music

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Super City

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Over the last decade, Super City has steadily discovered its metier in sticky pop hooks, mercurial arrangements, gleaming production, and live shows that are equal parts calculated performance art and ecstatic dance party.  

Dan Ryan and Greg Wellman found each other in high school and started collaborating on off-kilter and open-hearted pop songs. After establishing themselves in 2014 with a self-titled EP and full-length Again Weekend a year later, Super City broke through with 2018’s acclaimed Sanctuary, a nimble distillation of their diverse pop/rock influences: the guitars are big, the synths are shiny, and the melodies are both.

Heartened by Sanctuary’s reception, Super City have recently completed In the Midnight Room, a stellar collection of songs that fuse at least six decades of pop into a thrilling album.

While every Super City song contains multitudes, the pop instincts that they’ve honed over the last decade are front and center on several tracks. “Getouttahere” kicks the album off with swaggering fuzz guitars that wrangle glam and new wave influences into a giddy rush, capped off with a classic stuttering vocal hook. “Hang Up” cleans up nicely with rubbery Nile Rogers guitar riffs and sleek falsetto before the song absolutely derails itself with a stomping road block of a chorus that empties out into Jon Birkholz’s bed of gorgeous synth sparkles. “Out of Touch” and “Know It All,” also featuring elastic funk with unexpected genre-defining left turns, boast the kind of virtuosic and playful guitar solos that have been incognito since the 80s. There are bright wisps of Stevie Wonder, Talking Heads, Prince, the 1975, and St. Vincent in their best pop songs, but Super City so completely chops and screws its influences that In the Midnight Room always feels crisp and forward-thinking.

And even though Super City’s pure popcraft can’t resist sneaky detours, In the Midnight Room also features more challenging fare that eschews any easy labels. Slotted perfectly at track 3, “Departed”’s adventurous melody somehow splits the difference between McCartney sweetness and Yorke queasiness over Brian Brunsman’s ominous bass synth and Ian Viera’s icy beats. The epic winds its way through a chorus featuring some truly disorienting modulations before uncoiling into a staggering, operatic climax. “Fear with Passion” sabotages the album’s dance party with evocative soundscapes, eerie detuned piano figures, swelling strings, and sophisticated major/minor harmonic shifts. In the album’s final stretch, “Stitch on Your Side” builds a compelling foundation of sleigh bells, filtered guitar, and sophisticated contrary motion progression before surrendering to the unabashed catharsis of “Hey Jude”-style nah nahs - all in less than four minutes. In the Midnight Room’s final word, though, goes to “Light of the Moon,” a sparse, beautiful composition that recalls nothing less than Brian Wilson’s more fragile moments.

Knowing that the wide range of these new favorites will be elevated yet further by the band’s remarkable live shows is exciting. With In the Midnight Room, Super City have certainly propelled themselves closer to perfecting their own genre of infectious future-art-pop.

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Trey Magnifique

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Trey Magnifique is the smooth jazz alter ego of musician, comedian, and theoretical physicist Brian Wecht. Best known for his comedy bands Ninja Sex Party and Starbomb, where he performs as the keyboard-playing “Ninja Brian”, as well as his kids’ band Go Banana Go, Brian is one of the most popular comedy musicians in the world. Mature Situations is Brian’s first album as Trey Magnifique, as well as his first solo project.

Brian grew up in Pompton Lakes, NJ, and, after studying math and music (with a focus on jazz composition, arranging, and performance) at Williams College, went on to get a doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of California, San Diego. Wecht held postdoctoral research positions at MIT, Harvard, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and the University of Michigan, and was a faculty member in the Centre for Research in String Theory at Queen Mary University of London. Wecht has authored over 30 papers in theoretical physics, focusing on supsersymmetric quantum field theories and string theory.

While pursuing his academic interests, Wecht began doing improv comedy with San Diego TheatreSports, and went on to become the Musical Director of the Improv Asylum in Boston, MA. After moving to New York, he met Dan Avidan through a mutual comedy friend, and the two created Ninja Sex Party in 2009. In 2015, Wecht left his faculty position at Queen Mary in order to focus on his YouTube career full time. In addition to NSP and Starbomb, Wecht’s projects include children’s comedy band Go Banana Go! (along with NSP producer Jim Roach), and the podcast Leighton Night with Brian Wecht (along with Leighton Grey). Outside of YouTube, Wecht maintains an active career as a public speaker and science communicator, and is one of the organizers of the annual Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS).

Arielle Silver

California-based singer and songwriter, Arielle Silver, is a consummate storyteller whose Americana-roots-influenced songs, equally inspired by Laurel Canyon and Greenwich Village, are rich with imagery, empathy, and insight. Conceived in the quiet of the pandemic quarantine, her new 10-song collection, Watershed, takes its title as much from that watershed moment in time as it does from the North American spaces where the story-songs take place. Renewing and reflective, water runs through many of the songs as crosscurrents that connect ideas to experiences, and people to places.

Born on Florida’s Gulf Coast and raised up and down the Atlantic seaboard, Arielle now lives just a traffic jam away from the Pacific Ocean in her adopted home of Los Angeles. Memories of places and times serve as touchstones through her songs, as does the troubadour music traditions of folk, country, and rock that she heard from her guitar-strumming architect father. Throughout her music and storytelling runs an ethic of care, along with an essential wellspring of interpersonal relationships and ecological notice.

While in college and studying classical woodwinds, Arielle fell in love with songwriting when she picked up a $75 guitar from an old flame. She got her start busking in Boston’s Harvard Square and subways, but took a decade hiatus from music when she moved to the West Coast to focus on Eastern Philosophy and creative writing. She returned to songwriting in 2020 full force, with her fourth album, A Thousand Tiny Torches, which was selected by Music Connection as a year-end Top Prospect, Americana Highways as a top five Readers’ Favorite, and featured on LA’s tastemaker station 88.5FM.

Reflecting on the period of songwriting after A Thousand Tiny Torches and captured on Watershed, Arielle recalls nights of biking through her neighborhood streets in the quiet of lockdown. “The decade began in the cataclysm of global health and economic crises, national political catastrophes, and racial justice marches. Families and friend groups fractured in discord. But in my Los Angeles neighborhood, in spring of 2020, I watched the holiday lights go back up. Folks projected movies on the sides of their homes for the neighbors. People were doing what they could to shine some light in the darkest of times.”

Watershed kicks off with “Soft on the Shoulder,” inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and the history of folk and rock music in calls for change. “It’s about giving space to listen to others’ points of view,” she clarifies. “This song repeats the mantra ‘love more, fear less’ and reminds me to do what I can to help heal wounds in our society.”

