Muddy Ruckus: Creating Communal Power – An Interview Interviews Music Features by Guest Writer - January 13, 20170 Six minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve, I walked into a small tunnel-shaped bar near my house called Toad. At the opposite end of the room, through a gyrating screen of drunkards, I caught a glimpse of a stomping boot on stage. The place was stockpiled with energy – stoned souls bounced back and forth, men and women slid along the dark floor, and feet pounded with a brash beat that shook the bar-top. Ryan Flaherty, dripping sweat in a thick pair of overalls, vigorously strummed the guitar and belted out bluesy notes; Erika Stahl sat tall and mighty at her drum-kit – mother of rhythm – striking the snare with ferocity and uplifting rich dual harmonies. “Who is
Show Review: House Concert with Brooke Annibale Concert Reviews by Guest Writer - November 15, 20160 Pittsburgh is holding out on us, Boston. Singer/songwriter Brooke Annibale hails from the steel city where she’s been honing a lush indie-pop sound that warrants comparisons to Norah Jones and Ingrid Michaelson. Annibale cut her teeth writing and performing in Nashville where she recorded her first disc, 2011’s Silence Worth Breaking, her 2013 EP, Words In Your Eyes, and 2015’s The Simple Fear before returning home to Pittsburgh. I’ve had Annibale on my radar since Simple Fear dropped. It’s an album that sounds both fresh and familiar with deceptively light melodies—earworms of the best variety. It would be more than a year before I’d get to see her perform live. It was worth the wait. I caught Annibale on her short
Jonatha Brooke’s ‘Midnight. Hallelujah.’ : Songs for Carrying On Album Reviews by Guest Writer - November 2, 20160 “Put the gun down/come talk to me—“ Jonatha Brooke’s signature vocals announce the first line of the opening track on her twelfth studio album Midnight. Hallelujah. Delivered acapella, the lyric reaches out like a pair of fists collaring the listener to bring you nose to nose with a tune about desperation, fear, and the possibility of redemption. “Put the Gun Down” is a political statement that makes some ballsy gestures in lyrics like “you got a lot of nerve/bitching ‘bout your freedom” and “no one keeping you clean/is it just attention that you crave,” calling out the nuances of America’s gun violence epidemic that are often too uncomfortable to address. Brooke lets us sweat a little bit with those thoughts
Album Review: Muddy Ruckus “Pretty Bones” Album Reviews by Guest Writer - June 16, 20160 Broke down, broke open, broke up, and plain-ole-flat broke—Muddy Ruckus wants you to dance in the ditch and and bless the blues that make you feel alive. Hailing from Portland Maine, guitarist Ryan Flaherty and percussionist Erika Stahl that make up Muddy Ruckus have been performing since 2013, dropping their first self-titled disc in 2014. The pair pull from a range of styles—Roots, Blues, Southern Folk/Rock—and use their distinctive, keening harmonies to produce a sound that is fresh and homey, evident on their latest release “Pretty Bones.” Everyone’s on the run from something or someone in the songs on “Pretty Bones.” But no one is running too far, or too fast, tethered to loves they can’t quit or lives that refuse to