When you think of trendy musical scenes, Portland, Maine might not be first on your list. Yet the homespun, heartwarming music of family-oriented indie folk group GoldenOak provides evidence that the dense woods of the Pine Tree State might just be a better muse than the slick streets of New York and LA. That music scene has thrown its arms around GoldenOak, and, in return, the band is helping to draw more attention to it with their excellent new songs. READ MORE…
Like a fine Kentucky bourbon, the Louisville band Bridge 19 has come of age with its new album In the Afterglow (out 4/26). Mature and bold but sweet and satisfying, Bridge 19 offers it most revealing and meaningful songs to date.
Through lush, polished vocal harmonies, frontwomen Audrey Cecil and Amanda Lucas sing about serious, timely topics while ensuring that their songs remain charming and fun. Using moody electric guitars, horns, accordion, pedal steel, and drums, Bridge 19 presents riffs that bend and blend genres. Touches of Americana, lively pop, vintage Nashville, Motown, singer-songwriter, and even disco float from song to song. You’ll want to dance and sing along.
There are artists who, with each note they play, have the innate ability to get you to recall the sum total of every bittersweet feeling you’ve ever had. Justin Roeland is undeniably one of those artists, even when he isn’t playing a “sad” or “melancholy” song per se. There are moments on his new album Doomed to Bloom (out 4/5) where Roeland is actually celebrating a newfound sense of connection, but where the sweep of the music is so majestic, so breathtaking you can’t help but stop in your tracks, gripped by the sudden realization that everything we love is slipping through our fingers even as we hold it close and every cherished moment is something you’ll look back on wistfully. READ MORE…
Kat Myers is re-emerging with a vivacious voice and this time its that of “Voices Carry,” a cover of Til Tuesday’s (Aimee Mann) 1985 classic. You may remember Myers from her first band- Kat Myers and The Buzzards. In 2014, the Ohio native made LA her new home, and music her mission, after avoiding the inevitable for far too long. “The Buzzards flowed together quickly…made the whole thing seem relatively easy,” recalls Kat. Music milestones were met with the same momentum, and soon LA Magazine fell for their vintage feels, noting them as one of five up-and-comers to watch out for, and applauding their “tailor-made for early 70’s AM radio” vibes. READ MORE…
Neo-traditionalist Nicholas Mudd steps in the twangy lore of yesteryear with his self-titled debut LP set for release on April 12th.
In 2011, Mudd hopped on his Harley and hit the open highway, plotting a 10-day trip from Lexington, Kentucky to sunny Los Angeles; a 2011 pilgrimage west that would prove to be a pivotal turn in his musical journey. This upcoming self-titled album spins like a top between themes of heartache, romance, the thrill of the sea, and booze-soaked youthful sensations.
Roses & Cigarettes’ music is an eclectic blend of roots rock and Americana; a perfect recipe for the classic California sound. The band’s name was inspired by the Ray LaMontagne song of the same title, formed in Los Angeles in 2013. At that time Jenny Pagliaro was a vocalist in a local cover band who auditioned Angela Petrilli for a vacant guitar position. Pagliaro and Petrilli immediately bonded over a common desire to create and perform original material, and Roses & Cigarettes was born.