RECENT ARTICLES

If you can spare the four minutes, or so, that it takes to watch Future Islands perform on David Letterman from 2014, you’ll likely find it delightful, extraordinary. It also changed the lives of the Baltimore-based band’s members in ways the group could never have imagined. Ever since, Future Islands has gone on lengthy tours and amassed hundreds of thousands of fans. But the success has also allowed for the band’s members the freedom in their down time to explore other creative impulses and dig into new creative goals. The result for the group’s bassist, William Cashion, was the June release of his debut solo record, Postcard Music, a collection of ambient song. And American Songwriter is proud to premiere the video for the record’s single, “Vizcaya,” here today.

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London-based singer-songwriter and producer, Dave Bayley, front man for the electronic group, Glass Animals, remembers spending formative years in a small Texas town, huddled at night around a radio that offered just a few channels. Luckily, for Bayley, one of the stations played classic Hip-Hop songs from artists like Missy Elliot, Dr. Dre, Eminem and, perhaps most importantly, the producer, Timbaland. These songs opened Bayley’s mind to new musical sounds and possibilities. Raised on groups like Talking Heads, The Beatles, Nina Simone and Bob Marley from his parents, Bayley says he became consumed by all of it. And each of these influences appears on the forthcoming Glass Animals record, Dreamland, slated for release August 7th.

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Eric Rachmany, front man for the wildly popular reggae-rock group, Rebelution, remembers being in school as a young person and feeling terrified. The songwriter, who plays in front of multiple thousands of people at any given gig today, says he would get nervous when he had to speak in front of the class. So much so that he’d try and memorize his reports word-for-word. Now, years later, Rachmany is comfortable in front of a crowd. He’s embraced the space that’s his within any Rebelution show. As a result, his group has garnered hundreds of thousands of fans from all over the world. Rebelution will surely grow in followers given the release of its latest LP, Dub Collection, which hit stands and streams last Friday.

“I learned through performing to get into the art,” Rachmany says. “When you do that, you can really put on a show. People can tell when you’re into it and when you’re not. That’s the beauty of art and of expressing yourself. It’s such a great feeling to let go and give it your all.”

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We’ve all experienced it at least once. Looking at a vase or bouquet of old, dried flowers that were once lovely and knowing they must go. Often, it comes with a moment of sad reflection. The flowers were once – recently! – so tremendously beautiful. Their bloom, perfume. But now, without roots, they’ve gone brittle and died out. For Nashville-based singer-songwriter, Courtney Marie Andrews, this experience is also a metaphor for lost romantic love, which is why the musician titled her forthcoming album, Old Flowers (set for release July 24th, read our review), and why she sings of them forlornly on the album’s title track.

“Old Flowers is a relationship album,” Andrews says, “a breakup record. It’s telling the tale of a relationship and letting it go – or, trying to, at least. Old flowers signify love, for me. They were once in full bloom, beautiful at one time. Now they’ve wilted. But that doesn’t make the past any less magical. They can still be memories to keep between the pages of your favorite book.”

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Musician and writer, Mickey Leigh, is a walking library. Leigh, who is the younger brother of famed Ramones front man, Joey Ramone, grew up steeped in music. Rock ‘n’ roll would play on the radio during breakfast. Leigh and his brother bonded over the Beatles and other prominent bands during their childhood together in the 1960s. Later, though, Leigh, living in New York City, would undergo a wild drug bust and see firsthand the oddities that come when dealing with the FBI and DEA. Most importantly, though, Leigh saw that there are two systems of justice, one for those who have money and one for those who don’t. And this is the subject of the artist’s recent single (and music vide), “Two Kinds Of Law.”

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New Orleans standout group, Tank and the Bangas, famously won the NPR Tiny Desk Contest in 2017. The band, picked from some 6,000-plus applicants, celebrated the victory with a rousing and emotional performance at the media hub’s New York City offices. Ever since, Tank and the Bangas has been on a roll, both in the recording studio and on the road, which culminated with a 2020 Best New Artist Grammy nomination. But, says frontwoman, Tarriona “Tank” Ball, the group doesn’t much sweat the highs of the wins or the lows of the losses. Instead, Ball says, she’s confident that what comes for the group is what’s meant for the group, what’s necessary for both their creative sustenance and evolution.

“We were picked out of all those people,” Ball says. “So, it made me feel like whatever’s for us is really for us.”

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Five-time Grammy-winging songwriter, Keb Mo (born Kevin Moore), remembers being 12- or 13-years-old on the porch. He’d sit there with friends. One person had a drum, someone else had a can. Amongst a small group of kids, they’d have whatever they could find and bring to this rudimentary drum circle. But the instrument didn’t matter – not at first, anyway. What mattered was the group and the combination of sounds to make something new. Today, for Mo, that same musical philosophy holds. For him, it’s less about any one particular thing and more about the relationship between the elements. And the results are stellar – or, constellational. Evidenced by his latest award-winning effort, 2019’s Oklahoma.

“Back then,” Mo says, “it was really about the ensemble, being part of something.”

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For California singer-songwriter, Karla Bonoff, who has worked with some of the biggest names in music – from Linda Ronstadt to Bonnie Raitt – if it wasn’t for the infamous Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood, which was just a fifteen minute drive from her Los Angeles home at the time, all of the majesty of song may not have unfolded before her as it had. Bonoff, who came of age amidst the hippie movement in the 1960s, cared about artistic craft and new ideas. She dove headfirst into the former clutching to as many of the latter as she could. This love of song continues today with the release of her 2019 album, Carry Me Home, and a collaboration that same year with country music star, Trisha Yearwood.

