What kind of towering power is music capable of? To bask in the audience of Emily Scott Robinson’s voice and songs, you feel like anything is possible through the marriage of words and melody.
You’re forced to search far and wide, and to fall feeling feeble-minded when trying to find a singer and a songwriter who can equal or even rival the works of Emily Scott Robinson.
Iconic American songwriter Bob Dylan will be celebrating his 75th birthday on May 24th, and country and roots artist, including many songwriters who cite Dylan as a primary influence on their music, will be coming together to pay tribute to the man in numerous events across the country.
There’s something much interesting brewing that’s bigger than any one artist at the moment—an expansive concept record dealing with artists’ experiences growing up in the South. The project was first hinted at in April when the new Elektra deal was signed, and since then there’s been murmurings about Cobb’s concept record here and there, but now we’re finally beginning to piece together the details.
Out there on the club and honky-tonk circuit are women with skins on the wall, proven talent, and built-in fan bases that go regularly overlooked as options to bring compelling female voices to the big leagues of country. One such artist is the Canadian-born Lindi Ortega, who has just released her latest album through Last Gang Records called ‘Faded Gloryville.’
It appeared nearly preordained that The Civil Wars weren’t built to last for the long term when you really pondered how bright they burned each time they took the stage. Now Joy has released a new single called “Woman (Oh Mama)” ahead of a solo project named Venus, and as you may be able to surmise from the titles, it is a very woman-centric foray into the power of the female identity.
Have you ever been scanning through photos of your favorite (or least favorite) artists and thought, “Hot damn! That dude look just like this other dude!” From eery similarities like Sturgill Simpson and Javier Bardem’s creepy character from the movie No Country For Old Men, to Johny Paul White and Johnny Depp who I am pretty much convinced are the same exact person…
Though the writing has been on the wall for a while now, today one country music’s most critically-acclaimed modern singing duos officially called it quits. The Civil Wars, who embodied evolved songwriting much more indicative of Americana, spellbinding vocal presentation bordering on the classical or operatic, released a statement today saying the duo is officially no more.
The River & The Thread is an album that was worth waiting for. Produced and co-written with Rosanne’s husband, accomplished musician John Leventhal, this album is exhaustive, thematic, all-encompassing, and compromises nothing when it comes to desiring the highest degree of quality in songwriting and production.
High Cotton: A Tribute To Alabama gets right what so many cover and tribute albums get wrong, including its 2013 counterpart Alabama & Friends. A good tribute album doesn’t just pay tribute to the band or artist. It should be a 50/50 proposition, with the contributing artists also benefiting from the name recognition the tributee affords.