Listen closely to The Handsome Family and it’s as if you have stepped into a strange, shimmering plane. With “Joseph” from the forthcoming album Hollow, husband-and-wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks contrast a foreboding, supernatural scene with the sweet simplicity of their piano-driven, waltz-like melody, complete with a straightforward yet emotive guitar solo.
Katie Jo’s new debut record, Pawn Shop Queen, is deeply in tune with country music of a bygone era, adorned with pedal steel guitar and the singer’s authoritative and authentic voice. In some ways, it harkens to the country music that came out of Los Angeles in the early ’70s via bands such as The Flying Burrito Brothers or as heard on early albums from Jackson Browne and the Eagles.
But there’s something that goes even further back, into the music’s rural roots. The lyrics are untouched by trappings of contemporary life: There are no references to heartbreak delivered via text message or old flames reignited thanks to the wonders of social media. Instead, the songs emanate from the most timeless of places: the heart.
Joined by an impressive cast of musicians, Katie Jo has delivered a debut album that connects on a deeply human level and leaves the listener spinning their own ideas about the threads that connect the material on Pawn Shop Queen as they return for multiple listens.
People still imagine a sea of cowboy boots and hats when they think of Nashville, but it’s so much more than that when it comes to our rich and diverse community of music creators. WMOT has recently launched a three-prong series to focus on local emerging artists. The Local Brew includes The Daily Local Brew, which highlights a different local artist every Monday through Friday. There’s also The Local Brew Show, a weekly long-form show including an interview, plus a weekly showcase, The Local Brew Live.
Narrowing this list down to just ten Nashville based artists was no easy task. This list includes a taste of some of the different sounds coming out of Nashville; there’s definitely some twang, but also some soul, rock and roll and even a little bit of jazz. All of these artists have been, or are about to be featured on The Local Brew.
Rapper and singer Abhi The Nomad has lived up to his name: Born in India, he’s spent extended stretches of his life in Beijing, Hong Kong, the Fiji Islands, an LA suburb, France and now Austin. READ MORE…
Material Girls‘ glam-soaked, goth-smeared rock and roll struts and stumbles like a fish-netted pair of legs breaking in new heels. The punk ensemble from Atlanta released a promising EP last year via Henry Owings’ venerable Chunklet label housing four songs dripping in danger and sweat, like a whiskey-swigging Nick Cave partying with Captain Beefheart. It’s music for the darkly lit corners of a humid night.
The band is set to release its debut album Leather midsummer, just when the cotton starts to stick to your skin no matter what time of day. “Residual Grimace” opens the album with a guitar riff that haunts a swinging rhythm section, a campy Cramps-ian waltz that bleeds into a ragtag hot-jazz horn section that bursts from a descending bass line. And while Material Girls certainly evoke the darker shades of late ’70s, early ’80s punk, its twisted cabaret is in direct lineage with Smoke, the mid-’90s weirdos of Cabbagetown, which, at the time, was a derelict haven for artists of Atlanta. Material Girls shares a gleeful morbidity and creative abandon with Smoke, and expands that growling beauty with a wild eye. READ MORE…
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Sometimes the things we do to escape our pain end up sinking us into deeper depths. It’s a cycle of desperation all too familiar to Abhi the Nomad.
“Binge and drink again, smile and pretend again / Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to rock bottom,” the rapper/singer intonates on “Marbled.” The song serves as a mixed metaphor of sorts, with Abhi narrating the life of a loner whose stage name is not just for show. READ MORE…