Reviews

Mountain Home Music There are lots of things that can be said about Imaginary Lines, the latest release from Unspoken Tradition. Several of the songs received early airplay and there’s been no shortage of ink run through presses about the album.  But this review can summarize things in two words: simply outstanding. First, there are…

Nearly two decades into their career, this self-described “genre-bending” rural North Carolina-based band, led by brothers Bryon and Fitz McMurray and cousin Steve McMurry, seems to have explored nearly every corner of the stylistic map at one time or another.   Their latest release manages to cover a little bit of everything from bluegrass-tinged acoustic…

Pikeville, Kentucky native Kristi Stanley has definitely found her groove and grown comfortable with her versatility on this finely executed song collection. Produced by Steve Wilson, Kristi has a fair share of straight-up bluegrass picking, but there are also stylistic forays into gospel, classic country, and hints of rock n’ roll here and there. Stanley, wife of…

Jaelee Roberts has an almost perfect pedigree for her chosen career. She has been immersed in music since she was a little girl. Her father Danny is a founding member of the popular band, The Grascals, and by the time she was five she’d already appeared on stage with her dad’s group.  Her mother, Andrea…

There are not many bands that can claim to have done songwriting in Antarctica.  Joey Capoccia of The Pine Hearts did just that while working as a carpenter for the National Science Foundation at the South Pole greenhouse. The Pine Hearts are a self-described Americana band out of Olympia, Washington with a new release entitled…

Great songwriters know how to open themselves up and reveal something intimate about who they are, and the lives they have lived, in their songs.  The deeper a writer can dig down in expressing a feeling, emotion, memory, or story, the easier it is for the listener to connect with the song because, more often…