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
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
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
ALBUM REVIEW: It Shows that Brent Cobb ‘Ain’t Rocked In A While.’ Thank Goodness, He’s Doing It Anyway.
From the meaty rhythms of Black Sabbath, the belligerent hooks of AC/DC and sludgy riffs of Metallica then-thirteen-year-old Brent Cobb earned an unorthodox education, one that would enlighten his musical beginnings in the garages of his youth. Some two decades later, those same snarling strings and
ALBUM REVIEW: Old Sounds Become New on The Wildmans’ ‘Longtime Friend’
Aila and Elisha Wildman are on a voyage of self-discovery and you’re welcome to tag along. The Virginia siblings, who released a callow debut album back in 2017, have hit their stride with the belated follow-up Longtime Friend, an enticing buffet of Americana sounds that feels like