The lyrics of Watershed are sensory, and the flavors are delectable on “Bramble Vine,” which was inspired by making pie for her stepdaughter’s birthday. “I was thinking about those things we do that are hard, and worthwhile – like parenting, making pie, or building a life as an artist.”

With a rockabilly backbeat and a chorus of perky voices, “Rickie Lee” is a flirty homage to music and discovery. “Asteroids and Chaos” is a reminder for future calamities that kindness and love is the superpower that will help us through. “Riverdock at Sunset” unfolds with three verses inspired by time’s passage and the maiden/mother/crone archetype. The cinematic “Ghost Ships,” floating on a rapturous melody and mystic sonics, evokes the pull of past loves and voyages not taken, now adrift on distant tides.

Arielle’s songs shine with strength and hope in the artfully tracked Watershed song cycle. The lush and layered production reflects the return and natural evolution of her Tiny Torches dream team: producer, Shane Alexander; Grammy-winning mix/master engineer, Brian Yaskulka; and a coterie of accomplished musicians: Darby Orr on bass and keys, Jesse Siebenberg on slide and steel guitars, Denny Weston Jr. on drums and percussion, Justine Bennett with vocal harmonies, and Rob Hodges on cello. They are a cast of players whose collective credits include studios and stages with Lady Gaga, Lukas Nelson and The Promise of the Real, Liz Phair, Goldfrapp, Jakob Dylan, and KT Tunstall.

Focusing on small details and intimate impressions, the closing song on Watershed is “Bottle up Tonight,” a poignant coda, with the line “Forget all that we can’t control,” crystallizing an essential message of the album. “I came to this side of the turbulent pandemic time writing about peace, love, and understanding,” Arielle concludes. “In many ways, they are songs about appreciating the here and now.”

LETTERS TO CLEO

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When Boston alt-rock band Letters To Cleo split after 10 years, 3 albums, and thousands of tour miles together, it was at the behest of a pact that singer Kay Hanley and guitarist Greg McKenna made with each other when they started the band in 1990.  

“We said that we’d stop doing it when we weren’t having fun anymore.” says Hanley. “I had just had a baby, (lead guitarist) Michael Eisenstein and (drummer) Stacy Jones were recording and touring with Veruca Salt’s Nina Gordon, (bassist) Scott Riebling was crazy in demand as a record producer, and I know it was frustrating to Greg to be in the shitty position of doing all the work to try and keep the ball rolling. It felt hard all of a sudden, and I hated that feeling.”  

Soul searching done and tough decisions made, Letters To Cleo called it quits. The band members moved into new careers in and out of the music business, with Hanley, Eisenstein, and Jones migrating to Los Angeles. They all remained friends and sometimes even colleagues, collaborating on a host of movie, TV, and touring projects.

Now, for the first time in 17 years, Hanley, Eisenstein, Jones, and McKenna have written and recorded five brand new songs for “The EP”, are poised to launch a Pledge Music campaign, and will play club dates in Boston, NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in the Fall. So why reunite now?

"Because we’re good and stuff”, laughs Jones. “To me, the question isn’t ‘Why are we doing this now?’, the question is, ‘Why didn’t we do it sooner and why aren’t we doing it more?’’ 

McKenna adds, “It’s a blast. I mean, we spent our formative years learning how to do this stuff together. When it was done, we went out and lived our lives and now everyone’s bringing their experiences back to this at a new level of musicianship, but writing with these guys still feels effortless.” 

The new material reflects McKenna’s sentiment. All 5 songs are instantly recognizable Cleo concoctions that fans will devour. From Eisenstein’s fierce, angular guitars locking horns with Jones’ roaring locomotive rhythm on “Hitch A Ride” to McKenna and Hanley’s signature melodic ESP on “Good Right Here”, the Cleo bandmates are in prizefighter form.  

Staying true to the chemistry that defined their muscular pop sound throughout the 90’s was key to Cleo’s new venture.  “It feels completely unforced. It sounds like classic Cleo. But at the same time, there’s nothing nostalgic about it.”, says Jones. 

In addition to playing guitar, bass, and keys on The EP, Eisenstein also handled the lion’s share of production at Death Star Studio in the Koreatown section of LA, where he and Jones are current and former partners, respectively.  Eisenstein is hesitant to pick any favorites from the new batch of songs but offers,  “I really like “Four Leaf Clover” because it’s so in line with who we are as a band. It could have been on any of our records. The emotional content of “Back To Nebraska” is impossible to deny. It’s beautiful and powerful.” 

According to Hanley, the opportunity to re-unite with her former band and make new music came almost from out of nowhere. “I didn’t have time to think up reasons to say no, so I just said yes. We didn’t have a plan. We just jumped in and everything unfolded really quickly. We all love the new songs and can’t wait to start playing them. It’s really fun!” 

Ava Earl

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Ava Earl is Too Much.

The phrase, “Ava, you are a lot,” has been a familiar refrain in the life of Alaska singer-songwriter Ava Earl. Uttered with loving amusement by her parents, mild frustration by more than one teacher, and joyful admiration by a few key mentors, this notion of “being a lot” is at the heart of her latest studio album, fittingly titled, Too Much.

Earl is currently a junior at Northwestern University, located just outside of Chicago, where she’s channeling her near boundless energy into a packed schedule of academics, athletics, and of course, music. Her studies include political science, critical theory, and creative writing. Before and after class, she’s also racking up some serious mileage as a member of the school’s NCAA Division-I cross country running and track teams. Somewhere in there, she also writes music.

How does she make it all work? “Really, I think this is just the way I’m wired,” she says. “I’ve been balancing school, running, and music since I was about ten. The stakes are obviously higher now—and I definitely get stressed at times, but running and music have always been my two biggest loves, so taking both of these things to a higher level makes me incredibly happy.”

Last fall, Earl was one of seven Northwestern runners who helped the team qualify for the cross-country national meet. It was the first time the team made it to nationals in 20 years. That’s the kind of success Earl hopes to mirror with Too Much. “I honestly do see a lot of similarities in this trajectory,” she explains. “We made it to nationals because we put in the work, we had the support of our coaches, families, and friends, and we believed in our potential. I feel that exact way about my music right now.”

Having opened for the likes of Maggie Rogers while still in high school and releasing four albums by the time she was 18, Earl has already solidified herself in the Americana scene as an emerging artist. She made a big step up in 2021 with her album The Roses, produced by GRAMMY-nominated JT Nero. Well received by Americana UK, Holler, and American Songwriter, several songs were featured on Spotify editorial playlists, with “Mountain Song” amassing more than 100,000 streams.

