Etienne de Rocher moved to Athens, Georgia from the Bay Area in 2008 but took his sweet time assembling his current group Haunted Shed. As the story goes, Etienne (on guitar, keyboards and vocals) needed a group to provide musical ambiance for a neighborhood haunted house he’d set up in his backyard shed a number… Continue reading Haunted Shed, Faltering Light. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Tag: Singer-Songwriter
Ron Gallo – Peacemeal
Ron Gallo started off dismissing it all (2017’s Heavy Meta), then he began to question it all (2018’s Stardust Birthday Party), now he seems to understand that the more you know the less you understand, and from there it’s about how content you are with such a bombshell. This year’s Peacemeal is Ron Gallo beginning… Continue reading Ron Gallo – Peacemeal
Jesse Malin
Stayin’ Alive For Jesse Malin, It’s All for the Love of Rock ‘n’ Roll Acclaimed singer-songwriter Jesse Malin stands in the back room at Niagara, the bar in New York City’s East Village neighborhood that he has co-owned since 1997 – but he first started coming here in the 1980s, when it was named the… Continue reading Jesse Malin
Jane Birkin Gives Us a Wakeup Call
Translated as “Oh! Sorry you were sleeping…” the forthcoming album from Jane Birkin, Oh! Pardon tu dormais… was initially inspired by a theatrical play Birkin had written, but “gradually, we moved away from this and more pressing, urgent themes emerged,” the 74-year-old singer, actress and fashion icon says. “Little by little, we drifted towards other… Continue reading Jane Birkin Gives Us a Wakeup Call
Ben Trickey Blesses Us with a New Album
Ben Trickey doesn’t wanna dance if he can’t dance slow, and that goes for his music too. The Atlanta-based songman’s material invariably finds him weary, lonesome, lost and/or depressed. Darkness abounds. Darkness is the situation for nearly all of his songs, and when it’s not, the sun, as a general rule, is blinding. Hey, it’s… Continue reading Ben Trickey Blesses Us with a New Album
1970 Rollin’ in Sight for Dylan Fans
Columbia Records already put out an album cobbled together from outtakes from the sessions for Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait and New Morning LPs – released without Dylan’s involvement to near-universal derision in 1973, during the very brief period Bob had left Columbia for Asylum Records, Dylan consisted solely of covers of other people’s material. The… Continue reading 1970 Rollin’ in Sight for Dylan Fans
K Michelle DuBois Returns with a Fever to Tell
K Michelle DuBois has been a cherished treasure of the Atlanta music scene since her early 1990s Babyfat days. After her subsequent band Luigi dissolved in the spring of 2008, she seemed for a while to focus more on supporting roles in the projects of friends rather than an impulsive leap into her own new… Continue reading K Michelle DuBois Returns with a Fever to Tell
Billy Gewin: Riddle Me This
These days I’m impressed by anyone that makes the effort to release their music in physical form, be it vinyl, CD or even cassette. I’m even more impressed if they bother to put a copy in a padded envelope or cardboard mailer and send it here to the magazine instead of just uploading some songs… Continue reading Billy Gewin: Riddle Me This
Kevin Godley
Experiment One: Kevin Godley and the Consequences of Remote Collaboration In 2020, working remotely is commonplace. Even before circumstances required it, many people found that working from home could be just as efficient as showing up to a formal workplace. Creatives and musicians, of course, have known this for longer than most. Elton John and… Continue reading Kevin Godley
The Changin’ Times of Ike White
Ever heard of Ike White, the guitarist? How about David Ontiveros? Or David Maestro? On the way to stardom, playing backup for Big Mama Thornton, Ike White disappeared into the prison system, serving life for murder. Tipped off in the early ’70s, record producer Jerry Goldstein decked out a trailer with recording studio capabilities and hauled it onto… Continue reading The Changin’ Times of Ike White
These Are the Times for Molly Parden
Since moving to Nashville in 2013, Jonesboro, Georgia native Molly Parden has gradually established herself as a rising force with which to be reckoned. As a guitarist, bassist and singer, she’s done time in the backing bands of Austin’s David Ramirez, Southern California’s Sam Outlaw and Atlanta’s Faye Webster, and she’s contributed harmony vocals to… Continue reading These Are the Times for Molly Parden
Jim White Throws a Misfit’s Jubilee
Self-consciously quirky singer-songwriter Jim White tends to assemble his albums meticulously, often employing the talents of an ever-shifting cadre of contributing musicians and backing singers. So Misfit’s Jubilee, his forthcoming album scheduled for an Oct. 30 release, is certainly a comparatively basic affair, recorded primarily in Antwerp, Belgium with drummer Marlon Patton, guitarist/banjoist Geert Hellings… Continue reading Jim White Throws a Misfit’s Jubilee
Leah Belle Faser Crosses Into Earshot
At age 15, Leah Belle Faser has the poise and presence of a seasoned professional. That said, there’s a refreshing sparkle and glow to her gifts, a soft breeze of optimism that adulthood too often stifles. The singer-songwriter’s debut EP, Crossing Hermi’s Bridge, paints familiar scenes and situations of small-town life, detailing them in a… Continue reading Leah Belle Faser Crosses Into Earshot
Extensive Steve Wynn Box Set Out Oct. 23
Steve Wynn is surely among the most prolific and consistent rock musicians of our time, as any glance at his back catalog – solo records and albums from numerous bands and collaborations – will verify. Amazingly, there are also hours upon hours of unheard material stashed away – demos, alternate recordings, unreleased songs. A handful… Continue reading Extensive Steve Wynn Box Set Out Oct. 23
