Peep This: Hawthorn “Appalachia” Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - September 25, 20170 Natural, un-diluted and beautiful. That is what I hear when I listen to Hawthorn's Heather Scott and Taylor Holland. The latest video release from the duo is a sure fire indicator that the will keep with that sonic aesthetic. Fittingly for a song titled "Appalachia" its even got a banjo in it. The song is wrought with visual cues of misty mountain tops and long faded film landscapes as the two singer's voices melt together to form a single gorgeous collective sound. Delicate plucking, never too much, always just enough to evoke that slight tingle in your chest cavity and leaving your throat with that "little more fatigued to swallow" feeling. A natural reverb from the careful lighting of the monochrome
Peep This: Magen Tracy & The Missed Connections “Color the Air” Featured Videos Uncategorized by Brian Carroll - September 22, 2017September 22, 20170 Magen Tracy has seen her share of genre and bands. The last album, produced by Nate Leavitt (who Magen also performs with in a band) may have bordered on the more rootsy end of the spectrum, but it dovetails nicely with this latest single off of the upcoming release from her and The Missed Connections. A smokey speakeasy vibe with rock n' roll and a bit of glam rock. All influences that seemingly have seeped into this latest effort from the pianist/songwriter's other projects in some fashion and made for a fresh sound that she commands particularly well. The first single off the new record, "Color the Air" is, at the heart of it all, a lost love song about a
You Got To Know: Session Americana After Party @ The Skinny Pancake (9/16 Burlington, VT) Featured Concert Featured Videos Music Features by Brian Carroll - September 8, 2017September 8, 20170 Next week marks the kick off of Grace Potter's yearly Grand Point North. With bands like Dawes, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Tank and the Bangas and Trey Anastasio Band gracing the stage alongside Grace (see what I did there?), if you are in the vicinity of Burlington...like anywhere even driveable to get there, that is where you need to be next weekend. While the music ends overlooking Lake Champlain after Potter's 8:45 PM set, the party will have just begun as our compadres with the condenser mic will be joining around their round table like knights of americana-lot, throwing back whiskey's and swapping songs with doors at 10 PM. For those of you in Vermont that have yet to experience
Peep This: Hawthorn “Borderline” At The Arnold Aboretum Featured Videos Music Features by Brian Carroll - August 18, 2017August 18, 20170 Adrift. Awash. Asea in a floating, bobbing expanse of gorgeous harmonies underpinned by a slow and intricately picked guitar progression. Delicate in their ways but powerful and affecting nonetheless. Thats the feeling I get from listening to the voices of Taylor Holland and Heather Scott. Collectively called "Hawthorn". There is certainly a timeless quality to their music, perhaps harkening back to a time that wasn't necessarily simpler, but we all can occasionally romanticize about. The beginnings of folk and roots music and the duo capitalizes on that emotion and aesthetic in their work beautifully. "The first time I heard Taylor play Borderline, I thought it was an old folk ballad," says Heather. "Everything from the structure to the story makes it easy
Peep This: Lilly Hiatt “The Night David Bowie Died” Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - August 14, 2017August 14, 20170 I hold the opinion of artist friends in high regard, so when I saw Aaron Lee Tasjan make a post along the lines that Lilly Hiatt is one of the raddest artists out there putting out new music this year, I took note. There is an obvious grunginess to the latest video from Lilly. Overdriven, crunchy guitar chords ringing out from the get go and a spitting fire kind of a lyrical style. Its got heart and a bit of venom in the way that the songwriter spins a tale, a letter of sorts to a love that seems to no longer be around. Hiatt presents herself in a no bullshit, straight laced sort of way. Here I am, here is
Vintage Virtuosity: Twisted Pine’s “I Miss Talking” and CD Release Show (8/11 at Club Passim) Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - August 10, 20170 Our good pals at No Depression premiered a brand new video for our other pals, Twisted Pine, earlier this week and we think you all should check it out. A bit humorous at times, with a vintage-y red velvet curtain kind of a feel, the band encounters everything from mandolinist Dan Bui tackling bar duty, a old school scally adorning Chris Sartori's head as he launches into a ridiculously mind bending bass solo, singer-fiddler Kathleen Parks taking a dip in a fountain and some fancy popcorn tossing work by Rachel Sumner (around the :48 second mark). "I Miss Talking" comes off of the band's debut full length record that just dropped recently. Driven by virtuosic playing across the board and warm,
Peep This: The Page Turners “The Blackbird Said” Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - July 20, 2017July 20, 20170 Carolyn Kendrick reminds me of some split between Gillian Welch and Mandolin Orange's Emily Frantz. There is a break in here voice. A bit of a crack where the emotion is allowed to seep right out and into the song she is singing, but there is also this real mellowness and delicate feel to the way she sings. It is soft, but raw. A perfect balance. The Page Turners aren't quite a full on folk outfit and not quite a straight up bluegrass band. They live in this present day hybrid of a lot of things...all of which are pretty damn fantastic. Jake Howard's mandolin playing on this track takes on a sort of cavernous, ethereal feel to it. It floats.
Triple Threat: I’m With Her Releases New Video “Little Lies” Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - July 13, 2017July 13, 20170 Is the ability to shatter a person's heart into tiny little pieces with three part harmonies a recognized super power? It should be and the trio of Aoife O' Donovan, Sarah Jarosz and Sara Watkins (collectively 'I'm With Her') should get their own comic book or Marvel movie series or something, because my hearts in pieces on the floor after listening to the new single "Little Lies" a few times. While the three songwriter/instrumentalists have known each other for a long while, we finally got this magical collaboration "officially" in 2015 with a run of dates and festival appearances that solidified the trio as a thing...and a damn good thing at that. I ran into Aoife last summer at Newport Folk
Peep This: Anthony da Costa & Adam Levy “Neighbors” Live at Light Club Lamp Shop (Burlington, VT) Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - July 11, 20170 Prior to last Thursday evening I had only witness Anthony da Costa as an auxiliary player. Backing some of the best and brightest of rising stars in roots music. His work alongside Aoife O' Donovan, Sarah Jarosz and The Stray Birds has left me spellbound and while on this recent tour he was sharing the fronting duties with guitarist and songwriter Adam Levy, it was a punch to the gut and slap to the face that stung in just the right way to wake you up to the beauty that was unfolding before you on the stage. The recent release from the two artists titled "Neighbors" is a back and forth conversation between two singer-songwriters who's styles differ quite drastically. Da
Peep This: Dayna Kurtz “Not the Only Fool in Town” Live at Roots on the River Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - July 10, 20170 I tell you, sandwiching a solo artist in between a foot-stomping romp reunion set from a hooting and hollering 5 piece and a harmony laden female trio (with "all-the-instruments" backing support from Jim Henry) may seem like an odd sequencing of artists, but the power beholden in a heavy thumb and deep chest rumbling vocals should never be underestimated in captivating an audience. Dayna Kurtz did just that with her bluesy influenced acoustic work. Here she is performing "Not the Only Fool in Town" at this year's Roots on the River festival. Check it.