Abandoning rigid classical training at Juilliard for the free-spirited dominion of rock, alternative country, and Americana, Andrew Leahey and his backing band, the Homestead, create feel-good music with impressively refocused talent. Now comfortably at home in the music mecca of Nashville, the Richmond native found himself dreaming up his new EP, Summer Sleeves, while cruising […]
Abandoning rigid classical training at Juilliard for the free-spirited dominion of rock, alternative country, and Americana, Andrew Leahey and his backing band, the Homestead, create feel-good music with impressively refocused talent. Now comfortably at home in the music mecca of Nashville, the Richmond native found himself dreaming up his new EP, Summer Sleeves, while cruising […]
For the past five years, Andrew Cedermark has consistently made some of the best and most vital rock music around: unpretentious and exuberant, quiet yet confident, messy and triumphant. But his career path has been a strange one, with several unexpected twists and turns, a story that is still being told as he cautiously finds […]
Through a two-and-a-half-decade career, Anders Osborne has consistently proven to be one of New Orleans’ most versatile musicians. Since releasing his debut album in 1989, Osborne has become a Crescent City mainstay, able to vary his sound from edgy Bayou blues (2001’s Ash Wednesday Blues) to introspective soulful folk-rock (2007’s Coming Down). He’s collaborated with […]
Contemporary folk duo Maureen Andary and Sara Curtin, a.k.a. The Sweater Set, first met as teens in a Washington, D.C. church choir. In the years since, the pair has taken their vocal training and friendship on the road, developing multi-instrument arrangements that include the ukulele, banjo, glockenspiel, and even the kazoo, layered with “elaborate lyrical […]
Often appearing on stage in faded tees and ripped jeans, Gary Allan embodies the homegrown simplicity of country music. Injecting elegance into lyrics laden with manly understatement, Allan’s unpolished voice tells the stories of everyday life, love, joy, and pain. In his latest release, Set You Free, the California native proves that raw, unadulterated emotion takes on entirely new […]
The pun-named Dwight Howard Johnson is neither a hotel chain nor a center for the Lakers, but rather a Charlottesville band. It plays appealing and charming pop rock, drawn from the timeless well of all pop rock bands, while reminding one of the 1990s, when such pop music was actually popular. The most obvious comparison […]
Transcendental whimsy With no less than seven members, spiritual rock group NYMPH blurs traditional musical genres to the point of nonexistence. Deriving their visionary sound from the realm of free-jazz, the Brooklyn-based group weaves their way through pulsating African beats and jazz thrills to ethereal guitar harmonies, providing a musical trip across cultural, artistic, and […]
This past year San-Franciscan folk rock duo Two Gallants returned from a five-year hiatus with a new sound on its ATO Records debut, The Bloom and the Blight.
Joseph Franklin Hunt, a 26-year-old recording artist originally from Hollywood, California, was hanging around on the Downtown Mall on Wednesday and agreed to play his song “Successful Folks” to preview his show at The Hot Spot in Waynesboro with his acoustic hip-hop act Jimbo the Name. The band will open for Interscope recording artists The […]
Big shots London-based, indie rockers The Vaccines blew up the music scene in the UK, and the hype is making its way stateside where the quartet has been added to festival line-ups at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and The Governors Ball. The band’s updated punk rock begs comparison to The Strokes, awakes nostalgia for The Ramones, and has put […]