RECENT ARTICLES

As an American person of East African descent, living her formative years in Champagne, Illinois, the burgeoning artist, Somi, regularly felt like she resided between several realities. Musically, for example, there was often a difference between what she heard at home and what she encountered outside her front door. And while there is nothing wrong with that, per sé, having a foot, so to speak, in two distinct sonic pools does create a unique point of view for any musician. More recently, Somi has turned that vantage point into a creative thesis statement. It’s become her mission to bridge seemingly disparate parts, to bring them together in her songs, in the way she tells stories and in how she talks about the world. For this work, Somi has distinguished herself. To wit, she was recently nominated both for an NAACP award and a Grammy for her 2020 release, Holy Room: Live at Alte Oper with Frankfurt Radio Big Band, which is as much an homage to live performance as it is an example of art at its highest ambition.

Singer-songwriter, Evvie McKinney, grew up in church in Memphis, Tennessee. As a result, religion has influenced essentially every decision she’s ever made since, both personally and professionally.

The artist, who rose to prominence by winning the inaugural season of the P. Diddy-led Fox television singing competition, The Four, has gone on to collaborate with famed songwriters, including Meghan Trainor. As a kid, McKinney’s family doted on her. She was the youngest of seven siblings and their attention, along with the experience she gained performing in church, helped propel her to become a professional artist. Today, McKinney is poised to unveil her debut EP, This Is Evvie McKinney, on February 26th after recently releasing several singles, including the rousing, “Bring The Whole Hood.” The new songs have helped earn the artist significant attention. In fact, her track, “Look No Further,” recently charted at number-2 on the Billboard Hot Gospel Songs. As McKinney’s career unfolds, she hopes to continue to achieve lofty goals while still keeping her feet grounded in her faith.

Songwriter Christopher Mansfield, better known by his stage name, Fences, remembers playing pool with Ben Haggerty (a.k.a. Macklemore) in a hometown Seattle dive bar. Mansfield also remembers taking the bus often with Josh Tillman (a.k.a. Father John Misty) and ordering a burrito from then-food vendor, Robin Pecknold (the now-lead singer of Fleet Foxes). There are other memories, too: just shooting the breeze with the members of the Head and the Heart and the Lumineers. Indeed, at the turn of the 21st century, Seattle was an especially fertile ground for future chart toppers and Mansfield was at the center of it. Of course, Fences would go on to release prominent songs, including “Arrows” in 2014, which has since garnered nearly 14-million streams on YouTube. This year, Mansfield will release two more records. The first is a re-issue of his contemplative 2019 album, Failure Sculptures, on March 5th and the second is a brand-new, bubblier EP, Wide Eyed Elk Ensemble, out later this spring.

When songwriter, Muni Long, goes into the studio for a day or two, she’ll often come out with 10 or 15 songs. Long may, in fact, be one of the most prolific songwriters on earth. And she’s definitely one of the most successful. The artist, who splits time between living with her family in Florida and venturing across the country to Los Angeles for creative sessions, has co-written tracks for Rihanna, Madonna, Carrie Underwood, Ariana Grande and Florida Georgia Line, among others. Long, who used to write under her given name, Priscilla Renea, has more recently taken center mark and assumed a stage name with significant meaning (more on that later). Long is writing more and more for herself. In November, she released her cozy EP, Black Like This, and she says she plans to release more work as the new year unfurls, including singles and EPs. For a person who used to play dress-up as a girl with her grandmother’s bed sheets and costume jewelry, Long says that it feels like now she’s living in a film she’s scribed for herself.

When Panamanian singer-songwriter, Sofía Valdés, was eleven years old, she took out a piece of paper and began to plot out the rest of her life. Somehow, about a decade later, everything seems to be going according to that plan. Lately, Valdés, who grew up in prominent musical family, has begun to set the music world aflame. Recent releases have garnered hundreds of thousands of YouTube views, which, for the songwriter, is especially synchronistic. It was when she discovered the streaming platform at seven years old that her mind exploded with possibility. While her father wouldn’t let her watch things on the website for a few more years, the mere reality that so much music existed outside of the radio was a crucial realization for the burgeoning artist. Today, Valdés fixates on songs, hers and those produced by other musicians, and she brings this meticulous comportment to her forthcoming EP, Ventura, out Friday.