Clay Harper – Dirt Yard Street
“When you search the darkness, you find sorrow and regret,” cautions Clay Harper at one juncture in “Somewhere There’s a Fire Waiting,” the concluding cut on his new album Dirt Yard Street. “You find that life can break your heart,” he continues, “and memories you wish you could forget.” Those sentiments encapsulate the bulk of… Continue reading Clay Harper – Dirt Yard Street
Lera Lynn Does It Herself for Next LP
Onetime Georgian Lera Lynn has announced an Oct. 23 release date for her latest album, On My Own. As the title not-so-subtly suggests, Ms. Lynn – who’s currently counting down to the birth of her first child – wrote, recorded, performed and produced everything on it, a complete 180 from the Nashvillian’s 2018 duets project,… Continue reading Lera Lynn Does It Herself for Next LP
The Midnight
Eighties Schmeighties: The Midnight Just Wants You to Dance With Somebody Tyler Lyle was born in 1985, a year when much of the synthpop music his band The Midnight emulates was enjoying peak popularity. Growing up outside of Carrollton, Georgia, however, Lyle was more likely to be boppin’ his head to ‘80s and ‘90s country… Continue reading The Midnight
Billy Pilgrim’s Third Album Re-Released
In the midst of the shitty spring and summer of 2020, marked by death, disease, violence, anger and despair, the one ray of light I know so many of you have been holding onto was your hope, however faint, for a Billy Pilgrim reunion. Well, your distraught pleas have been heard, as onetime Eddie’s Attic… Continue reading Billy Pilgrim’s Third Album Re-Released
Bill Callahan Goes for the Gold
The habitually prolific Bill Callahan took an uncharacteristic five-and-a-half-year break between his 2014 album Have Fun with God and last year’s Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest, but then Shepherd ended up being a 20-song double album, so he certainly made up for it. Now, just over a year later, the singer-songwriter once known as Smog… Continue reading Bill Callahan Goes for the Gold
Liza Anne – Bad Vacation
St. Simons, Georgia singer, songwriter and occasional dance instructor Liza Anne can sometimes come across a little like Aimee Mann’s quirky niece – direct, sardonic, perceptive, probably prone to dysphoria and over-analyzation. Unlike Aimee, however, Liza Anne’s pointed finger is more likely to be directed inwardly rather than toward the latest perceived offender in her… Continue reading Liza Anne – Bad Vacation
Lydia Loveless Returns, Daughter in Tow
I was just listening to some Lydia Loveless albums with friends on the 4th of July, agreeing how incredible she is and wondering when she was ever going to put out another album, as it’s been four years since Real came out. The answer came just a couple weeks later, with the announcement of the… Continue reading Lydia Loveless Returns, Daughter in Tow
Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
If Homer were pushed into a space vacuum by time bandits and landed in the year 2020, Rough and Rowdy Ways would be his favorite album. Because when you’re great, you settle for nothing less than epic. I’m not here to provide historical analysis to Dylan’s venomous prose. If you want a pair of glasses… Continue reading Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways
Wreckless Eric Recovering After Really Shite Spring
Please keep Eric Goulden in your thoughts. The rascally British singer-songwriter, better known to most as Wreckless Eric, endured a rather frightful spring, starting with a persistent bout of the Wu-Tang Flu beginning in mid-March. On top of that, three days before his 66th birthday on May 18, during a visit with friends in the… Continue reading Wreckless Eric Recovering After Really Shite Spring
The Mendoza Line’s Third Album Gets Expanded Reissue
Are you as sick of hearing that phony cuddly catchphrase “we’re all in this together” as we are? Especially since it becomes more and more clear every day that we are not, in any conceivable manner, in any of this bullshit together, in fact we are more fractured and divided than ever. Then my cynical/realistic… Continue reading The Mendoza Line’s Third Album Gets Expanded Reissue
Sing Backwards and Weep
Sing Backwards and Weep By Mark Lanegan [Hatchette Books] “What happened to you that made you so sad?” This is the burning question that 7 Year Bitch’s Selene Vigil asked of the Screaming Trees’ Mark Lanegan during a fleeting, pensive moment of rapprochement during a truncated liaison amourese. This Lanegan guy, he had (and very… Continue reading Sing Backwards and Weep
Adjust the Sails Give Us Their Worst
Emo is easily one of the most annoying possible mutations of punk or alternative music. It’s bad enough suffering through some 17-year-old suburban crybaby whining at the top of his lungs about how terrible his spoiled little brat life is. Fully grown adult beta males doing it? We’re talking nails-on-chalkboard territory. Shane Hurst is a… Continue reading Adjust the Sails Give Us Their Worst
Mark Lanegan
Old Man Makes Music (And Writes a Memoir): Mark Lanegan Tells His Own Story Rock ‘n’ roll history is rife with stories of addiction and debauchery. But even after being so desensitized to these tales of excess and woe by now, the ones that Mark Lanegan recounts are still startling – and startlingly honest. He… Continue reading Mark Lanegan
Steve Baskin Steps Up
An internal communications strategist by day, Atlanta singer-songwriter Steve Baskin has done plenty of time in the Georgia and Southeastern music scenes as a member of the Hippycrickets, the Cindy Wilson Band and 10-piece R&B ensemble Hugo a Gogo, among other outfits. Recorded in Valdosta, where Baskin grew up, his new, fourth album Mind Your… Continue reading Steve Baskin Steps Up