Replete with reverberating dobro, bouncing bass lines, and picturesque lyricism, Mercy Bell’s Golden Child recalls no-frills, 90s-era country music. Her textured vocals sell tales of breaking free and looking back in equal measure, and they soar effortlessly when the song…
Los Angeles’ Furious Seasons make music worthy of the Troubadour circa 1970. Their music recalls the tonal clarity of the era’s studious soft rock and melodious folk. Band leader David Steinhart crafts their songs “on the hopeful side of melancholy”,…
Zahava—Hebrew for “Golden”—is Jordana Talsky’s middle name. The moniker is also shared by her new EP, detailing the personal growth that she has made in its creation. A work of harmony, Talsky has used the album’s development to express a…
Paula Standing describes her new LP, The More I Give, as “a brief history of me.” Cut from the same tapestry as the likes of Dar Williams or Shawn Colvin, Standing’s folk is blended with subtle pop sensibilities and a…
Denise Dombrowski is an unsung hero. Throughout my conversations with singer-songwriters in the Berlin folk scene, the name of the violinist kept cropping up, together with the harmonica player Sebastian Hoch. Somehow, the two instrumentalists seemed to be ubiquitous –…
They’re based in Indiana, but their music is decidedly Southern Rock. The Crossroad Saints are purveyors of hearty roots rock meant for long hauls out on the highway. It recalls the Muscle Shoals sound with some Capricorn thrown in for…
George Gritzbach is an old-school cool. Inspired by vintage R&B greats and having grown up amidst blue-collar grit, Gritzbach translates a hard-earned life into soulful, powerful music. His latest release is Full Circle, invoking his forward-moving style as a frontman…
Mark Jowett is Plain Mister Smith. A purveyor of the consummately offbeat, Jowett’s “Smith” project has enabled him to develop no-holds-barred indie pop. Replete with crunching guitar tones, dithering percussion, and a collection of captivating vocal structures, ‘The Rat’ is…
Ben Stalets has seen his songwriting renaissance with Everybody’s Laughing. The album, due 27 August, was based less around a sound and more around a saying: “Collective suffering allows us to collectively suffer less.” It finds beauty both in irreverence,…
“You have to speak to Cameron,” James Michael Rodgers told me after I interviewed him months ago. “He’s got all the great stories. And you need to see The Famous Gold Watch – the building used to house the Stasi…