PopMatters

Popmatters Premieres D.L. Rossi’s Single “Better”

DL Rossi has weathered many storms ranging from a bout with testicular cancer to a failed marriage. The Nashville-based Americana artist’s wizened heart, however, rings with truth and a reminder to keep being “Better”. The singer-songwriter’s latest single release, “Better” is a song steeped in both the light and darkness of his recent life situation. Carried by layers of acoustic and electric guitars and reverb-awash, melancholic piano, Rossi has produced a compelling, heartfelt ballad out of a brutally honest note-to-self. Another stirring entry into his upcoming album, A Sweet Thing, due on 12 April, “Better” is a surefire sign of more searingly sincere songwriting from Rossi soon to be available.

by Baby Robot Media

Brad Byrd Announces New Album and Shares Single with PopMatters

Set to release his fourth album on 3 May, Brad Byrd sees himself standing at a vantage point from which he can look back at the ebb and flow of the life he’s led thus far. Appropriately titled Phases, Byrd’s latest has the Los Angeles singer-songwriter blending indie rock and alt-country influences as he always has, but framed in the sense of each song focusing on a particular highlight in his own story. Taking a look back while propelling his ethereal sound forward, Byrd casts a wide sonic net to craft realms awash with spacey reverb, delay, and layers of rhythms and riffs laid out across electric guitar and keyboard-driven synth.

Boo Ray Shares New LP “Tennessee Alabama Fireworks” on PopMatters

“I’ve been doubled down, all in and going for broke as a full-time troubadour and recording artist for 10 years and Tennessee Alabama Fireworks lays it all on the line,” says Boo Ray. Although he might best be known for setting Nashville ablaze with his roots rock, the singer-songwriter is definitively a contemporary troubadour. Born in North Carolina and currently laying his hat in Los Angeles, Athens, and Nashville alike, the modern-day jongleur has developed his craft between his travels to all manner of places to perform for all manner of people. To define Tennessee Alabama Fireworks as the culmination of all of that time spent still nearly underestimates the singer-songwriter’s scorching collection of new Americana offerings. For all of the experience that’s made Boo Ray the artist he is today, there is also something intangible deeply-rooted in his craft as a genuine country outlaw.

Gathering a team of Americana notables to produce and master his latest effort, Boo Ray’s new album is a compilation of reflections on the 21st-century human experience.

by Baby Robot Media

PopMatters Premieres Jennah Bell’s New Single, “Love Is My Disease”

Singer/songwriter Jennah Bell is an artist without many creative borders. As the daughter of Ronnie Bell (co-founder of Kool and the Gang), she’s influenced by an array of musical styles—soul, rock, pop, R&B, and folk, to name a few—that instilled in her great variety and skill, leading to appearances in many publications and live shows (such as the BET Awards, SXSW, CMJ’s Music Marathon, and the Roots Picnic Music Festival). Nowhere have her diverse gifts been better demonstrated than on her upcoming record, Anchors & Elephants, a beautifully compelling exploration of the uncertainties, heartaches, and other poignant hardships that just about everyone in their 20s experiences. In particular, her latest single, “Love Is My Disease”, is a refined and stirring ballad that instantly reveals Bell as an outstanding artist in her own right. READ MORE

by Baby Robot Media

Andrew Leahey Shares Echo & the Bunnymen Cover with PopMatters

Prior to the creation of his sophomore album, Airwaves, Andrew Leahey underwent a risky brain operation that could have cost him his life. The LP is a response to his situation as much as it is a vow to live in the moment and an ode to his favorite rock anthems of the 1980s that he listened to while growing up. Leahey and his band, the Homestead, command Airwaves with an atmospheric heartland style reminiscent of the likes of Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen. Effortlessly capturing an undeniable blue-collar sound, Leahey’s contemporary disposition brings something new to his take on roots rock.

Leahey is also debuting a studio cut of a cover song on his 1 March release. Renovating the ethereal English rock of Echo & the Bunnymen’s hit single, “Lips Like Sugar”, into something more akin to he and the Homestead’s definitive Airwaves style, the cover is billed as an American reworking of the classic song.

by Baby Robot Media

PopMatters Premieres New Music Video For Michael McArthur’s “Save Me From Fire”

In the midst of a burgeoning career, Michael McArthur did what many singer-songwriters may find unthinkable—he took a break. Requiring respite after years of constant writing, touring, and performing, McArthur spent some time away from his musical passions to focus on repairing his relationship with his spouse and himself. Ever Green, Ever Rain is the result of the folk artist’s return to it all after taking what restful moments he had self-prescribed. Fading lines between whimsy and wisdom, McArthur’s forthcoming album is a full-bodied work of folk majesty that pushes the chestnut genre’s musical boundaries in captivating new directions.