“Looking back,” Bonoff says, “I realize how amazing it was. But at the time, it just seemed like our life.”

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Renowned author, James P. Carse, is known for his book, Finite and Infinite Games, which discusses the difference between “games” like a tennis match and the art of writing poetry. The first, Carse says, is played to have a clear winner. The second is played so that one can merely continue to play it. Those players – i.e. masters – simply go deeper and deeper into the art form, somehow both expanding their knowledge and the surface area of what they have yet to learn. One such guitar master is Nashville’s award-winning bluegrass musician, Molly Tuttle, who will release her latest (covers) album, …but i’d rather be with you, on August 28th.

“When I see the guitar,” Tuttle says, “there are so many endless opportunities and ways to keep learning. It’s like playing a video game that never ends and gets more and more complex. I think it’s a really exciting world of possibility.”

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Boston-based artist, Jonatha Brooke, grew up dancing. She also grew up loving music, taking choir in school, playing bass in her 8th grade rock band and she even joined an a cappella group. But it wasn’t until her junior year in college that she got the urge to write songs – a feeling that has since remained throughout her life, from early successes in the 90s to more substantial ones later on. Brooke, who has co-written with stars like Katy Perry and composed songs for Disney and TV show-runner, Joss Whedon, continues to challenge herself. The work can always be better, she says. Hers is a mentality that has propelled her to a prolific and fruitful career. And Brooke’s latest achievement is the release of her forthcoming LP, The Sweetwater Sessions, out tomorrow (July 10th).

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Bay Area singer-songwriter, Drea Jeann, functions best with a regimen. It’s been this way since she was young. Jeann, who first started singing at three-years-old – jumping on stage during a cruise ship talent show – craves structure. As a young person, she signed up for programs at school and in church. She performed musical theater. But it wasn’t until she joined an a cappella group in high school that her ambition really took hold. It was then she knew she wanted to dedicate herself to music.

Today, after some tumultuous personal ups and downs, Jeann is poised to set new, reinvigorated sights on her creative goals, the most recent of which includes the release of her autobiographical track, “Dying to Stay Alive.”

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In many ways, Nathan Willett, front man for the electric-elastic rock ‘n’ roll group, Cold War Kids, is restarting everything. Willett, whose group grew from grassroots in its original Southern California home, has since achieved great successes. From backyard jam sessions to playing in front of tens of thousands regularly, Cold War Kids has, for all intents and purposes, achieved its central goals. But rather than give up playing music now, Willett is starting the journey over again. It excites him, energizes his ambitions. The process began with the group’s 2019 release, New Age Norms 1, and will continue with New Age Norms 2, which is set to hit the streets August 21st (with a special song debut today for “You Already Know”).

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The ground-shaking, precedent-setting punk rock band, Bad Brains, hit the commercial scene and began wowing audiences in 1979. But while the band released their eponymous debut LP in 1982, the group first got together and started to practice in earnest around 1977. At that time, says band front man, Human Rights (aka H.R., born Paul Hudson), it was all about rehearsing, nailing the sound and speed that Bad Brains would quickly and thereafter become known for. In the end, though, the focus for the group was primarily two-fold: play as fast as possible for the audience and play its signature punk rock music with an underlying positive mentality.

“What I saw was missing in those early punk rock days,” says H.R., “was the message and how it wasn’t too positive. That’s where I would change the message and make it more positive. We had a philosophy: PMA. Positive Mental Attitude. I got the idea from this Napoleon Hill book called, Think & Grow Rich, which talked about how you should be positive and keep determined. We were always determined.”

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Life can change in an instant. If you had – at just the right time – read an ad on a Scottish music message board, then you too might be in the popular Glasgow-based rock ‘n’ roll band, The Fratellis. Because at that time, some 15 years ago, only two other people responded to a post that front man, Jon Fratelli, put out. Those musicians – Mince and Barry – comprise, along with Jon, the hit trio. Flash forward to today and the rock group is set to release its sixth studio LP, Half Drunk Under a Full Moon, in the fall on October 30th. The band will celebrate that reality today with the official unveiling of its newest music video for the song, “Six Days in June,” which we are happy to premiere here.

“Barry and Mince were the only people who replied to the advert,” says Fratelli. “Nobody else called. That’s clearly a sign that we were supposed to find each other. We didn’t have to make much effort.”

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Buzz Osborne has been making records for 37-years. And while for some, that might not be much to sneeze at, for Osborne, who was born in a town of about 900 people and later moved to a town of about 1,800, the fact that he’s recorded music, known the members of Nirvana (and just about every other famous grunge band) and been such an historic influence on Pacific Northwest songwriting (and beyond), is astonishing. Osborne, who is constantly writing and releasing music, will continue his epic career with the release of his latest acoustic LP, Gift of Sacrifice, slated for August 14th.

“I was about 12 when I first got into listening to music,” Osborne says. “I was in a strange position as a kid. I didn’t have any older siblings, didn’t have any cool friends – I didn’t have any friends at that point, hardly. I lived in a very rural community in rural Washington State with almost nobody there.”

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