Show Review: Josh Ritter at The Wilbur, May 11, 2019 Music Features Reviews by Ken Templeton - May 21, 20190 Josh Ritter said that he’s been in a “reflective” mood this year: it’s his twentieth year making music and performing. I first saw Josh live in 2004, after the release of Hello, Starling, opening for Joan Baez in Manchester, England. He played solo in the cavernous Bridgewater Hall; from the nosebleed seats, he was just a mop of hair in a dark suit with a red tie. But he had that audience from the first note and when he stepped in front of the mic and unplugged his guitar to sing “Lawrence, KS,” which he dedicated to Johnny Cash, the room was silent and rapt. It wasn’t just his talent, though, that endeared him to fans in the UK; Josh
First Listen: Emily Mure “Gone For Good” (The Shins) Music Features Reviews Track Reviews by Brian Carroll - May 17, 20190 There are a lot of artists out there who suffer from the malady "cover-a-song-but-its-not-as-good-as-the-original-and-you-didn't-make-it-your-own"-itis. Emily Mure is not one of those artists. Just today Mure dropped a new single celebrating her love of covering songs (and not only doing them justice, but elevating them to new and exciting places). She tackles "Gone for Good" by The Shins this time around and called on a host of incredible artists (and engineer-extraordinaire Dan Cardinal) to capture her take on the tune. Emily has a penchant for weaving enchanting, vibrant arrangements with her voice and simple guitar patterns. The power and control she has over her voice is a feat to marvel at. Calming and putting you at ease, it sinks you down into a
Sweet, Sweet Nostalgia Redux: “Kat & Brad” Is An Instant Throwback Classic Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - April 15, 2019April 15, 20190 I may be a mere 34 years of age (actually I am an old man in the current roots landscape...) but my childhood was defined by music and artists that came in the decades before the 80s. Thanks partly to my parents album collection and re-runs of Happy Days, the Monkees or anything really on Nick at Night. The days of smacking the jukebox to kick into some Nat King Cole or the Everly Brothers. It's a beautiful thing that those even younger than I have a true love, appreciation and passion for the great American Songbook of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Kathleen Parks and Brad Bensko's "Kat & Brad" is absolutely exploding with that sentimentality for the arrangements and
Fresh Track: Honeysuckle “Fire Starter” Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - April 12, 2019April 12, 20190 I've often struggled to put the music of Honeysuckle into a box. At one moment the long, whisping branches of traditional American folk music are obvious and run throughout the veins of their songs. The next a cacophony of tweaking delay pedals leads into overdrive, reverberating mandolin lines. And the ever present thump and time keeping mechanism of the kick drum plays steady at the base of it all as banjo is faintly plucked throughout the din. Three human beings, three voices, three instruments (though they all interchange them at times) have the incredible ability to create the sound of an entire orchestra at times. But on the inverse, they absolutely perfect the nuance of the quietest moments in acoustic driven
Fresh Track: Lydia Luce “My Heart in Mind” (String Sessions) Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - April 2, 2019April 2, 20190 Lydia Luce has been an artist on my periphery for a while now. As an artist residing in and very much involved in the East Nashville community, our friends and artists we both love are a shared pool of talent and acquaintances. I have been aware of her music for a while now, but only recently given it the proper consideration it so absolutely deserves...and I am a fool for waiting so long to take the plunge and submerge myself in her songs. She is an anomaly of sorts. A brilliant string player and arranger who's folk and roots sentiments intermingle seamlessly together. Two things that seem at times polar opposites and when put into the hands of a less talented
Todd Snider “Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3” Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - April 2, 2019April 2, 20190 I remember it clearly. It was summer between my Freshman and Sophomore year of college and I was trying to dabble in a bit of the "songwriting and acoustic guitars and harmonica racks" thing more and more. I was digging a little deeper in the well than the usual Dylan and Townes thing and what I pulled up was a treasure I would come to value more than diamonds and gold for the rest of my life. First it was a song called "Play a Train Song", then a record called "East Nashville Skyline", then it was all of Todd Snider's work that came before (and now after) that album. To this day Snider is still "one of my folks".
Fresh Track: Izzy Heltai “Marching Song” Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - April 1, 20190 There is an ache in Izzy Heltai's voice. A longing. Emotion, pure and distilled through the words and chord progressions of his songs. The latest from the Northampton based songwriter comes in the form of a single off his upcoming release. "Marching Song" begins with a lo-fi guitar feel and Izzy's naturally breaking voice echo-ing delicately across a reluctant guitar progression. It's the light scratch of his voice that mingles with a comforting lilt that draws you in. Light piano keys trickle in and the strum picks up as he sings "on and on / a marching song / thats sung inside my head". An excitement and slight kick the chest feeling builds in the arrangement with the use of sparse
Fresh Track: Jonah Tolchin “Every Dream Can Become A Nightmare” Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - March 29, 2019March 29, 20190 Some artists just have a swagger that can't be touched. A way to inject your body with movement and flow by merely holding one note for a duration of time. The ability to work you like a marionette using their voice or instrumental abilities. Jonah Tolchin is one such artist and he fully displays it on a new track called "Every Dream Can Become a Nightmare" with this lyric video. The groove is a goddamn epidemic. Infectious in every sense of the word. Penetrating each pore of your body and forcing your limbs to sway and body to undulate to the waves and flow of the tune. Tolchin mentions, "Knowing that "every dream can become a nightmare", can inspire us to do
Fresh Track: Nate Leavitt “When You’re Ready” Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - March 28, 2019March 29, 20190 Nate Leavitt has a way of comfortably ripping your heart out. His voice echoing soothing waves across your ear canal while delicately casting shadows of gloom and melancholy across your face. There is a certain beauty in the sadness and heartrending nature Leavitt utters in each verse of his songs. A gruff and grisled vocal dances its way across an undulating bass line and unshakable drum grooves. Piano lines pirouette beneath the rhythmic din. There is a light in the final line of the chorus as it ascends into a chorus voices whisping in a breeze of warmth and hope. Leavitt tells us that the track "forages for passion and confidence in the middle of a psychological rainstorm." He reflects on
Concert Review: Mandolin Orange (The Royale February 9, 2019) Music Features Reviews by Brian Carroll - February 13, 2019February 13, 20190 “Man, a lot of people came to hear sad songs tonight,” Andrew Marlin said as Mandolin Orange took the stage to a sold-out crowd at The Royale last weekend. The group’s new record has enjoyed a lot of early success, and you could tell that this was an audience of the faithful: multiple people around me broke into applause with the beginning notes of the first track from Tides of a Teardrop, “Golden Embers,” which led off the night. It was a great tone-setting song for the night: it features beautiful harmonies, a sorrowful accompaniment on the violin, and introduces the rhythm section near the end of the song with their characteristic understatement. They followed this new song with “Hey