RECENT ARTICLES

Portland, Oregon-born, Grammy-winning musician, Esperanza Spalding, remembers walking the dog with her mother. In fact, it’s her first memory. During the excursion, Spalding remembers asking her mother to harmonize with her, trying to turn multiple tones into something more. It made sense for the young child who begged her parents to play Harry Belafonte’s and Stevie Wonder’s Christmas albums year-round. She says another turning point in her early life was hearing a Bach cello suite on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. It gave her the chills, even then. Some few decades later, Spalding is a towering figure in music, with both street cred and Harvard University props, multiple Grammy Awards, and now a new LP, Songwrights Apothecary Lab, out today (September 24).

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New Orleans-based, booming-voiced artist, Big Freedia, knows life in all its glory, terror and variety is, in the end, about balance. So, to keep her own mind balanced during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Freedia took to two main outlets: cooking and recording music. For the former, Freedia took to social media and YouTube to produce modest-though-beloved cooking videos, showing viewers how she makes various favorites, like biscuits. For the former, Freedia wrote and recorded in the studio and has since recently made that work public, releasing her latest EP, Big Diva Energy, earlier in September. The album, which comes on the heels of her 2020 EP, Louder, is itself a triumphant exercise in balance. On the EP, Freedia discusses both personal boundaries and fun, food-based gluttony.

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Radiant Tennessee-born singer-songwriter, Valerie June, is resourceful, especially energetically. Speaking with the conscientious musician, it’s quick to see she’s as caring about ideas as she is talented, as aware of tone and feeling as she is technicality or intellect. It’s this mood that she brings to collaborations and cooking sessions with stars like Norah Jones—the two hung out and made music and meals together recently—and the mood June brings to playing stages like the Pilgrimage Music and Cultural Festival, which she will perform at on September 25, now her third time at the fest. But, for June, it’s often about making the most of these moments—whether they’re in person or at home in hibernation—and learning how they can better inform the present and future days that’s significant.

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For the dynamic sonic force LP, who is known for her hits like “Lost On You” and “When We’re High,” it’s all about serving the song. There are many people who can sing, she says. Many people with talent. But the special thing in music is most often the complete composition, the song that compels one to dance, think, or even change perspectives on an idea. The song is the torch, no matter if it’s about sex and drugs or the essential deep love one human being can have for another, romantically or platonically. This is how LP approached writing and producing her new, forthcoming album, Churches, which is set for release on December 3.

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When you’re a professional in any field, there is a desire to be as successful as possible, often to make the most money and to earn the most respect you can. Those are the ambitions people are taught to strive for. But when you’re a professional artist, some of those profit-driven, more cutthroat goals can be looked down upon or feel uneasy. Or seem incongruent with your mission of making art, mining your soul, and metaphorically touching others. Therefore, what is one to do?

Artists want their work to be heard but also to rise above the idea of commerce. It’s a tricky balance and one that Nashville-based songwriter, Phoebe Hunt, has wrestled with for many years. Yet, via Hunt’s forthcoming album (Neither One of Us is Wrong, out November 12) and newest single, “Some Things Change,” which American Songwriter is premiering here today (September 16), there is a solution for the songwriter: to embrace the idea of reconciliation.

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Herb Alpert, the legendary recording artist, and A&M Records co-founder, remembers passing on the Kingsmen’s recording of “Louie Louie” in the late 1960s. At the time, the record just didn’t speak to Alpert, he says. So, he trusted his instinct and passed on the opportunity to distribute the recording. Even though at that moment, it may have steered him wrong, commercially speaking, Alpert doesn’t regret the decision, artistically. It’s of no real matter to the Kingsmen, of course, who went on to make history with their recording. Yet, the story is indicative of how Alpert approaches just about everything in his life: he uses his mind, intuition, understanding, and makes the best decision he can. It’s what led him to found A&M with partner Jerry Moss, and it’s what led him to record his famous 1965 LP, Whipped Cream & Other Delights, and what’s led him to release his newest album, Catch The Wind, out Friday (September 17).

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