Rare indeed when a collection of songs creates an entire world. Yet that’s exactly what transpires with Steppin’ In It’s “Simple Tunes for Troubled Times.” Sonically painting with a pleasant array of old time country swing and blues, this Lansing, Michigan, quartet brilliantly updates a resurging American musical genre. Populating this 11-track collection is an [...]
Bernard was born and raised on Earthwork Farm in Northern Michigan, surrounded by gardens, goats, hippies, rednecks and stringed instruments, smack dab in the middle of a tightly woven circle of friends and family throughout the Regan Era. Just outside Lake City. A fine small hometown. No shortage of churches, bars or lakes around. The [...]
Born into a family of musicians, May Erlewine has been playing music all her life. She learned to sing and play piano at an early age, and her acoustic guitar is seldom far from her side. Erlewine, who was home schooled, paid her singer-songwriter dues in her late teens with several years of hitchhiking back [...]
Joe Craven wears many hats and plays many things. He’s a madman with anything that has strings attached, including hospital bed pans, gas cans, cookie tins, roasting pots, fiddles, mandolins, tenor guitars, saz, cuatro and a world of percussion instruments including animal bones, latex squeeze toys, cake pans, waste cans, umbrella stands, martini shakers and…Himself. [...]
David Grisman’s bands in their various quartet and quintet configurations, have showcased acoustic music ever since he started the first DGQ in the fall of 1975. That band featured David on mandolin, Todd Phillips on mandolin, Joe Carroll on bass, Tony Rice on guitar, and Darol Anger on fiddle. Ever since then, the DGQ has [...]
Girl Talk (aka Gregg Gillis) is back with his 3rd album on Illegal Art. With each release getting closer to his notorious semi-naked live show, Night Ripper is focused less on beat-f**kery and more on bringing heat to the party. It bangs as a continuous mix packed with wildly disparate Top 40 genres and eras. [...]
What happens when you combine trained musicians from the world-renowned Berklee School of Music in Boston, with an articulate emcee and breathtaking beat-wizard both born and raised in sunny, southern California? Crown City Rockers, that’s what – a genre-blending hip-hop sollective whose music is original, powerful and provocative all in the same breath and follows [...]
Bassist, composer and Montana native, Chad Langford teaches privately, and is adjunct professor of double bass at Montana State University, Bozeman. He has appeared in major festivals throughout North America, including NxNW, MusicfestNW, the Yellowstone Jazz Festival, and JazzFest International in Victoria B.C. He currently performs and records with Jeni and Jake Fleming in the [...]
The Broad Comedy Broads: they’re savvy, irreverent, and they’re probably being followed by Karl Rove in a big black Hummer. These are the women who skewer the Bush White House with crowd-pleasing favorites like “The United States Extreme Right Wing Cheerleading Squad” and they gleefully lampoon the Teen Abstinence Movement with “I’m Saving My Hymen [...]
Ben Klein is a dynamic musician whose high intensity performances have led him to regional renown in the Pacific Northwest. His unique style of extreme flute, which he calls Ben Flutism, consistently ignites audiences and gains the respect of fellow musicians. In all of his music, you can hear the multi-cultural influences from his wide [...]