Cross-pollination creates new hybrids. In the case of I See Hawks In L.A., meeting up with Liverpool’s The Good Intentions at a house party in the Sierra Madre foothills was an auspicious beginning. Charming English accents captivated the Hawks as…
Angela Perley is a night owl, “4:30 is when my body’s natural sleep cycle begins … My creative time begins as soon as the sun goes down. I don’t know what it is… but there’s something special about it. It’s dark…
“I like you, I like you,” intones Justin Vernon on ‘iMI’, the opening salvo of his group’s fourth album. In the three years since the shadowy 22, A Million, Bon Iver’s convener has achieved a hard-earned contentment – even if…
Lauren Malasig and Steve McKenzie are CommonUnion59. Hailing from San Francisco, the pianist and guitarist mesh their vocals to develop straight-shooting folk music. Redolent of the American folk movements of the 60s and 70s, their lyrical focus waxes philosophy on…
‘Good to see you again, folks!’ read the screens next to stage one on Thursday, the opening evening of 2019’s Cambridge Folk Festival; a not unfounded assumption that audiences return year after year. Thursday night has traditionally been a soft…
In August of 2017 Shannon Lay’s life changed completely. She went from being a sometime musician to creating music full time when Kevin Morby asked her to open for him on an American tour. That life changing moment became the…
The gestation period for birds is 35 days, while elephants take almost two years! In the case of Carriers, Curt Kiser’s Cincinnati-based band, the gestation period took five years. Yet along the way the band has become very well known,…
“Let’s start a band.” With those words Seeker Lover Keeper was formed at a bar in Newtown, Australia nine years ago. Wild Seeds, their second album, finds Sarah Blasko, Sally Seltmann, and Holly Throsby reuniting for the first time in…
On Lillimure’s self-titled debut LP, up-tempo jazz-hop splits meet conscious lyricism and sheer vocal finesse. It’s a fine blend of influences spanning a multitude of subgenres, culminating into the dense filling that fulfills a folk-pop shell. Shifting into a palpable…
The heat index was topping out at 108 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) as Pitchfork began. Even hotter than the temperature was the performance of the Great Black Music Ensemble, a 13-piece band under the direction of AACM’s Ernest Dawkins.…