RECENT ARTICLES

For Ben Bridwell, frontman and principal songwriter for the indie rock group Band of Horses, his career still makes no sense. That is to say, Bridwell remains rather astonished by it. That the now-43-year-old Irmo, South Carolina-born artist has earned a Grammy nomination or played to tens of thousands of people at festivals like Lollapalooza makes his head spin. He never started out wanting to front a band. In fact, when he landed in Seattle years ago, he was homeless, living on the street with a sleeping bag tied to his back. But even then, he knew one thing was essential for forward progress in any endeavor: hard work. It’s an instinct that remains with Bridwell today and it shines through on the latest Band of Horses album, Things Are Great, which is set to drop on Friday (March 4).

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When you tell Grammy, Oscar, and Emmy Award-winning artist Jennifer Hudson that you’re starting the interview for the American Songwriter Magazine Legends issue, of which she is a central figure, her response is, “Me?” Then she laughs quickly and follows up with a “thank you!” She does all this in a way that is true and honest. Hudson expresses the kind of “Thank you” that a friend might when you tell them their book of poetry is well-written or their apartment is well-put-together.

In terms of accomplishments, Hudson sits atop a mountain that’s all her own. Yet, there remains something about her that lives outside of that lofty peak. Perhaps this is the result of a hard life combined with a lot of hard-won hardware. Hudson, who experienced unspeakable lows in 2008 with the murder of three of her close family members, has constantly pushed forward in her life and career.

Indeed, that’s often the mark of a legend: perseverance, resilience, and some unimaginable sense of poise. Most recently, Hudson demonstrated all three when she took on the role of fellow music legend Aretha Franklin in the 2021 biopic, Respect (out now via MGM and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment to own on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital). But perhaps more than anything else, Hudson credits a single mentality with allowing her to succeed in ways few—if any—artists have before her.

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Country singer Jon Pardi doesn’t have a rocket ship. The Nashville-based songwriter and performer knows this to be true (both literally and metaphorically). But that doesn’t stop him from sonically taking flight. For Pardi, his proverbial flying machine is much more akin to a warplane, he says, one of those double-winged metallic creatures that soar steadily in the air as many others whiz and whir past.

But for Pardi, a career is not a sprint. It’s a marathon, a lifetime of work. And the California native recently added new fuel to his journey with the release of his latest single, “Last Night Lonely,” which he unveiled on February 18. Now, Pardi is exclusively announcing an extensive summer tour with American Songwriter. Dubbed the Ain’t Always The Cowboy Tour, the 25-date trek is set to kick off in July and run through September with friends and collaborators Lainey Wilson and Hailey Whitters. (See tour dates below).

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Luther Campbell always liked when he got to hear the music first—before the radio stations. As a young DJ in Miami, Florida, in the 1980s, Campbell was part of a “record pool” which gave him early access to new singles and new artists. In his early twenties, he would spin records at parties, often at his mother’s house. He’d play reggae or whatever else got the people moving. That led Campbell—who also goes by Luke, Uncle Luke, Luke Skyywalker, and likely several other names throughout his career—to join a like-minded DJ group. He both produced beats and spun the records he had early access to at local parties. Little did anyone know that these humble, music-loving beginnings would eventually lead Campbell and his group, 2 Live Crew, to upending the world with their brash style of “nasty,” sex-infused, boundary-breaking songs.

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Captivating rock star Joan Jett thinks about her legacy, but not in the way many others might. Hers is a nuanced perspective in which she hopes her name can help carry on her music and the important songs and messages she’s been a part of. Yet, at the same time, Jett works to consciously sever herself from the potentially egotistical sensibility that somehow the musical sun could ever rise and fall at her behest.

In truth, Jett is, of course, a legend. She’s rebellion personified, which is and was no easy task to achieve. But to let in the various permutations of what that word—legend—means it can cloud or blind one to what’s important. Namely, maintaining a personal openness to the world and to others. Instead of living starry-eyed, Jett wants to live a philosophically-minded life, to be one of those people who leans into encouragement and not dismissal. She wants to tell others: Go for it!

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Alynda Segarra, frontwoman for the indie rock band Hurray for the Riff Raff, knows what it’s like to feel at-risk. She knows what it’s like to feel invisible. She knows what it’s like to hop trains, sleep under trees, duck into bushes and hedges and she knows what it’s like to be on the run. In many ways, these moments are the foundation for who she is, both as a person today and as an artist. But these days she is also creating new formative moments upon which she’ll stand, assured. She’s continuing to grow and evolve in big ways. She’s continuing to listen as well as to make new music. These are the ingredients of her newest record, Life On Earth, which is set to drop on Friday (February 18). These are the lenses through which she sees and experiences the world around her.

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When John Lurie was in his mid-teens, his sister gave his older brother a harmonica for his birthday. That, combined with the acquisition of a Little Walter record, had the two brothers obsessed with both the idea of the instrument and making music together. Lurie, who today stars in the HBO television show Painting With John, which debuts its second season on Friday (February 18), practiced on the harmonica obsessively. In high school, he and his brother started a band called Crud in which he played and sang. Not long after, he jammed with Mississippi Fred McDowell and Canned Heat with John Lee Hooker. Thus, a career in the arts was born.