Too Much continues on this path. Produced by JUNO-winner Zachariah Hickman and recorded at Great North Sound Society in Maine, the album champions a new sound––one that breaks away from previous recordings while staying close to Earl’s unique writing style. Rooted in lyrical rock, there are tracks that evoke the pop sounds of Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, and Gracie Abrams, while others hint at Americana artists Phoebe Bridgers, Elliott Smith, and Laura Marling. Thematically, the album takes us through Earl’s journey of early adulthood, including the concept of being “too much.”

“Women are often told or made to feel like we are too much,” Earl says. “We are too much for our surroundings, too much for our peers, too much for our own good. We are supposed to wait our turn, couch our ideas in questions, and just be small. That’s never worked out for me. From a young age, I have been labeled ‘too much’ and I know from experience, I couldn’t be less if I tried. This album works through those feelings of being too much—both for others and sometimes for myself.”

The title track, “Too Much,” tackles this duality head-on. Written in the aftermath of COVID shutdowns and her experience of sudden and permanent single-sided deafness, the deceivingly upbeat tune confronts her hearing loss anxieties, which are purely internal, as well as her romantic insecurities, which are far more external.

In “Ears Bleed” the concept of “too much” turns wholly inward. “After going deaf in my right ear, I was left with emotions that took months to unravel, sort, and explain. Six months in, I thought I had come to a semblance of peace when this song tumbled out of me, surprising me with a pain that was still so palpable,” she says.

Songs about being too much for others tend to have more bite. That’s certainly the case with “Better Than,” and “The Things You Said,” where Earl works through old feelings of being too eager and too earnest, labels that she says used to make her feel embarrassed, but today she wears with pride.

“I am too much, and I don’t think that will change,” she states. “But I do hope that this album can show other women and girls like me that being too much is actually a wonderful thing.”

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WILL DAILEY

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Will Dailey is an acclaimed independent recording artist, performer, artist advocate and sonic survivor. His sound has been described as a Venn diagram of multiple genres with a rich vintage vibe that weaves through his authentic and energetic performances. There is an artistic DIY spirit fueling all of it, bringing in the spins, Billboard charts, rave reviews and Boston and New England Music Awards. All inspiring famed rock journalist Dan Aquilante to call him “the real deal”.

 He has shared the stage and studio with Eddie Vedder, Willie Nelson, Roger McGuinn, Kay Hanley, G Love, Steve Earle, and Tanya Donelly. In June of 2013 he was featured on a Stephen King/John Mellencamp project produced by T Bone Burnett called Ghost Brothers Of Darkland County and, in that same year, also released an original song he wrote inspired by Jack Kerouac's Tristessa.  Dailey has played at Farm Aid four times alongside Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews and John Mellencamp. His 2018 album, Golden Walker, hit #1 on Billboards Northeast Heat seekers. The Boston Herald called the album: “A new peak” and named it an Album of the Year.

 As venues began opening their doors post pandemic in 2022, Dailey launched his Double Elvis/iHeart Radio produced podcast, Sound of Our Town - that became an Apple Podcast spotlight. SOOT is a travel podcast about the music in the next town you visit: Not only where to go to hear and experience the best music and why; but what sounds shaped that city or town’s culture and why live music is so vital to our current moment and our existence.  

 2022 also saw the release of two new singles “Easy to Be Around” and “Christmas, Of Course” - which were featured on stations across New England (WUMB, WXRV, WMYV) and named Song of the Week on Boston’s AAA station, WERS.

 With 2023, comes the upcoming premiere of Season 2 of Sound of Our Town. As Dailey hits the road he also brings with him a song that only exists in recorded form on his merch table.  “Cover of Clouds” will be with him exclusively via disc man and headphones on the merch table. A limited number of fans will be able to listen to the 7 minute opus dedicated to Joni Mitchell for $10 and leave their thoughts in a book that travels along with Dailey throughout 2023.

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Shadwick Wilde

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Photo by Wes Proffitt

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Shadwick Wilde is relentless. After passing through San Francisco, Havana, and Amsterdam in his itinerant youth, a relatively stable homebase in Louisville, Kentucky, only spurred the singer-songwriter to fill his time with creative projects. Cutting his teeth as a guitarist for a series of punk and hardcore bands, Shadwick began writing his own songs, debuting his work with the now-out-of-print album Unforgivable Things (2010) and forming the first iteration of the Quiet Hollers.

After their first album, 2013’s midwestern-rootsy I Am the Morning, Quiet Hollers worked at a staggering pace, releasing a record every two years, producing charming videos, generating effusive press, and tenaciously touring the U.S. and Europe. This whirlwind of activity resulted in their breakthrough self-titled sophomore album; the sprawling and ambitious follow-up, Amen Breaks; and swelling ranks of converts won over by QH’s transcendent live shows. This period of breakneck activity is perhaps best represented by the group’s video for “Pressure,” which features the five Hollers being summarily flattened by the professional wrestler Kongo Kong, an apt metaphor for a remorseless music industry.

After the better part of a decade, Shadwick tapped out of the exhausting album-tour cycle. Woodshedding in an exceptionally prolific 2019-2020, he amassed three albums of material: a spare solo collection recorded on his Kentucky farm; a set earmarked for Quiet Hollers alumni—2022’s excellent Forever Chemicals; and the extraordinary ten songs that comprise his first proper solo album in 12 years, Forever Home.

“Easy Rider” is a fine entry point, its unhurried, sun-dappled tone establishing the album’s focus on modest but enduring domestic pleasures. Over comforting finger-picked acoustic figures and spare piano lines, Shadwick assumes the role of a (mostly) steady partner: “I'm your easy rider / Your precious cargo is safe with me.” While the song is certainly a grateful rumination on a lived-in relationship, it also welcomes the listener into the album’s initial warm contentment.

“Gardener’s Blues” finds our protagonist still at home, but out the back door digging in the dirt. The musical setting expands a bit - an upright bass nudges the song forward and Shadwick is keen on yard work-as-artistic endeavor. “Red from the ivy, stung by the bees / I spent the whole summer down on my knees / Spade in my hand, and heart on my sleeve.” The song takes pleasure in busyness and cultivation and even sends its itchy melody into field holler range. A lovely miniature celebrating domestic duties and creation.

