TONY HALCHAK TRACES HIS NEPA ROOTS ON ‘HARVEST SONGS’
When Tony Halchak began putting together his new EP, “Harvest Songs,” he had a theme in mind: a family displaced from its longtime hometown, maybe living in the Rust Belt, maybe a casualty of of the f...
Readmore
PHILADELPHIA FOLK FESTIVAL: ‘IT COULD BE 1975’
Philadelphia Folk Fest weekend is upon us, as thousands of fans have descended on the bucolic Upper Salford grounds outside the city for the venerable event’s 56th edition. As usual, this year’s Fe...
Readmore
KING JAMES & THE SPECIAL MEN BRING THEIR NEW ORLEANS VIBE TO DEBUT ALBUM
For most bands, recording a debut album is a bit of a rookie exercise. A group of musicians still finding their sound, feeling out their chemistry together, learning what works and what doesn’t. But w...
Readmore
KIM RANCOURT TALKS SOLO DEBUT, LOU REED ARCHIVE AND NEW YORK ALBUMS
Coming of age in Michigan in the early ’70s as Iggy and the Stooges pumped out the primal soundtrack, relocating to New York City in time to take in that city’s own brand of weirdness, and eventually ...
Readmore
IF YOU GO TO SEE VANESSA COLLIER, ‘BE PREPARED TO FEEL SOMETHING’
For Vanessa Collier, a live show is more than a set delivered by a performer to an audience. No, for the Maryland-based singer and saxophone player, it’s much more intimate and interactive than that. ...
Readmore
SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB LOOKS BACK ON ‘CIPHER,’ ‘MORE RELEVANT NOW THAN EVER’
Deeply literary in the Southern tradition and walking the line between wildly unhinged and coolly calculated, Slim Cessna's Auto Club has been making eerie and compelling music since its namesake, the...
Readmore
RICHARD X. HEYMAN GOES ‘INCOGNITO’ FOR 12th ALBUM
Richard X. Heyman is an industry unto himself, recording most of the instruments on his records and releasing them on his own Lower East Side label, Turn-Up Records, along with his wife, Nancy. And wh...
Readmore
JASON MOLINA’S LEGACY ON STAGE WITH SONGS: MOLINA IN PHILLY, BROOKLYN
Jason Molina, the iconic, idiosyncratic singer/songwriter who recorded under the equally inscrutable name Songs: Ohia, was not an easy man to know. More than four years after his passing at 39 years o...
Readmore
THE SPINTO BAND PREMIERE: ‘KIND OF A GIRL’ + INTERVIEW
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina battered the South, Pope John Paul II died and Kanye West released "Late Registration." Meanwhile, six teenagers in Delaware who had been writing songs together for some...
Readmore
ROSELIT BONE’S NIGHTMARISH WESTERN FREAKOUT
In Josh McCaslin’s world, mariachi bands think nothing of hanging out with surf rockers. Yelping rockabillies and Nick Cave are not strange bedfellows, and fresh-faced TV cowboys shoot knowing glances...
Readmore