Joel Ansett delivers a quiz show for the soul
First impressions mean a lot. No one likes a floppy handshake. Opening lines of a novel matter too. How many books have you not read because the story sets off blandly? Albums are no different, and the opening song not only creates a statement for what’s to come but needs to grab the attention of […]
The Loose and Easy “Appaloosa Bones” by Gregory Alan Isakov
It’s a sunny afternoon here in my small town, and I’m sitting at my kitchen table, listening to Gregory Alan Isakov’s “Appaloosa Bones.” There was a big thunderstorm yesterday, some hail, and a tornado warning, but you wouldn’t know it today – all sunshine and blue skies, with a few cottony clouds. The strains of […]
The Refuge and Rush of Imani Graham’s “Just Stay for Once”
Imani Graham’s “Just Stay For Once” is urgent and comforting at the same time. The lyrics are direct: they ask for what they want. Tender yet demanding, they refuse to permit any evasion. They’re loving, but fed up with the beloved’s wishy-washy nonsense. The rhythm drives, lead-footed, and does not let up on the gas. […]
The Arcadian Wild Wraps a Story Around Your Shoulders
“Shoulders” by The Arcadian Wild begins with Lincoln Mick telling us a story. We took off in my plane. Most of what I have to say about this song is praise for how well-built its story is, so you had better listen to it before I give it away: In the first verse, rhyme unites […]
The Japanese House’s “In the End It Always Does” & Cycles
When I was in middle school, I wrote a science paper from the perspective of a water droplet to prove I understood the water cycle: evaporate, rise, cool & condense… I got rave reviews back about the emotional turmoil of my water droplet as she was ripped from her family’s river current to the sky […]
The Righteous Brothers “Unchained Melody” and the Thread that Connects Us
“An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, and circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle. But it will never break.” That’s the ancient Eastern proverbial counterpart to the West’s ‘twin flame’ theory. Meeting people is easy in the revolving door-reality of modern daily life. So easy, in […]
Shi Lu Atom’s “Morning or Night” & Shinigami
Shi Lu (石璐) “Atom” has been on the scene for awhile. Which, for a lot of people, is pretty surprising: packed in a tiny body and a face full of youthful exuberance, Shi Lu’s status as a single mother nearing 40 flies in the face of what the traditional idea of a rocker looks like […]
Phosphorescent Rips Love’s Heart Out on “Song for Zula”
Love. It has been the catalyst and impetus of the vast majority of art since some short time after our ancestors covered the walls of Lascaux and Chevaux caves with the earliest forms of artistic expression. Often – too often – musicians opt for the easy path of beating the long-dead ‘my heart is broken […]
The New Pornographers present “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies”
I rely on The New Pornographers for peculiar and beautiful songs, messages I can never decode but somehow understand anyway. “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies,” from their ninth album, Continue as a Guest, is a mosaic. A. C. Newman’s lyrics give us fragments of activity, fragments of landscape, occasional fragments of commentary (“beautiful, I guess.”) It […]
The Lonely Artist in Michael Simon Armstrong’s “Waterfront”
An artist’s combination of talent, passion, and vision has often been called a gift. There are times, though, when this “gift” is experienced more as a burden, both by the artist and by their loved ones, family, and community. “Art is not only about something. Art is something.” This Susan Sontag quote encapsulates the difference […]
