Category: Reviews

On Jubilee, Bill Bloomer’s voice sounds like a(n even more) world-weary Tom Russell, with a gravelly voiced soaked in the whiskey he references so often in his songs. His weariness is unsurprising, given the weight of the political themes he wrestles with, such as the plight of Native Americans, which appears in multiple songs. In […]

The honest simplicity is buoyed by a depth of instrumentalism that renders it a candidate for any Americana catalogue.

There is an intimacy and frankness to his songs that soothe the mind like a biting, hand-warmed scotch.

Walter Salas-Humara’s new release Walterio (Rhyme & Reason Records) sports one of his own paintings of a pug on the cover, and throughout the album it’s placed in various photographic settings as backdrops.  Indeed, in addition to being a musician, Salas-Humara is a painter, mainly of dogs.  [For more on that click one of these […]

It’s hard to keep a straight face listening to First World Blues (Flour Sack Cape Records), the compelling debut from Benjamin Jason Douglas. But then that might be the point of an album that is like a dance with fatalism played out in ten acts.

If you’ve listened to enough country radio, you start to feel like you can predict the next line of a song before the lyric’s been sung. However, listening to Meet Me At The River (Yep Roc), the gorgeous new album from Dawn Landes, will spin you off in new, unpredictable directions on common themes. The […]

This album is lyrically complex enough to reward multiple listens, and it’s so much fun to listen to, you’ll want to hit play again.

While this album involved a number of hands, it never feels overproduced. It doesn’t feel too pop, and it doesn’t feel too country. It feels just right.