Missouri-born songwriter, Nathaniel Rateliff, says he knows a lot of people like Eddie Palmer, the fictional main character in the dramatic movie, Palmer, which is out today on Apple TV+. Because he’s personally familiar with people like Palmer (played by Justin Timberlake), Rateliff had a keen point of view from which to start writing the film’s culminating song, “Redemption.” He received the opportunity out of the blue one day on his cell phone, while he was driving long distance to visit his girlfriend. He began humming melodies into a voice recorder as he propelled over long highway stretches. Later, he talked with Timberlake about the essence of the movie and core scenes. The result of Rateliff’s efforts is the new hopeful track, which mends as much as it inspires.

For Ray Dalton, the Seattle singer with the wood-grain voice, who rose to fame performing the hook for the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis song, “Can’t Hold Us,” it’s a big deal that his sister likes his new single. Dalton jokes that he’s not sure if his sister really likes his music, which of course, is hard to believe. Dalton’s voice seems destined to repeatedly top charts and inspire dance moves in myriad apartment kitchens. But family can be tough critics. Thankfully, for the multi-billion streamed singer, he’s now making inroads there. But Dalton’s sister isn’t the only person taking notice. The crooner released the recent single, “In My Bones,” in November and the track has quickly amassed millions of streams since. For an artist who rose to prominence on hooks, Dalton is now telling his own sonic story.

Bay Area rapper, Caleborate (born Caleb Jamal Parker), says the choices he makes today and into the future should all be healthy ones. Whereas at times in the past the artist might not have taken the best route or made the most responsible decision, these days, Caleborate aims to promote clarity and sustainability over swifter or more toxic ambitions. But it’s not just about a green juice or carrot smoothie. Health comes in many forms, of course. For Caleborate, that also means financial, mental and community health. These are the thoughts he weaves into his music. The artist, who grew up at the feet of his playwright father, learned the power of language and expression at a young age and he works to breathe life into these every day, as evidenced by the rapper’s forthcoming 16-track LP, Light Hit My Skin, out March 26th and its newest single, “What U Want,” out today.

Florida-based blues musician, Selwyn Birchwood, likes to hear his stories first-hand. Too often, Birchwood says, artists seem to offer carbon copies—tracings of tracings—to their audience rather than attempting to put forth the most genuine storytelling they can muster. Birchwood, who likes to burry himself in his favorite songs and albums, much prefers a unique voice or an individual point of view, instead of something safe and familiar. He prefers discovering new ground as opposed to the overly trodden. It’s because of this personal perspective, he says, that he spent years crafting the songs for his newest album, Living In A Burning House (review), which is out January 29th. Birchwood worked on the record for three years and spent a fourth (2020) with the songs on the shelf waiting for the right time to release the new music. That time is now.

Growing up, David Alexander, who is now known as the Swedish electronic music producer, Summer Heart, hated music. He just wanted his musician parents to be “normal.” His mother was a singer and his father was a piano player and the duo would travel around Sweden when Alexander and his younger sister were kids. As a result, the children would often find themselves sleeping on greenroom benches or with their heads down on restaurant tables. It was an unorthodox upbringing that both introduced Alexander to music and, at first, pushed him to want to rebel from it. Later, though, in his teenage years, he discovered the guitar and, a few years later, he discovered software for creating beats and songs. What once seemed abnormal now seemed paramount. Alexander has followed his love of making music ever since. Today, American Songwriter is premiering Summer Heart’s latest single, “Ocean,” which has also inspired the project’s next record release.

When Kim Thayil, founding member of the famed rock ‘n’ roll band Soundgarden was young, he thought he might be a scientist like his dad. Or maybe he’d grow up to be a baseball player. Later, he wanted to be a comic book or science fiction writer. Though music had a profound impact on him, it wasn’t always the professional priority. As an infant, Thayil would spontaneously laugh or cry during songs on the radio, perplexing his parents. But it was only when he got older that he began to care about making music as an ambition. On the playground, Thayil had a knack for rhymes. It became a bit of a sport between him and his friends, changing lines in television theme songs or popular tunes. A curious, though somewhat underperforming honors student, Thayil got his first guitar at 15 years old. He’d had fantasies of being famous like the Beatles, though it wasn’t very serious. But life works in mysterious ways. About a decade later, Thayil would find himself in Seattle, Washington, set to cofound one of the most important bands of the 20thcentury.