If the album’s first two songs welcome us into Shadwick’s happy home, “Floating Away” and “Without You” inject friction, fear, and doubt into Forever Home, acknowledging “the fracture lines in the plaster on the bedroom wall.” The arrangements become more complex with minimalist beats ceding way for Ken Coomer’s martial drumming and nervous muted guitar pushing into widescreen. The latter song plunges into a dream-like despair as our singer fears losing everything he’s built and is resigned to the fact that “everybody leaves this place alone.” Its uneasy lyric and gorgeous, gauzy wall-of-sound production assures us that the record is going to be much more complicated than the sunny openers suggest.

These four songs also establish the album’s seesawing emotional wavelength. For as soon as “Without You”’s uncertain murky depths fade out, Forever Home regains altitude in “Two Girls with Hazel Eyes,” a chipper Guthrie-esque three-chord appreciation of family embellished with a lovely string section. And then into “Better Version of You,” a joyous Brill Building-style confection replete with 1950s doo-wop chords and gallant mariachi horns. And although the lyrics express some residual self-doubt (“Don't let me put my arms around you / I'll only drag you down”), the bittersweet song ranks among WIlde’s most buoyant, well-crafted pop tunes.

Lingering in classic American songwriter mode, Shadwick and a crack Nashville band saunter through “Lonesome Road” and “Please Love Me (I’m Drowning)”, two stately cowboy-soul songs that prod the album back toward lyrical uncertainty. Cosseted by a swirling string section, the former song finds the singer dwelling on mortality and the end of the road that seemed so welcoming on track one. “Please Love Me” finds the singer farthest afield as he contemplates a world without his partner: “I know a love like ours is so very hard to find / And yet it's harder still to keep afloat in the river of time.” This pair of songs doesn’t attempt to overcome the album’s central emotional contradictions but it leverages all that second-guessing into timeless songs. Fans of older-and-wiser Nick Lowe should take note.

After the record finds a second emotional nadir with those two songs, the homestretch ekes out a hard-won consolation. On “Dark Hours” Wilde acknowledges life’s ups and downs as a chorus of children’s sweet voices remind him “There will be dark hours in our lives / Don't be afraid.” It’s a tremendously effective rally. When the song stalls out at minute four and Coomer’s drum fill launches the band into the everybody-in coda, “Dark Hours” is just about the perfect late-album cathartic slow-burner. And the album could end there, but “Forever Home” concludes the album as the protagonist, now a little bruised, once again finds solace in home and family. Another immaculately structured tune (that major IV chord dipping into minor before resolving to the tonic is as crafty as the Stylophone solo), the title track is well-earned redemption. 

If Forever Home is a housebound respite in Shadwick Wilde’s unflagging artistic journey, it’s a welcome one. While the songwriter has many more lives to live and projects to nurture, he has taken the time to forge the emotional landscape of family life. And while he hasn’t always found easy domestic bliss, he has discovered contentment.

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Scary Pockets

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A collaboration between rotating funk ensemble Scary Pockets (anchored by guitarist Ryan Lerman and keyboardist Jack Conte) and keyboardist Larry Goldings (who’s played with everyone from Jack DeJohnette and James Taylor to John Mayer), Scary Goldings combines hard-hitting grooves and well-crafted parts to make for a truly fun and unique time

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Steph Poetri

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Like her name suggests, Stephanie Poetri’s music has a softness to it, an ethereal quality that comes through crystal clear in her stunning alto voice. But even if her vocals are a bit otherworldly, that’s where the manic pixie dream girl trope ends—her sound is so much bigger than that pigeonholed lane of singer-songwriter. In this new era, she’s incorporating edgier rock sounds into her own music, and a healthy dose of indie pop and indie rock is forever part of Poetri’s musical DNA. “There weren't a lot of female artists in that world back then, so I see myself wanting to fulfill that position, and make songs that have a little bit of edge. I want to put some more femininity into indie rock.” 

Growing up in Indonesia with a former trombonist and marching band instructor for a father, and a literal pop star for a mother—who met on a plane ride to a performance no less—it was the tropical house of Kygo and the melodies of K-pop that cemented Stephanie’s early interest in music. “I really wanted to be a tropical house producer,” she remembered. “My dream was to be Kygo, and then I got into K-pop soon after. Funny enough, while I was in my first producing class, I started releasing songs for fun to get my name out there. Then the second song I ever put out became my biggest song, so I didn’t end up finishing the class.” 

Originally that song, “I Love You 3000,” was just a snippet for social media, but the overwhelmingly positive response from Poetri’s followers sent her back to the studio to transform it into a full song. Now, the 2019 single is Poetri’s first worldwide hit with 425 million streams across various platforms, over 150 million views of the DIY video that she and her sister made to accompany it, and a remix version, “I Love You 3000 II,” featuring Got7 member Jackson Wang, who Poetri describes as “my Beyoncé.” Needless to say it was a breakthrough moment for Poetri and remains a huge touchstone in her career. But she’s also barely 22, and has so much more music to put into the world.

Stephanie followed that up by signing with transformative, internet-savvy powerhouse 88rising, a tastemaking giant for Asian talent, and a move to Los Angeles, which allowed her to explore the other areas of artistic expression. Along with music, Poetri’s creative background includes a love for visual arts and video games, both of which have been a big part of her aesthetic as an artist. She has an active presence on Twitch, along with other social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, where she tends to be very open with fans and followers. 

Citing contemporaries like Beabadoobee, Julia Michaels, Lizzy McAlpine, Gracie Abrams—and the ever-present touchstone of Taylor Swift—Poetri has been working on plenty of new material and is ready to enter into a new phase as the pandemic era comes to a close. Her goal is to bring some feminine and ethereal energy into the pop-rock world, and to be the woman in the space she almost never heard while listening to the genre in the early 2000s. “I basically want my music to be pretty and feminine, but still have that edge.”

Thomas Dambo

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Thomas Dambo is considered the world’s leading recycle artist, and is internationally known for his art installations, most notably his giant troll sculptures. From a young age, Thomas’ parents instilled the value of recycling and sustainability. His clever mind saw the opportunity to use free recycled materials to build tree houses, games, and artistic creations right from his imagination.

Before embarking on the path of building larger than life sculptures, Thomas lived a diverse life with a multifaceted resume: human beatbox, graffiti/street artist, and rapper to name a few. His career in music and stage performance allowed him to design and build over-the-top scenography, curate brand image, and drive the marketing of musical groups. During that time, Thomas enrolled at the internationally acclaimed Kolding Design School where he earned a master’s degree in interactive design. It was then that he recalled the values his parents instilled, using free and recycled materials to build thousands of colorful birdhouses that adorned the streets of Denmark. His limitless imagination and resourcefulness have created the foundation for his artwork today.

