleased Songs and Demos from Justin Townes Earle’s Final Years
Nearly four years after Justin Townes Earle’s tragic death at age 38 comes a new project collecting recordings he made in the last years of his life.
The 2 LPs of All In: Unreleased & Rarities (The New West Years), coming Aug. 9, include 12 previously unreleased recordings and
THROUGH THE LENS: Byron Bay Bluesfest and Rooster Walk 2024
This week’s column features two festivals at opposite ends of the world that were held over two holiday weekends: Australia’s Byron Bay Bluesfest on Easter weekend and Rooster Walk in Virginia over Memorial Day weekend.
Bluesfest has been covered for this column several times by Steve Ford, including
In ‘Traveling,’ A New View of Joni Mitchell That Peers Through Mythology
As singer-songwriters who began their careers in the 1960s go, Joni Mitchell is one of the more mythologized. Numerous books have been published about her, granted, but they typically follow the traditional biography route, as though examining and re-examining the same set of stories about her boyfriends and creative meanderings
ALBUM REVIEW: Gangstagrass Cooks Up a Summery Blend on ‘The Blackest Thing on the Menu’
Gangstagrass’ The Blackest Thing on the Menu is a summer record.
It hearkens back to the late ’90s, when a certain music reviewer was a teenager. It sounds like speeding aimlessly down country roads in a rusted old hatchback, windows down, cranking burned CDs through blown speakers. Thing is, it