Scottish-native and singer/guitarist, Alasdair Roberts has always loved the traditional folk music of his homeland, and again after two dozen or so solo and collaborative releases, he returns here with 12 traditional ballads. Recorded live in the studio over the course of two days, Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall, a title…
Yo La Tengo have been faithfully plugging along for nearly 40 years, with a new release every few years offering their assessment of what was going on in the world around us. For instance, in 2020 as the pandemic was kicking all of our asses, the trio re-assembled in their practice space following social distancing…
On 2018’s To The Sunset, singer/songwriter and self-described fiddle player Amanda Shires made it clear that she wasn’t interested in limiting her musical expressions to country music alone. Beyond playing a supportive role in her husband Jason Isbell’s band, The 400 Unit, Shires brought together The Highwomen in ‘19, a collaboration with Brandi Carlisle, Natalie…
When Jack White released the hard-hitting rock album Fear of the Dawn, back in April, he promised a second “folk” album was just months away. And for those of us who were curious what White meant exactly by the term folk – was this going to be Woody Guthrie meets Pete Seeger minimalism, or something…
In the follow-up to his fine 2019 release, My Finest Work Yet, Andrew Bird continues to deliver smart, thoughtful music that displays his talented violin skills in catchy pop-oriented songs, most that defy simplistic genre categories. On that work, he seemed quite taken with the world of the “Olympians,” the way modern life seems to…
While Life On Earth is Hurray for the Riff Raff’s debut on the Nonesuch label, it’s the 7th studio album from singer/songwriter Alynda Segarra, who currently dwells in New Orleans and also fronted the “hobo band” Dead Man Street Orchestra. Segarra’s last album, 2017’s The Navigator gave Segarra a chance to explore their Puerto Rican…
Frank Turner has always been a punk rocker at heart, even his “folk” albums are roiling with punk attitude and energy, or as he describes “punk adjacent.” Of course, Turner only started working as a solo act after the break-up of the hardcore punk band Million Dead, naming his first EP, Campfire Punkrock, an apt…
On her third album, singer/songwriter Erin Rae is making an effort to Lighten Up, with help from her new producer Jonathan Wilson. After establishing herself as a songwriter in the Joni Mitchell school of folk/Americana, Rae works to stretch herself here, bringing that Laurel Canyon touch of psychedelia to give her that cosmic country vibe….
All of the songs Ada Lea wrote for her follow-up to her 2019 release, What We Say In Private, describe events that have a deep connection to points in the neighborhood where she grew up in her native Montreal. While the folk/pop singer/songwriter has a knack for describing the moments during a party that matter,…
Indie folk/rock quartet The Ophelias return with a third studio album, Crocus. While the four members came together after playing the role of the “token girl” in a male band, their collaboration grew from their combined creativity marked by the unique voice of guitarist and singer/songwriter Spencer Peppet and the violin of Andrea Gutman Fuentes….