Thomas’ high level of creativity, design acumen and versatility drive the creation of highly interactive experiences, allowing users to express their own individuality on a large scale. This philosophy can be found in works such as his Happy Alphabet, a series of giant colorful letters and emojis that users can combine to create personalized messages, or in the Happy Wall, a massive wall comprised of colorful wooden planks that users flip to create pixelated messages and creations. Interactivity turns into co-creation when Thomas recruits thousands of volunteers to help create his visions." In 2018, Future Forest debuted in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City. This 500 sq. foot garden is made solely of recycled plastics collected by volunteers and arranged to create colorful array of flowers, animals, and landscapes that communicate the power of recycling and what can come of our refuse. Remake Christmas 2, one of Thomas’ many Remake projects, allows visitors to tour an entire DIY Christmas market, much like those found in Copenhagen. Workshops in the market allowed visitors to make their own Christmas gifts using the recycled materials collected from nearby commercial shops. Free entry and versatility make Thomas’ experience accessible for everyone.

Today, Thomas is known internationally for his larger-than-life troll sculptures that are a apart of his project “The Trail of A Thousand Trolls” that are all made from recycled wood. With 100+ sculptures all over the world, these trolls have begun to have a life of their own. Popping up in Denmark, USA, France, Germany, China, South Korea, Chile, and many more on the way, the message of sustainability and unlimited imagination have reached millions through in person visits, shared photos, and international media coverage from the likes of BBC, National Geographic, NPR and more.

Thomas’ vision is to create art that inspires people to go explore, have adventures in nature, and demonstrates that trash can be turned into something beautiful.

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Bonnie & Taylor Sims

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RIAA Certified Gold recording artists Bonnie & Taylor Sims are one of Colorado's most powerful and dynamic musical duos. From the soul shaking harmonies and masterful songwriting to the endearing onstage moments, Bonnie & Taylor have captivated audiences all across the world. From their most recent global success I See Red tallying over 200 million streams and a deal with Columbia Records to playing countless live shows and festivals around CO and the Western US; tours to Germany, Canada and Sweden; multiple studio albums; exciting collaborations with other area musicians and hundreds of students through summer camps and private lessons Bonnie & Taylor have established themselves as a potent creative force of the vibrant Colorado music scene.

Bonnie & Taylor Sims have recorded a killer new album with plans for a fall 2023 full release and singles releasing starting in mid-June. This record is a collection of songs that define the new sound and new direction for Bonnie & Taylor in their unique western roots style. Songs that grew out of a shifting world marked by the juxtaposition of beauty and pain, hope and destruction. The album reveals a sound that blends bleeding pop rock with acoustic troubadour wit as the musicians explore and create together. Joined by bassist Bradley Morse and Kevin Matthews on drums this record is a refreshing showcase of seasoned songwriting, production and performances.

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Julianna Hatfield

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Photo by David Doobinin

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ELO songs were always coming on the radio when I was growing up. They were a reliable source of pleasure and fascination (except for “Fire On High” which scared the heck out of me). With this album of covers I wanted to get my hands deep into some of the massive ‘70’s hits but I am also shining a light on some of the later work (“Ordinary Dream” from 2001’s “Zoom” album, “Secret Messages” and “’From The End Of The World”, both from the ‘80’s).

Thematically, I identify with the loneliness and alienation and the outerspace-iness in the songs I chose. (I have always felt like I am part alien, not fully belonging to or in this Earth world.) Sonically, ELO recordings are like an amusement park packed with fun musical games with layers and layers of varied, meticulous parts for your ears to explore; production curiosities; huge, gorgeous stacks of awe-inspiring vocal harmony puzzles. My task was to try and break all the things down and reconstruct them subtly until they felt like mine.

Overall, I stuck pretty close to the originals’ structures while figuring out new ways to express or reference the unique and beloved ELO string arrangements. An orchestra would have been difficult or impossible for me to manage to record, nor did I think there was any point in trying to copy those parts as they originally were. Why not try to reimagine them within my zone of limitations? In some cases, I transposed string parts onto guitars, or keyboards, and I even sung some of them (as in “Showdown” and “Bluebird Is Dead”).

Recording the album was a kind of complicated and drawn-out process since I was doing all of my tracks at home in my bedroom (drums and bass were done by Chris Anzalone and Ed Valauskas, respectively [in their own recording spaces]), and I kept running into technology problems that would frustrate me and slow me up. But eventually I got it all done. A labor of love.

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The Nadas

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Celebrated folk-Americana act The Nadas have amassed a loyal and dedicated following over the past three decades for their engaging live shows and distinctive 70s-meets-90s sound. Blending twangy, Stones-era “country honk” with raw, alt-rock energy and wistful, folk-leaning melodies, their music is as alive as it is authentic. Over 30 years of making music together, The Nadas have shared the stage with The Beach Boys, Bon Jovi, Big Head Todd and Barenaked Ladies, been inducted into the Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, sold over 300,000 albums (even in a time when you can’t buy a CD player), earned praise from a wide range of major publications (including Playboy), and written the theme song for their hometown—twice. They’ve also developed a laid-back, narrative approach to songwriting, drawing inspiration from acts like The Head and the Heart, Avett Brothers, Indigo Girls, and Tom Petty, to explore the everyday joys and heartaches that make up a life. 

Old friends and music industry veterans Mike Butterworth and Jason Walsmith founded The Nadas in the early 90s, bonding over a shared mixtape while students at Iowa State University. Initially playing the folk circuit as an acoustic duo, they added drums and bass as the band moved toward a grittier alt-rock sound. By the mid-2000s, their songwriting began to embrace more radio-friendly, pop-leaning territory, laced with anthemic choruses, compelling guitar riffs, and a refreshing sense of humor. With the addition of bassist Brian Duffey, drummer Brandon Stone, and Perry Ross on keys, guitar, and percussion, the Nadas have grown into a lively and idiosyncratic band that emphasizes sound and mood over genre. “We’re embracing it all, not sticking ourselves into one specific category,” says Walsmith, adding that perhaps this flexibility and a strong dedication to their families, friends and fans have helped the band stand the test of time. For Butterworth, it’s about connecting with people: “We’ve always written songs from the heart, and our fans have grown up along with us, learning as we learn, going through similar experiences and facing the same hardships. We’ve been able to evolve and experiment with our sound over the years, as the circumstances of our lives change.” 

