7 Good Things: Music & Such That Kept Me Going in ’21 Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - December 20, 2021December 20, 20210 2021. Divided by 3. 3 sides of the pyramid. The Illuminati. 21 divided by 3, is 7. 7 is the number of good things. I don't know. Like everyone else in this day and age I am just fucking grasping at air trying to catch a hold of something and keep dangling for a bit. In reality a friend posted an article I wrote a couple years back with a similar tag and I think we all could use some "good things" right about now. So, there you go... Anyway, here we are at the end of 2021 and I feel like I am in the same place as I was way back in 2020 while writing the feature titled "Shit
Show Review: Watchhouse / Yasmin Williams – Durham Performing Arts Center (November 20, 2021) Featured Concert Music Features Reviews by Ken Templeton - November 23, 20210 What a special evening at DPAC last night. I am not sure I have ever seen an opening act hold such a large audience in her hands the way Yasmin Williams did. Her playing is mesmerizing and soulful. And her engagement with the audience between songs--explaining her approach to percussive guitar, the instruments she uses, how she’s developed as a guitarist--is quite simply endearing. I got to chat with Yasmin for our podcast last summer, and her stage demeanor is as easy as talking to her on the phone. I loved hearing “Juvenescence,” and “Through the Woods,” live, and Yasmin’s cover of “Sunflower,” was really fun. From the first song, “Wondrous Love,” Watchhouse performed with their signature understated brilliance. Andrew
Peep This: Hayes Carll “Help Me Remember” Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - October 14, 2021October 14, 20210 "The leaves on that ancient old oak tree are starting to turn / and the same shades as the flames of this fire that I'm watching burn" We all have our people. Our songwriters. Those that inspired us to listen to the next song more deeply or pick up paper and pen and write down the lyrics to the next song. Hayes Carll has long been one of those few for me. The natural crack and breaks in his voice that echo with a power, a rawness and a vulnerability that can crush you with a single line. There is a beauty that lives in the simplicity of how a turn of phrase can emote and force so much emotion into your consciousness
Folk On! 2021 Festivals Music Features Reviews by Ken Templeton - August 19, 20210 Remember in March of 2020 when we thought we might have to adjust our lives significantly for two whole weeks? And then those two weeks became a month, and two months, and on and on. Seeing the announcements of artists for the 2020 Newport Folk Festival, and imagining the joyful noise from the Fort, was a relatively small loss, compared to the lives and livelihoods claimed by this pandemic. But when plans for a version of the Festival, called “Folk On!” emerged over the winter, I started to feel some hope. The usual three-day event was stretched to six days. In what is now becoming an industry standard, Folk On! Required proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test. I
Concert Review: Wood Brothers / Ryan Montbleau June 4, 2021 Concert Reviews Music Features by Ken Templeton - June 9, 20210 Shakori Grassroots Live June 4, 2021 “It’s such a blessing to be here,” Ryan Montbleau said about halfway through his opening set on Friday night. Were truer words ever spoken? After fifteen months of livestreams and lamentations, live music is back. It is, indeed, a blessing. This was my first time going to Shakori and it was a perfect evening. You drive out to Pittsboro on mostly back roads. When our GPS said we’d arrived, it wasn’t immediately clear that we had--on both sides of the road were vast fields. A minute later, we saw the dirt road entrance to Shakori and saw the cars parking in one of those fields. We pulled in behind a couple of guys--maybe a father and son--drinking
Peep This: Bella White “Just Like Leaving” (ftr. Patrick M’Gonigle & Patrick Metzger) Music Features Track Reviews by Brian Carroll - May 5, 2021May 5, 20210 Bella White continues to wow with her signature twang, beautiful and hauntingly penned songs and absolute control of her own and each song's voice and narrative. She comes back with another collaboration on "Just Like Leaving" with fiddler Patrick M'Gonigle and bassist Patrick Metzger. Filmed in St. James Community Square in Vancouver, BC by Trent Freeman, the hall behind the trio is empty as the camera slowly paces back and forth in front of the group as they sing this solemn tune. The collective noise filling the space with a warmth cast in grey and blue. It has that down trodden traditional feel, taking you back to times of famine and untilled fields, but contextually in the modern day. There is
A Marvel of Mandolin: Andrew Marlin’s “Fable & Fire” Is A Stunning Collection Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - February 22, 2021February 22, 20210 I believe the last time I used the term "masterpiece" to describe an album was probably in discussing Andrew Marlin's first collection of instrumental work, "Buried in a Cape". It's not a term that should ever be used lightly, but in this case and most that involve Marlin's work, it's a title that holds steadfast and true. In just a few weeks time the songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist released not one, but two incredible collections of instrumental songs. Each of which is a unique listening experience, two separate journeys really. I said it previously, but these two records are a pot-pourri of instrumental arrangements for both the types of folks who adore instrumental music and those who have not yet acquired
Sh*t I Should’ve Written About in 2020… Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - February 18, 2021February 18, 20210 2020. It was a lot of things. Most of them containing some form of expletive to properly convey the overall despair, shittiness and all encompassing frustration...but here we are. It was a year I personally took a giant step away from this publication to focus on other projects, my own mental health and relationships outside the realm of the interwebs (when I was able to). For better or worse, I just didn't write about music and art, with the exception of a very small number of articles throughout the shit-storm that 2020 gave us. Thats not to say that a ton of incredible music wasn't released or that I still didn't benefit greatly from consuming what artists were still miraculously able
Singled Out: Mark Elliot “Talk To Yourself” Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - February 9, 20210 The initial comparison is a perhaps a bit too cliche or obvious, but Mark Elliot's vocal enters the track as a slightly less gristled Chris Stapleton. Heart and soul exuding in his voice, but there is a soft kindness that also seeps in. My dude can sing. The slow snare rim hits and bass notes that carry on and reverberate over the track. The message heartfelt and honest as he sings "it will all work out if you try". Elliot seemingly a "heart on the sleeve" kind of a writer. In a day and age where in some circles a label of "country music" can mean plastic, packaged up and shipped off to masses of fans who aren't truly listening
Singled Out: Kyle O’Brien “Good Time Old Time” Interviews Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - February 4, 2021February 4, 20210 It took me a bit to draw some kind of line between what exactly Old Time vs Bluegrass vs Trad music is in the realm of American Roots. But its one of those things you know when you feel the vibe. Kyle O'Brien's new single straddles the lines between the lot, but with instrumental breaks bordering on the old time edge, sing-songy speed in the verses and a holler along chorus that is infectious, it doesn't matter what you call it. Its just music that gets you moving and makes you want to listen over and over. Its tunes like "Good Time" that keep me hopeful (but longing) for those late night jams at festivals. Dancing in the field to