Margaret Glaspy I Am Both Margaret Glaspy’s latest album, I Am Both, is a master class in miscommunication. And, in this case, it’s a compliment to the songwriting. Glaspy’s characters talk past each other, seemingly make a game out of misunderstandings and, frequently, enrich each other’s lives by leaving (occasionally reappearing to shake things up […]
Wyatt Flores Scared of Heights In the two years I’ve covered Wyatt Flores – since his unforgettable coming-out performance at BMI’s annual AmericanaFest opener, Rooftop on the Row – he’s lived a life that many would envy, but almost none would understand. While his first full-length, 2024’s Welcome to the Plains, came from the perspective […]
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Miles Hewitt Vainglory The video for “Fortune and Her Orchestra,” the first single from Miles Hewitt’s second album, Vainglory, contains one of my favorite tropes – Sad-Guy Walking. And, because it’s a seven-minute video, he does a LOT of walking. But Hewitt has given himself (and us) a lot to think about on that walk. […]
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Aaron Lee Tasjan Get Over It, Underdog Aaron Lee Tasjan’s version of outsider-ism began as a 13-year-old, when his family moved from California to Ohio. It turned out to be the first of many times he’s used music to bridge a gap between folks who seemingly had little in common, and it’s one of the […]
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Allison Russell In the Hour of Chaos Allison Russell has long found comfort in collaboration. And, if you know a little about her story (raised in part by an oft-absent mother and an abusive stepfather), it makes sense – she had to form her own family in life, and she continues to do so in […]
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BJ Barham and River Shook are two of my favorite live acts – whenever they bring their bands through Denver, I’ll cancel pretty much everything else to be there. With both of them releasing albums on the same day – Barham with American Aquarium’s New Ways to Lose, and Shook with their self-titled first solo […]
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Willow Avalon Pink Pocket Pistol After introducing her spitfire self to the country music world on last year’s Southern Belle Raisin’ Hell, Willow Avalon is back, not even 18 months later, with another brand-new full-length. And while Southern Belle was a straight-up, modern country record with pop appeal (in a good way), Pink Pocket Pistol […]
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Swamp Dogg Contemplates the Afterlife As he approaches his 84th birthday, Swamp Dogg has run out of time for foolishness. The veteran singer/songwriter’s (aka Jerry Williams, Jr.) 27th album is appropriately titled Swamp Dogg Contemplates the Afterlife. Instead of making a last-ditch effort to pass through the Pearly Gates, though, Williams chooses to focus on […]
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Breakfield In the process of reviewing the self-titled album from Breakfield, I went back to listen to their last record, Dusk, released under their previous name, Boy Named Banjo. Dusk struck me as something released by a band exactly in the place Boy Named Banjo was occupying at the time; sleek, uptempo and likable, perfect […]
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John R. Miller The Great Unknowing It seems obvious, if you think about it – time spent away from home (as it tends to increase for touring musicians) leads to a sense of displacement, of unfamiliarity. On his latest album, John R. Miller has found two highly effective ways of dealing with that displacement – […]
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