Now poised to drop their new, full-length album Come Along for the Ride this year, The Nadas continue to explore life’s twists and turns through their unique brand of compulsively listenable Americana. From the album’s driving, Jakob Dylanesque opening track “Other Side of the 45” (a song whose chorus evokes the kind of spontaneous singalongs that only happen on long, open-windowed road trips), to the simple fun of “Smashing the Squiers” (a punchline-turned-anthem about making the most of life as a minor league, working-class rock band), there’s an effortlessness to the songwriting that feels anything but stagnant. These are songs that serve as invitations, asking listeners to start over, push on toward the dream, hop in the car, join the parade, get back on the bandwagon, and move forward into the unknown. Each track expands organically, built around a relatable, narrative backbone and laced with lyrics that conjure nostalgia for the way things are now. Down-to-earth, dynamic, and easygoing, Come Along for the Ride is the perfect soundtrack for life as it’s happening. 

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Gobylnne

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In 2021, Molly Kirschenbaum won the Hollywood Encore Producers’ Award for their one-person show Hot! : (.  But things were just heating up for Kirschenbaum, aka Goblynne, who is set to release their first solo album, also titled Hot! : (.  on June 23, 2023. Using songs from their performance, this record explores the tenacity of performative femininity, even for those who reject it. “As a nonbinary person, I have often felt like femininity was something I either chose to engage with or was forced to engage with,” Kirschenbaum says. “I ended up creating this character in my head that this project was about, this person who embodies all the aspects of Western American beauty, blonde, blue-eyed, but a little tortured, a little haunted, and decided to try to free them from their body with this album.” For Kirschenbaum, that meant turning their multi-instrumental, vocal, and sound mixing skills into art pop so shiny it doubles as a mirror. Kirschenbaum, alongside co-producer Adam Rochelle, crafted a smart pop landscape a la Caroline Polachek.

“Get & Go” kicks off the album with driving 80s synth bass, dark synth, and processed vocals, culminating in a sound like putting on high heels and a fake personality. “It’s all about lying to yourself so you can feel sexy, but, on your way home after the party, whatever it is, the whole thing falls apart and you feel like you faked it the whole time.” Channeling art pop chanteuses like St. Vincent, Kirschenbaum’s voice swaggers breathily through the slyly-morphing soundscape. “I know it’s late, my lipstick’s drying,” they sing as the beat slowly dissipates. Kirschenbaum, a bassist who tours with Claud, knows how to anchor a song while driving it forward.

“I am a maximalist, sonically--very ‘more is more’-- but I really wanted to discover the relationship between clutter and cleanliness, sonically speaking. I focused on writing catchy hooks, and slipping that messiness into the cracks between choruses.”  On “I’m a Little Sweetie,” that means robotic feminine voices repeat their glossolalia in an uncanny march punctuated by screams. They sing about their desire to be cute, even amid bloodletting catharsis. “It’s just about desperately needing to rage and scream, but also desperately needing to be fucking adorable,” Kirschenbaum says, illustrating the sentiment with pictures of their “weird dolls.” In one, “Heidi”’s porcelain face peeks out of a red felt large-teated devil costume. “I would love to be perceived in the same way as a creepy doll. There’s something about the song ‘Little Sweetie’ that feels like a perfect representation of my experience of femininity to me - always trying to be cute while feeling utterly fucked in the brain.”  

As the album progresses, Kirschenbaum begins to seek truth within their performativity/authenticity beyond the dress-up. “Fear Is Normal, Always” is a cinematic track featuring an organ and transcendent synth sweeps while glitches spike in the background. The overall feeling is an exhalation. “It’s also how I felt when I first met my partner, just that they were so deeply, truly good, and authentically themselves,” Kirschenbaum explains. This audio collage laminates the layers of doubt and surprise at finding contentment.

The closing track, “Where This Goes,” embraces the feeling of the fear melting and feeling blissful even in domesticity. Referencing buying things from Craigslist and picking out shelving,

this song celebrates and elevates the mundane. “It’s a love song about my partner and our relationship, and how it was the most genuine, peaceful love I’d ever experienced. It didn’t require any of the bizarre gendered mind games I was so used to playing. Confusing hookups and performative text messages were replaced with watching movies on the couch, running errands, sitting with the cat,” Kirschenbaum says. Gospel-tinged backing vocals soar over the dreamy hyperpop soundscape backlit by violins. These elements, combined with Kirschenbaum’s delivery, make for a song that could belong on Tegan and Sara’s Heartbreaker. 

As Goblynne, Kirschenbaum transforms their live show into theater. “More is more!!!! A live show should be about so much more than the music. I want people to feel like they are getting their money’s worth.” Their live shows incorporate wigs, scaly gloves, and a fake meditation app issuing warped platitudes about Goblynne’s appearance and personality. Despite the costumes, Kirschenbaum is doing so much more than playing dress-up. Like one of their weird dolls, Goblynne embodies the “ delicious insane horrors of trying to be a girl, trying to be a person, trying to be anything.” Only they do it with ear candy hooks and polished vocals like a thick lacquer over the barbed lyrics, screams, and cracks that they always fill with more.

Goblynne self- releases Hot! : (.  on June 23, 2023. The first single, “ Where This Goes,” drops on May 26, 2003, and there will be a video as well.

 

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TOMI

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Photo by Zac Farro

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Sometimes we have to leave everything behind in order to evolve. Songwriter/Producer Pam Autuori, who performs as TOMI (she/her), found herself on that journey a few years ago. On her upcoming album “Late Bloomer” - produced by Autuori - she experiments with her dynamic vocal range and pushes the boundaries on self reflection and impulsivity. The lyrics are thoughtful and blend effortlessly with the production, making the listening experience a visual sonic landscape.  TOMI’s style is characterized by ferocious guitar and resounding vocals—an unfettered, urgent, and emotionally supercharged sound that was forged from a ruthless determination to sing, play, and do things her own way, even in the face of life’s obstacles. For Autuori, music has been a sanctuary since coming out at age 12 in suburban Connecticut. 

In “Late Bloomer” TOMI embraces a new musical sensibility while building on the sweeping emotional range of TOMI’s prior releases (2018’s What Kind Of Love EP and 2021’s Sweet, Sweet Honey). Leaning outward and reflecting on her twenties when she was living in New York City and “partying day and night and night and day.” The album's themes include leaving everything behind to become a nun, taking mushrooms and looking in the mirror and moving across the country to start anew - inevitably facing the past you brought with you.  The album launches with the lead single If You Tried an unfettered anthem about letting go of blame and moving on, middle finger in the air, after a long term breakup.

Autuori’s desire to connect with her audience on an energetic level  has made TOMI a powerful draw. The live show, and much of the album, consists of  a straight-outta-the-90s power trio - with Cupcake (Riley Bray) on bass, Kevin Brown on drums and Autuori shredding on guitar and vocals. The live show shifts and morphs enhancing the emotional dynamics of the album and bringing the whirlwind of TOMI full circle. 

