Haunting vocals paired with gentle guitar strumming define Sam Marandola’s solo project Oldest Sea. There’s no need for heavy rhythms on her self-released LP Sage Burner—it showcases just how effective pure instrumentation paired with melancholy vocals can be. With Winterweeds, Brandon Morsberger, and The Big Drum In The Sky Religion, fingerpicking blues and psychedelic also […]
Live Music
Homegrown hero: Lucy Dacus on newfound fame and trusting the process
Lucy Dacus is as humble as they come. For starters, she recently secured an address in her hometown of Richmond. A move to a major arts hub like L.A. or NYC? Not on the radar. She exclusively speaks about her self-titled act using the plural pronoun “we,” naturally tugging her bandmates into the conversation and […]
ARTS Pick: Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles
The keyboard skills of Cory Henry came to be widely known through his work in the instrumental jazz orchestra Snarky Puppy, but Henry’s been blowing minds for more than two decades. Art of Love, the new album from Cory Henry & The Funk Apostles, is a flashback to the 1970s that’s filled with warm grooves, […]
ARTS Pick: Trampled by Turtles
Though the path of bluegrass and folk-rock is well-worn, it gained new life in 2004 when Trampled by Turtles made slow but steady progress to the inner circle of indie rock. Since then, the Duluth, Minnesota, band turned out one fast-pickin’ chart climber after another, and played in all 50 [...]
ARTS Pick: Trae Pierce & the T-Stones
Florida outfit Trae Pierce & the T-Stones arrives to funk things up with some hard-edged hip-hop mixed with rock and blues. Pierce is an accomplished bassist and four-time Grammy Award-winner (with Blind Boys of Alabama) who made his name as a member of The Ohio Players. The musical [...]
ARTS Pick: The Jellyman’s Daughter
The Jellyman’s Daughter has gone from busking in the streets of Edinburgh eight years ago to making an album in 2018 that BBC Radio’s Ricky Ross calls “One of my favourite records of the year.” Known for soulful harmonies accompanied by cello, guitar, and mandolin, the duo’s music transcends [...]
ARTS Pick: Algiers hailed as the quintessential protest band
Experimental group Algiers might be this generation’s quintessential protest band. Hailing from Atlanta, the four-man act creates music with lyrics as radical and furious as its sound, with influences ranging from post-punk to Southern gospel. The band’s name refers to a famous anti-colonial [...]
ARTS Pick: Liz Cooper goes from golf clubs to rock clubs
The psychedelic folk-rock band Liz Cooper and the Stampede formed at the unlikeliest of places—a golf course. Two things in life came easily to Cooper: golf and music. So, when she moved to Nashville, she found work at a country club, and eventually recorded her first EP with some co-workers. [...]
Blackberry Smoke expands musically on new album
Bands rarely come as well-rounded as Blackberry Smoke. For fans of open-minded Southern rock, the five-piece outfit covers all the bases—pensive highway songs, distorted, arena-ready scorchers and bluesy explorations doused in Dixie grit. The group emerged from Atlanta in the early 2000s, and, [...]
ARTS Pick: Anderson East soothes with soul
Serious but not pretentious, Anderson East’s modern soul draws from the Alabamian’s raw vocals and charismatic live performances in which he rocks out a sinuous blend of rhythm and blues, gospel and country. East’s latest release, Encore, is the second record guided by hot-handed producer Dave [...]
ARTS Pick: P!nk makes a power play
Known for her impact on pop music as well as her incredible live shows, P!nk is taking her countless hits around the globe on her Beautiful Trauma world tour. Despite using aerial stunts, Vegas-style production and lots of backup dancers, P!nk wins from the first note with her vocal talents. [...]
The Alt unearths old songs and switches its lineup
Of the many roads that could be taken, The Alt—an Irish folk band comprised of John Doyle (guitar, bouzouki, vocals), Eamon O’Leary (guitar, bouzouki, vocals) and Nuala Kennedy (flutes, whistles, vocals)—chooses the beaten path on its music journey. The band’s self-titled debut is not, however, [...]
ARTS Pick: Beyond the Pale crosses musical boundaries
Canadian chamber-folk group Beyond the Pale formed in 2001, employing expert musicianship and dynamic song-crafting to create a sound that takes from jazz, reggae and classical music, while being heavily accented by Balkan and Romanian tradition. The group crosses musical borderlines on [...]
ARTS Pick: Local musician Maria DeHart releases new EP
From the ambient, simplistic beats of her track “high,” to the steady, head-bobbing chord progression of her latest cut “nightmare weekend,” local talent Maria DeHart’s music is as varied and unique as the town she plays in. DeHart takes the stage to celebrate the release of her new EP, Fade, [...]
Punk rock just comes natural to Little Graves
Luis Soler bought his first guitar for $30. It was a pawn shop find, “the worst possible guitar,” he says while nursing a pint of beer at Champion Brewing Company on Halloween eve. “Metallica,” “Slayer” and other metal band names were scratched into the guitar’s paint, says Soler, prompting [...]
ARTS Pick: Floom
Maxx Katz won a SOUP grant in 2016 that became instrumental in launching her project Floom, leading indirectly to Sunday’s release of Multi-Voice of the Immensity, a 38-minute track of flute, doomy guitar and voices. “If a performer rings their heart like a bell, it starts ringing everyone [...]
Unusual folk: alt-j plays it smart
It might come as a surprise to learn that alt-J members conceive of themselves as a folk band. After all, the U.K. trio’s synths, patterns and rhythms don’t conjure the same aesthetic as an acoustic guitar-wielding troubadour. The experimental art-rock does, however, evoke its own brand of [...]
ARTS Pick: Seth Glier
On Seth Glier’s new album, Birds, he processes grief through songcraft, touching on themes such as a broken criminal justice system, capitalism through fracking and the fragility of life. The Grammy-nominated artist, who’s been compared to Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, made the record in a [...]
Ten Things I Love About Tom Petty
"They told Tom Petty that his first solo album wasn’t commercial enough. It had f**king “Free Fallin’" on it." Drive-by Truckers' Patterson Hood lists the first 10 things that come to mind in no particular order.
ARTS Pick: New Kingston
Beats and brotherhood Made up of brothers Tahir, Stephen and Courtney Panton Jr., along with their father, Courtney Panton Sr., New Kingston infuses urban style into its Jamaican heritage, bringing fresh innovation to its soulful, rhythmic reggae. Starting musical careers at an early age in New [...]
Eli Cook plays with tradition on High-Dollar Gospel
Eli Cook picked up the guitar one fortuitous summer when his older brother went to baseball camp. Cook’s brother had been taking lessons and left an electric guitar—which actually belonged to their older sister—behind in Nelson County. “It seemed cool,” says Cook of the idea of playing guitar. [...]
The magical, emotional orbit of Sweet Tooth
On a recent weeknight, rainy and surprisingly chilly for early September, the four members of Sweet Tooth set up their instruments in the warm red and violet lights of the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar. The venue’s small stage couldn’t contain Sweet Tooth—there’s a drum kit, a guitar, two [...]
ARTS Pick: Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival
NPR describes Brooklyn Rider as “one of today’s most technically accomplished string quartets,” but the group is more than its technical abilities. In its willingness to perform both faithful renditions of classical pieces as well as original, genre-warping tunes, the accomplished foursome [...]