Author: Chris Armes

H.R. Gertner – A Chemical Trick of the Brain RattleTrap Records H.R. Gertner’s deep, rich, smokey baritone sets the hook firmly with a quarter cup of Leonard Cohen, a teaspoon of Colter Wall, and a healthy dash of Jonathan Richman. We’re off to a great start. A Chemical Trick of the Brain slows things down considerably […]

Leslie Beia — Wallflower2021 If Mary Chapin Carpenter and Patsy Cline’s voices got together and had a baby, and that baby grew up singing harmonies, it would sound like Leslie Beia. Damn, this record is growing on me. To be perfectly honest, at first, I thought I needed a little more grit but upon the second […]

Nineteen Hand Horse – Revel For a Friday Night or Saturday Night out with the gang, this ain’t a bad record at all. Nineteen Hand Horse, to me, are the perfect band to go see when you’re in the mood to just watch the show from your table sipping some decent wine, but open to […]

With An Extraordinary Ordinary Life, rock and roll veteran John Mr. Batdorf enters the arena with an unashamed, pop sensibility and does not apologize or half-step. All songs self-produced and co-written with songwriter Michael McLean, the crystal clear production and sheen is hard to dismiss outright if you’re a sucker for a pop hook like […]

I’ve often believed that there are 5, (not 4) elements in the Universe: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Neil Young. Is there a 6th? Elephant Micah (Justin O’Connell) allows us to explore this possibility, getting our fingernails dirty, spreading the soil in our hands, determining its mineral properties, and inspecting the glittering particles for further […]

Stefan Prigmore – River Blood When you name your album “River Blood” you’ve got my attention. When the first line of your first song is “Christ what have I done?” now you’ve really got my attention. Before the next line presented itself I imagined a blood-stained knife slowly retreating upward or perhaps a shaky rear-view […]