My Sister My Brother

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If trust had a sound, it’d be My Sister, My Brother. 

“Sometimes you just immediately trust somebody––you’re at ease from the beginning,” says Garrison Starr. “You know they’ve got your back. It feels easy. I immediately felt that way with Sean.” 

Garrison is talking about Sean McConnell, her musical partner in My Sister, My Brother, a new group with the kind of natural magic that only happens when kismet masquerades as coincidence. Individually, they are independent solo artists known for smart songwriting and breathtaking vocals. Together, their voices reach that rarefied air typically reserved for families: harmonies that twin and snake around each other to hypnotize and soothe. “When we started writing and especially when we started singing together, it was like, ‘Wow. This is not normal. This feels very natural,’” Sean says. “It feels like singing with a sibling you’ve sung with for a long time. Very quickly, it became a special collaboration.” 

The two artists formed My Sister, My Brother, not because they’d planned to, but because they had to. They first sat down to write during a songwriting retreat. They emerged with “Nothing Without You,” a stunner with its heart on its sleeve.

“I just felt like there was something trying to come out that was important, especially after that first song,” Sean says. “We just knew.”

“I wanted to keep coming back to work with him,” Garrison adds. “We both wanted to keep coming back to it.” 

After their self-titled debut EP, My Sister, My Brother was released, the World was sadly brought to a halt by an unavoidable two-year global pandemic.  The artists reunited as soon as travel bans were lifted and began creating new music. After a week of hunkering down at McConnell’s Silent Desert Studio, they emerged with a collection of seven new songs entitled My Sister, My Brother II. 

The pair’s hopes for My Sister, My Brother II are rooted in creating art that takes on a deeper, more human mission both for themselves and for anyone who hears the songs. “Not everybody in every writing session is always trying to make the best, most authentic thing. A lot of people are chasing another dragon,” says Garrison. “When you find the people who are trying––who inspire you––you have to hang on to it. It makes you better. It keeps you honest.” 

“Hopefully this music makes people feel less alone––brings them a little hope in a time when they might need it,” Sean says, then, prompting Garrison to laugh and nod in agreement, he adds, “Who doesn’t like crying to a sad song?”

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Rachel Burns

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Pop/Soul Singer-Songwriter, Rachel Burns, is a multi-talented Washington DC-based artist who is inspired by iconic singers and entertainers such as Amy Winehouse, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Tina Turner, and the like. Writing songs that combine life’s humor and heartbreak, Burns infuses the influences of blues, country, and jazz with a theatrical twist in her original music.

Burns grew up in a musical family and went on to get a degree in Classical  Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. After college, Burns performed and arranged jazz, blues pop, and country tunes with bands in Boston and DC for over 20 years. The singer was diagnosed with Stage III Breast Cancer in 2013; placing her active music career on hold as she underwent 9 months of intense treatment. Using her cancer diagnosis as the fuel and guidance to pursue her passion as a musician, Burns began honing her sound and crafting songs that stretch across the spectrum from quirky to uplifting to ultimately funny. The proudly unique artist inspires women across the world to empower themselves through her songwriting and arranging. After  cancer treatment, Burns began songwriting which led to the release of her first original single, “Sundown of the Macho Man.”

Burns also had a stint of inspiring women as a humorous Wonder Woman character throughout many protests in Washington DC during Trump’s administration. The intriguing and powerful getup landed her in several major publications including on the front page of the New York Times’ Style section as well as multiple times in The Washington Post. It was during this time Burns crafted the quirky and bluesy track, “Tiny Hands.” The music video for the song, a satirical take on Trump’s infamous reputation and sex scandals, has amassed over 129K organic views since its release in 2020. That same year, the songwriter was also featured as a breast cancer survivor in New York Fashion Week as she animatedly walked the catwalk during the AnaOno FearLESS show. 

In the summer of 2022, Burns signed with Lady Savage Management based in Nashville and will be releasing her sophomore EP, 'What a Nasty Woman', in Spring 2023. Burns’ vibrant and unique personality can be found on her YouTube Channel, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Visit www.rachelburnsmusic.com to stay up to date on new releases, upcoming shows, and to connect with Rachel online! 

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Dragon Inn 3

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Led by Philip Dickey, co-founder of Midwestern early aughts indie-pop phenomenon Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Dragon Inn 3 began as an experiment more than a decade ago. In 2012, Dickey wrote the theme song for a short film, Ghoul School, a teen horror-comedy hybrid told through an ’80s look and feel. This synth-centric instrumental eventually doubled as a jumping-off point for the infectious, pulsating sound heard throughout Dragon Inn 3’s stellar 2018 debut on American Laundromat Records, Double Line.

Enlisting his sister, Sharon Hamm, and his wife, Grace Bentley, for vocals and co-writing, the group took a DIY approach to tracking, recording in fits and starts over six years amid busy work-life schedules spread across Los Angeles, Kansas City and Springfield, Missouri. Double Line flew quietly under the radar, nonetheless earning heaps of praise from critics, music supervisors, and devoted fans who considered it one of the best synth-pop albums of the decade.

The band returns with Trade Secrets, a striking sophomore effort, in 2023. Not only does Dragon Inn 3 not suffer from the infamous sophomore slump on its second album, but the band delivers some of its best songwriting and studio craft to date. Like Double Line, Trade Secrets is a lovingly-crafted take on the sultry, mysterious and rhythmical sound heard in 2011 action-drama Drive, and the soundtrack of television’s breakout cultural phenomena “Stranger Things,” at once nostalgic and futuristic, familiar and foreign, a pleasing amalgam of foxy Italo disco, sidelong experimentalism and commercial ’80s pop.

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Ellis Paul

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When the world was shut down by Covid-19 in 2020, Ellis Paul, like many musicians, turned to the internet as a safety net to catch the fall of his tumbling livelihood. He set up microphones and lights in a spare bedroom and started performing livestream shows, hosting songwriter sessions, and playing one-on-one concerts for fans. He relied on the good will of a devoted audience that he had built over three decades. He was able to cobble together enough to keep his family fed, and he did it all from his home.

He also began to write. Before the pandemic, he’d never had the luxury of so much time at home. Songs and recordings had often been created on the fly, on open calendar dates during intense stretches of over two hundred nights per year on the road. Rushing to studios, rushing to shows, writing on airplanes. But now Ellis was home, with time on his hands.

