Indie pop singer Nat Puff, who performs under the moniker Left at London, wants the world to see that love cannot be pigeonholed into one particular thing. As a self-identified transgender lesbian herself, Puff knows that love and all its complications can come in the form of just about anyone or anything. READ MORE…
In the midst of concert rehearsals, meeting fans at their merch table and a performance video, Roses & Cigarettes’ Jenny Pagliaro is fighting a much bigger battle with stage IV breast cancer.
The nearly four-minute clip features Pagliaro and Angela Petrilli’s memorable harmonies alongside ear-grabbing guitar parts, a steady drum beat and a message of living life to the fullest in the midst of Pagliaro’s hospital visits for cancer treatment. “I got a date with the reaper/ The devil wants my heart in his hands/ I’m gonna give him a few more reasons/ Start living just as fast as I can,” they croon on the chorus.
“I kind of set out to do it the exact same way, with the exact same players, but it wasn’t that easy,” the Nashville-based singer, songwriter and bandleader tells Billboard. After an initial mixing session for the material “didn’t quite feel right.” Daniel took a step back and revised everything. Now, he notes, “I feel exponentially better about the record — sonically and, overall, from a song standpoint as well. We were a little more meticulous of what we were looking for this time.” That was a big difference from last year’s self-titled effort, which was recorded and fully mastered over the course of just 12 days.
What’s particularly prevalent in Godwin’s songs is a sense of place, a taste of his home state (West Virginia) via the vivid language and scenic ambience of songs such as “Coal Country,” “(Windmill) Keep on Turning” and “Seneca Creek.” Godwin, who comes up with many of his ideas in the shower, calls Seneca an “autobiography of an Appalachian boy” but says that the cinematic details of his lyrics come to him unconsciously.
In “Airwaves,” the title track of his upcoming sophomore album (whose video is premiering exclusively below), Nashville rocker Andrew Leahey laments being part of “the last generation raised on FM” — and specifically on album-oriented rock radio. That tells you a lot about the rest of the album, a heartfelt homage to Leahey’s rock heroes such as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, R.E.M. and others.
“They’re kind of leaning on that Reagan-era rock n’ roll sound,” Leahey tells Billboard about Airwaves‘ 11 tracks. “I made a playlist and gave it to my producer (Paul Ebersol). R.E.M. was on there, the Jayhawks were on there, Bruce and Tom Petty, the War on Drugs and even more recent Ryan Adams tunes.” But Leahey adds that he had no interest in making an entirely retro record, either.
“We didn’t want to be too on the nose with it,” says Leahey, a Virginia native who’s played guitar for Elizabeth Cook, Rodney Crowell, Drew Holcomb and Will Hoge. “That was the good thing Paul did; He would really scale it back. When I was pleading for tons of reverb he would remind me that we want to make an album that doesn’t necessarily sound like ’88 — or 2018. We just want to make our own of album. I’m glad he had that perspective, ’cause he was right.” READ MORE…
Patrick Damphier has established himself as a band guy in the Nashville scene, playing with the likes of Paper Rival, the Mynabirds, Lionlimb and others. But these days he’s working under his own name and gearing up for the Feb. 1 release of his first solo album, Say I’m Pretty, whose single “Pretend It,” featuring Richard Swift and Molly Parden, is premiering exclusively below. READ MORE…