RECENT ARTICLES

Growing up around New Orleans in the 1960s, acclaimed songwriter, Lucinda Williams, absorbed much of what was happening throughout the turbulent country. She engaged in protests in the streets for racial equality and to end the Vietnam War, among other important social statements. She listened to artist like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Her parents were academics – a creative writing professor and a music major – so Williams’ education was fostered and supported at home. At one point, she was expelled from high school for not saying the “Pledge of Allegiance.” But her father found an ACLU lawyer who fought the verdict, saying the expulsion was unconstitutional. Today, Williams says she sees many of the same divisions in the country that she did decades prior. These themes run throughout her latest LP, Good Souls Better Angels, as well as her forthcoming group of shows set to benefit American music venues in their time of need.

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Sharon Jones was immediately memorable. At the time, about twenty years ago, Gabriel Roth (aka Bosco Mann), the co-founder of the famed label, Daptone Records, needed three backup singers for a recording session. This was before Daptone Records existed. His saxophone player, Joe, recommended his then-girlfriend. She could bring two friends with her, Joe said. Roth agreed but, the next day, only Jones showed up.

“Why pay three when you can pay me?” she intoned. From that moment, Roth was hooked on her “irrepressible” energy. In many ways, he dedicated his life to being the tide that lifted her musical boat. And that effort continues today, despite Jones’ passing in 2016, with the forthcoming release of the new covers collection, Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Rendition Was In. The LP is set for release digitally on October 23rd and on vinyl November 29th.

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Sometimes it takes a decade-plus to remember what you’ve had all along. For Los Angeles-based rock ‘n’ roll band, Local Natives, ideas of friendship and the importance of familial bonds have been the manna on which the group has subsisted ever since its early days. And they remain important sources of nourishment. But sometimes people have to be reminded of the bounty at their fingertips. Sometimes through the work and during the successes, it’s tantamount to remember what the group has had since the very beginning. The foundation is just as important as the top floor, of course. That’s what the members of Local Natives have re-experienced recently while producing the band’s new exultant EP, Sour Lemon, set for release on October 23rd.

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At first, Mike Shinoda, co-founder of the immensely popular band, Linkin Park, didn’t want to go back to the past. He didn’t want to revisit the early demos, relive the old memories. Why look back? On October 24th, 2000, Linkin Park released its debut LP, Hybrid Theory, which, it turns out, was more like a debut greatest hits record, featuring songs like “One Step Closer,” “Papercut” and “In The End.” But, thanks to some lifelong friends and collaborators, Shinoda was convinced more recently to unearth the lost material. Now, twenty years later, on October 9th, 2020, the band, led by Shinoda, released a 20th anniversary retrospective package of their seminal album that features alternate song takes, forgotten lyrics and decades-old video footage of the group, which their leagues of fans will assuredly continue to enjoy and devour.

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Matt Berninger, the crooning front man for the popular rock ‘n’ roll band, The National, likes to write songs while riding his bike. The sharp, rapid-minded and loquacious singer-songwriter engages in conversation often like a metaphorical triathlon participant. His brain is chugging along in a marathon, swimming laps and cycling all at once. But amidst all the frantic activity, a logical through-line emerges. So does sonic and melodic clarity. Berninger says lyrics come to him as he pedals, avoiding trees and following traffic signs, because when his mind is focused in on myriad other things, the art can step forward and show itself. Revelations like these are the substance of Berninger’s forthcoming solo record, Serpentine Prison, out October 16th.

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Australian country musician, Angus Gill, has a baby face but an aged soul. The 22-year-old, award-winning songwriter first began making music at six-years-old. By the age of 11, Gill had contemporary music heroes like Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash while other kids were donning Batman costumes or playing peewee soccer. Later, Gill began to regularly play at his own high school assemblies with his self-titled three-piece. He’s been rife with ambition since listening to his grandmother’s favorite twangy records as a boy. For his whole life, Gill has been focused on becoming an established artist. And he’s off to a fast start. His latest in this effort is the new 11-track LP, 3 Minute Movie, which will be released Friday and features the legendary songwriter, Steve Earle.

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Jessica Dobson, frontwoman and principle songwriter for the Seattle-based band, Deep Sea Diver, was adopted. While this is indeed a very personal bit of information it is also pertinent to the story of the band’s new LP. Any work of art takes a lifetime to create. While, in truth, from first note to final mix, a song may take, say, a year or two, the work is, in actuality, a culmination of a person’s entire existence. It wasn’t until recently that Dobson met her birth mother, which was both monumental and fascinating for the expert musician. The encounter is one of several recent marvelous moments for Dobson and her percolating, neon-electric-sounding group, which is set to release its latest LP, Impossible Weight, on Friday.

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Los Angeles-based musician-producer-songwriter, Terrace Martin, didn’t grow up in a safe place. Born in 1978, Martin came up in very dangerous areas of Southern California. He was forced to make his own safe places, while never truly feeling protected. Music became his safe place. It became his time machine, too. It became the keyhole through which the entire universe began to unfold. It was also the thing that bonded him with now longtime friend and collaborator, Snoop Dogg. Martin met the rapper over 22 years ago. Ever since, they’ve held together through love of life and song. This shared, heartening bond is the hearth that continues to warm Martin’s creative soul. It is the furnace for his speeding locomotive of production. And it was the model for the musical supergroup he co-founded – Dinner Party – and the band’s latest album, Dessert.

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Many music fans can remember where they were when rumors of Jay Z’s The Black Album began to swirl on early blogs in 2003. One of the most notable aspects of that particular record’s announcement was the inclusion of the then-underground producer, 9th Wonder (born Patrick Denard Douthit). At the time, Jay Z was one of the biggest names in entertainment (still is). For the rapper to reach to the underground to bring up 9th Wonder was remarkable – a bridge to a new generation’s sound. Ever since, 9th Wonder’s career has taken off. His appreciation for music validated by fans all over the world. But, perhaps first and foremost, that validation began with family – his mother, his older brother. And that familial inspiration continues to permeate 9th Wonder’s music today, including in the songs he makes in the supergroup, Dinner Party, which released its latest record, Dessert, on Friday.

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Today, important notions of mental health, support systems and self-love are in the public consciousness more and more. And rightly so. As they say, you can’t put someone else’s oxygen mask on without first putting on your own. Miami, Florida-based R&B artist, Savannah Cristina, has taken that idea to new and scintillating heights. Cristina, who released her anticipated EP, Self-Care, earlier this month, thinks of her songs like contained, miniature therapy sessions. Instead of paying someone for a 30-minute Zoom consultation, Cristina says, just put on one of her new tracks and lose yourself in the necessary revelations and the repetitions of self-confidence and personal appreciation.

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