Evan Felker is full of stories, Southern twang, and soul. As frontman for the Turnpike Troubadours, Felker delivers tales of loss and love bolstered by the fiddling and electric strumming of his Oklahoman bandmates in tunes that swing from listening moments to dance-your-ass-off numbers. Playing bigger stages hasn’t changed the band’s accessible, laid-back approach to […]
Evan Felker is full of stories, Southern twang, and soul. As frontman for the Turnpike Troubadours, Felker delivers tales of loss and love bolstered by the fiddling and electric strumming of his Oklahoman bandmates in tunes that swing from listening moments to dance-your-ass-off numbers. Playing bigger stages hasn’t changed the band’s accessible, laid-back approach to […]
Self-taught instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile broke out in 2007 with her second album, The Story, and a career built on bright folk-pop was launched. Eleven years later, Carlile’s sixth studio release, By the Way, I Forgive You, is a deeply personal record that grapples with loss, forgiveness, queer motherhood, and spirituality. Boston indie-folk quartet Darlingside […]
Any artist that opts to start off a track with the words, “Pour me another drink and punch me in the face” certainly has no shortage of spunk. Josh Tillman, who famously deemed himself Father John Misty, has taken to the road in celebration of his recent LP, God’s Favorite Customer. Misty delivers hypnotizing indie […]
Creating beats in hip-hop is essential, but Jacquees takes his music a step further by creating moods for each of his songs. The Atlanta-based musician’s silky, intimate tracks submerge you in a peaceful ocean of R&B; from the lilting hit “B.E.D.” to the angstier “Before the Fame,” they all carry the same feel-good aura along […]
If the Trey Anastasio Trio doesn’t ring a bell, Phish will connect the dots—and hopefully not just for the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor named after the band. Anastasio is a founding member of the jam-rock dynamo, and solo he’s dabbled in nearly every field of music, from playing in symphony orchestras to writing […]
Disco Risqué’s mission? “To take over the world one sweaty, borderline-psychotic-music lover at a time.” Their method? Creating and performing some of the most high-energy, hard-to-categorize music in Charlottesville. Imagine George Clinton on his angriest day, combined with Santana-esque riffs at triple their normal speed, and you can start to appreciate what the group does […]
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, as required by independent bands since the turn of the century, hit the […]
Ani DiFranco feels most comfortable when she’s pushing boundaries. After some downtime following her daughter’s birth, the singer-songwriter/activist/poet/DIY feminist is ready to be back onstage, connecting with like minds and “kicking ass and taking names.” DiFranco’s album Binary was released a year ago, but written before the 2016 election, and its themes are eerily clairvoyant. “I’m […]
In 2009, James Keogh was a promising player in Australia’s Victorian Football League. He also played music, and, taking an alias from a Peter Carey novel he was reading, put himself into rotation in the Melbourne open mic scene as Vance Joy. He released his indie debut EP, God Loves You When You’re Dancing, in […]
Known as a band that details its personal evolution and society’s ills through the somber delivery of cryptic lyrics, The National is often pigeonholed as brooding and melancholy. But its obsessive fanbase, officially named Cherry Tree, finds optimism, hidden messages and even tattoos (of lyrics) in the euphoric undercurrent of the group’s music. Tracks on […]