Rachel Townsend

Few modern singer/songwriters are as representative of how influences shape artists in disparate ways than Diane Gentile. Her new album The Bad and the Beautiful owes a lot of debts. David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Lucinda Williams, and even legendary Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen have played pivotal roles in Gentile’s artistic development. Her years as a resident

There isn’t a single track on Marc Miner’s Last Heroes that does not grab you. I’m quite taken with the album. He’s done an exemplary job of breathing new life into venerable musical styles such as classic country and blues without the songs sounding like empty pastiches. Miner, instead, hears continuing vitality and relevance in roots music.

How would you describe your musical style?   Eclectic Indie chamber folk/rock Who were some of your music influences that inspired your passion for songwriting?  Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, Bowie, Kate Bush, Fleetwood Mac, Chrissie Hynde, Leornard Cohen, Lucinda Williams  and  Hildegard of Bingen What would you like your fans to take away from your songs?  I

Step into room, and you will see Henri Cainglet’s work. The Filipino native has an undeniable, visual aesthetic that inspires both delightful bewilderment, and a sense of all-encompassing, wild-eyed immersion. There’s something refreshingly modern about his style, whilst simultaneously displaying a kind of timelessness. Mr. Cainglet’s mixture of his cultural roots with elements of key

When you take big acoustic guitars that are as bold as they come in the roots music genre, old school grit and focused, self-aware play that isn’t shy about laying all the cards on the table when the time is right, you get a golden-tinted instrumental single in the style of “Old Brown Case,” the

With synthesized melodicism riding the top of the charts harder than ever before, it is perhaps not surprising that quality rock has become all the more a coveted commodity in 2023. The guitar solos and searing vocals of yesteryear are now the muted cries of expression they started out as, and in the case of

In an endearing howl, Rob Alexander begs the question of how to reconcile self with substance in this, his new single, “Get Over Yourself.” The question isn’t as simple as it sounds; for Alexander is backed into a corner right now, facing down notions that won’t let him be, and he’s looking for a means

For the first couple of bars in Mela Bee’s “Shine,” west coast trap and retro pop conceptualism seems to hang in the air like a stubborn fog over the city lights of early morning, but the fierce beat from the percussion is soon to break through the clouds. Behind its strut, Mela is ready to

Everett De Morier is a man you’ll soon realize it’s a privilege to meet. Everett De Morier, The Six Percent, and Being Part of a Select Few Everett De Morier is a man you’ll soon realize it’s a privilege to meet. Sure, he’s the bonafide author of four books, eight produced stage plays, an expose

When they’re done the right way, a smart single is all an artist needs to set the tone for the entirety of their careers, and in the case of the new release “19” from the compelling young Taylor Jules, one has to say that she went about recording her new track in the best fashion

With some casual grooves in “The Crossing,” ferocious clashing of harmony and rhythm in “I Love Soul and I Love Rock,” stately, beat-driven rock in “Common Ground,” and passionate crooning ala the other gems you’re going to find throughout this record’s tracklist, The Price Brothers Band assembles what could be a must-own live indie record

The new EP Ancient Cosmic Truth from Louis Siciliano ranks as his best collection yet. It’s only four songs, but Siciliano and his cohorts accomplish more over the course of those four songs than many comparable or subjectively more talented musicians pull off with much longer releases. The underlying ambition of these performances is unmistakable. Despite the

What will be the driving force of your career in this upcoming New Year? Focusing a lot on my work as a music technology advocate for the blind so that we have greater access to the same tools as our sighted counterparts in the music and audio industries! What are the BIG MOVES in 2023 that you want

Born in Missouri and based now out of Dayton, Ohio, Pete Price has played guitar for indie band The Fries for 30+ years. His tenure with the band has earned him a well-deserved reputation as one of popular music’s best yet unheralded players. His songwriting, as well, has attracted fulsome praise as one of the

In the first few verses that we hear in her new single “Are You Clapping?,” Taydem Shoesmith sings to us against a passively alluring beat unfolding behind her words ever so slowly. There aren’t any bells and whistles in the mix to come between her voice and the audience – there is only artistic honesty

The roots music revival is about to come alive in a big way in 2023, and Ralph Nix & the Guilt Birds are front and center in the movement with their new album Good Ingredients. Without borrowing too much from the past, the band brings a little bit of music history into focus in “Cohay,” “Mercy

Songwriters working by their own rules are a dying breed. Economics snuff them out through the increasingly lowest common denominator demands of a marketplace unappreciative of anything resembling an original take. Instead, the mainstream music world relies on peddling the same tired formulas that have sustained popular songwriting for almost a century. There are songwriters,

American folk music has never been as diverse a genre as it is today, and that’s more than obvious even when engaging in a cursory listening session with Christine Hand’s Standing on the Shoulders. Hand, a product of the Texas underground, isn’t content to rehash the same rhythm and rhymes that those who came before her

The drums are dashing forward as the bassline pulls everything in the master mix back, but as the different channels within “The Dark Forest” are pulled in every direction, Elektragaaz’s melodic war starts to sound rather harmonious and justifiably filled with rage. INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/elektragaaz/?hl=en In the new record The Synaesthetic Picture Show: Part 6, Elektragaaz take

When it comes to the human condition, there’s always a need for something more. The search for something seemingly missing, be it a literal physical thing or (more likely) an emotional hole that can’t ever quite be filled, is a part of human operation as much as eating and sleeping. URL: https://www.chrismccooey.com/ There’s an undying