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Growing up in Mississippi, the son of sharecroppers, Lester Chambers used to love to hear his voice in harmony. What’s more, he loved hearing that harmony echo. Today, the 81-year-old frontman for the Bay Area-based band Moonalice looks back on those early years fondly. It was the time when his dream began—a dream that’s continued through today, into his ninth decade. In this way, Chambers’ voice has been echoing in real-time as long as anybody’s in music history. And that career continues with Moonalice’s latest single, “Let’s Get Funky,” a song Chambers first began to write some 50 years ago and one that American Songwriter is premiering today in its latest form.

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If there’s a secret to the success of the Michigan-born rock band Greta Van Fleet, it’s that the members have always allowed themselves to push the proverbial envelope—to go deep, further, and even toward the weird in their work. To head toward extremes says the group’s frontman and lead singer, Josh Kiszka. The band, which is comprised of brothers Josh on the mic, Jake on guitar, and Sam on bass, along with close friend Danny Wagner on drums, didn’t limit themselves in their exploration and internal discoveries as they coalesced and improved as musicians. The strategy has worked. The result so far has been sold our tours, an SNL appearance, and Grammy recognition. But accolades aren’t necessarily what drives the band. Rather, acceptance from their heroes is, along with the process of going through that which excites and calms their creative minds, which occurs almost in the same breath.

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Grammy-nominated songwriter and performer Sylvia (born Sylvia Jane Kirby) wants people to look inside the next time they think they need help. The tendency, of course, is to look outward for answers. Can someone help me out of this? Who can save me? These are the questions we ask ourselves in our dark hours. But, Sylvia says, we may find better answers if we look to our instincts and our most distilled judgment. These aren’t easy lessons to learn, however. Sylvia, who rose to fame in the ’80s while in her 20s, has now learned from experience.

She’s figured out what to shed and what to keep. Today, she says, she lives in the moment, listening to her own ideas as guidance. The result is the record she’s always wanted to make. An album that offers its listeners a path forward that’s also a path internal. And it begins with a song that American Songwriter is premiering today, “Avalon,” which is the first track from her forthcoming LP, Nature Child, due out on February 22.

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If you ask Joe Newman, vocalist, and co-founder of the popular band alt-J, about the genesis of the band’s new record, The Dream, which is out Friday (February 11), he’ll tell you it all began, essentially, the day he got his first guitar. While, to some, that answer may seem cheeky or even flip, for Newman, it’s completely true. For him, the process of writing songs isn’t something that begins in the morning on a given day and concludes that night. Instead, for the artist, a song may begin 20 years or more before it’s set to record. Or a bit of it may start one year, another bit on another, and even a third chunk some years later. In this way, songwriting, like healing, is not linear. It’s more like assembling a bouquet.

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Songwriter and performer Mason Jennings lives right by a lake in Minnesota. In his home, there are large glass windows to look out onto the water. It’s from this vantage point that Jennings wrote many of the songs for his new forthcoming LP, Real Heart, which is set to drop on Friday (February 4). He wrote these songs on his acoustic guitar, singing with the instrument on the demos. Over the past four years, Jennings has done this, amassing a nice collection. To get another artist’s perspective, Jennings sent the batch to his friend and bandmate (Painted Shield), Stone Gossard, of Pearl Jam. At first, Jennings thought he’d drop the guitar and add new instrumentation. But Gossard recognized the central quality the six-string had. It was important for the tender, open-hearted LP. And so Jennings kept it prominent.

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Innovative bi-coastal artist, Bitch (born Karen Mould), was raised with tap dancing coming through the floorboards. Her mother was a tap teacher, and she had a school in their basement. As such, the tip-twap-tip-twap of the art form was underneath her at all hours. Bitch also remembers watching Sesame Street as a young child. It was on an early episode that she first saw the violin. She was three years old at the time and she soon began to beg her parents for the instrument for herself. At four, she was playing it. Today, the violin features on her forthcoming album, Bitchcraft, which is set for release Friday (February 4). The LP, her first since 2013, showcases the sounds that, Bitch says, were the foundation of her first real communications.

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Legendary songwriter and performer John Mellencamp says the songs he writes are sent to him. “I’m just a conduit,” he says, “for whatever message is being sent to me.”

When it comes to the songs on Mellencamp’s newest LP, Strictly A One-Eyed Jack, which was released on Friday (January 21), the artist says he knows exactly who sent them. The American actor and director, John Huston. “They gotta be,” Mellencamp says. Huston, he adds, was definitely a “one-eyed Jack.” And while the new LP is not about Huston, per se, the songs, Mellencamp says, are sent from the late auteur (Huston died in 1987). No matter how they got into his creative mind, the songs on Mellencamp’s newest record are largely stunning. They feature his ever-so-gravely voice, as well as his somber tone and nuanced touch.

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Any creative person (or Lego enthusiast) will tell you that not every combination of elements yields positive results. Sometimes even the best towers—proverbial and actual—will tumble given the wrong amalgamation. That’s why the Atlanta-born hard rock band Mastodon is such a remarkable entity. The group is one of those in which the pieces just fit. Since its inception in 2000, the four-piece band has amassed eight studio LPs, including its most recent, the Grammy-nominated Hushed and Grim in 2021. And Mastodon’s album prior, Emperor of Sand (2017), earned the group its first Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. Today, Mastodon is set to get back out on the road with a co-headline tour in March (followed by one in Europe in the summer). After two-plus-decades together, they’re still building and growing. It’s a testament to the chemistry that bonds the band’s four members.

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