He was turning 55, and not struggling with the idea of the age, but the consequences of it. Dupuytren’s contracture, a disease that tightly closes the fingers into a fist, had settled into both of his hands. He was wondering how long he had left as a guitarist and a pianist before it rendered playing and writing almost impossible. It eventually would.

So he just began. Song by song. While he had the time and still had the use of his fingers. Eventually, his journals had over 40 new songs etched into them.

He wrote about turning 55 during a pandemic, about the catharsis of outliving the things he’d grown up with—milkmen delivering to the door, 8-track tapes, fax machines—while at the same time losing his hero John Prine to Covid-19.

From the song “55”:

I can’t remember where I got the call

Might’ve been St. Louis, might’ve been St. Paul

They’ve canceled every show through fall

“Turn the bus ‘round, boys, it’s over"

This virus don’t care if you’ve got mouths to feed

Or about songs you’re singing while the whole world’s bleeding

But you get to stay and John Prine’s leaving

Who’s in charge of the order?

He also wrote with an uplifting voice of gratitude and awe for the life he’s been given—a life of following his musical calling—in the simple prayer of “Cosmos”:

I used my hands

’Til they turned to sand

I tasted sweet wine

I heard all the songs

And I played along

’Til the last words were sung by me

He recalls the love of old friends in “The Gift”, telling the story about the day songwriter Patty Griffin handed him a present—random items in a shoebox—to help him during a rough patch in Nashville:

She put a ribbon ‘round an old shoebox

Inside I heard the tick of a pocket watch

She said, “All the time you need’s in your hands”

There was a matchbox

“To burn away all of the ghosts

And sage for the ones that haunt you the most

And a cocktail umbrella for a rainy day

And a bluebird’s feather if you need to fly away”

The isolation of the pandemic—writing alone, recording at home, producing himself—all came with a restless madness. But Ellis found inspiration in Peter Jackson’s brilliant Beatles’ documentary “Get Back”. He’d repeatedly watch the show for hours until he felt a unique electric inspiration, and then he’d run downstairs to his studio to record into the wee hours of the morning.

You can still hear the wake of the British Invasion 60 years later in these songs. The Easter eggs are everywhere: the George Harrison-style guitar and backing vocals on “The Gift”, the lyrics in “Everyone Knows it Now”, the ringmaster and circus crowd noise in “Tattoo Lady”, and of course, the harmonies. He brought in Laurie MacAllister and Abbie Gardner of the beloved Americana trio Red Molly, alongside Grammy-nominated Seth Glier for background vocals. And though many of the instruments were played by Ellis at home, he traveled up to the Woodstock, NY studio of engineer Mark Dann, enlisting the talents of studio veterans Eric Parker on drums (Bonnie Raitt, Orleans, John Hall), Radoslav Lorković on piano (Odetta, Jimmy LaFave), and Mark Dann himself on extra electric guitars and bass.

Ellis took inspiration from closer to home, with a father’s song to his daughters in “Be the Fire”. Co-written with Nashville hitmakers Jon Mabe and Kristian Bush, the song is a plea for putting forth your best effort in the difficult things life throws at you. It was a hard couple of years on his kids. The cloud of the virus seemed to only magnify the intensity of the country’s other challenging issues. Three times during 2021, his daughters’ high school was shut down by threats of gun violence. Then there was Uvalde. Ellis wrote “When Angel’s Fall” in the aftermath, and the demo version became the #1 song on folk radio in July 2022. It’s here on the album, in full studio form.

I’ve got a gun, I’ve got a message

I’ll let the bullets speak for me

And when I’m done, I’ll leave you the wreckage

You’ll put my face up on TV

Ellis also adds to his long history of poignant love songs, with soaring melodies in an ode to his partner, Red Molly vocalist Laurie MacAllister, in “Everyone Knows It Now”, and to a love long past, in “A Song to Say Goodbye”.

And, there are songs of escape—to his favorite places that the shutdown wouldn’t allow him to go. Listeners are gently dropped on the bluffs above the Pacific Ocean in “Gold in California” and on a steam train racing through Ireland, for passage across the ocean on the Titanic, in the historical fiction of “Holy”. There’s also a contemplative walk of solitude, in the empty desert of “Who You Are”.

The album is reflective, adult, and joyous.

In December 2022, when he could play guitar and piano no longer, Ellis underwent successful surgery to free the fingers of his left hand. He could form chords again. His right hand remains affected, but less so. He’s soldiering on, performing shows with the newfound thrill of being able to play again. He plans on surgery for the right hand in 2024.

Both the world and Ellis’ hands are opening up now, and he’s packing for a year full of shows, celebrating his 30th anniversary as a touring musician. What better way than with a release of a new album? With “55”, his 23rd recording, the award-winning songwriter will be connecting with his fans around the country, in person, at last.

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Toad the Wet Sprocket

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Toad the Wet Sprocket is still making new music and touring with the same spirit of independence that started it all over three decades ago and credit their success to the unwavering support of their fans. In their most recent music releases and live performances, the band has continued to stay true to their roots while evolving their sound. And now, in 2023, they are happy to announce their 2023 ALL YOU WANT Headline Tour, which will take them to cities across the country to once again reconnect with their fans and share their music.

The band consists of founding members Glen Phillips, Todd Nichols, and Dean Dinning. Throughout their career, Toad the Wet Sprocket has remained committed to creating music that is both meaningful and accessible. Their songs are filled with introspective lyrics and catchy melodies that have resonated with fans for decades. As part of their 2023 ALL YOU WANT Tour, audiences can expect to hear classic hits as well as deep cut favorites from the band's extensive catalog.

Toad the Wet Sprocket first gained attention in the late 1980s with their debut album, Bread and Circus, originally self-released on cassette in 1988. Their sophomore release, Pale, was recorded independently in 1989. Both records were released by Columbia Records, in 1989 and 1990 respectively.

Toad’s third studio album, "Fear," followed in 1991 and included their multi-format iconic hit singles “All I Want” and "Walk on the Ocean", was certified RIAA Platinum and further solidified the band's popularity and mainstream success.

In 1994 the band released "Dulcinea," which included songs "Something's Always Wrong," and "Fall Down," both staples at alternative and mainstream radio, that helped Toad to earn their second RIAA certified Platinum Album and make Toad the Wet Sprocket a household name. In 1995 Toad released In Light Syrup, a collection of rarities that included the hit “Good Intentions”, which was featured on the Platinum-selling Friends soundtrack.

The band took a break in the late 1990s, with the members pursuing solo projects. However, they reunited in 2006 and have continued to perform together ever since. In 2013, they released their first album in 16 years, "New Constellation," which was funded by their fans as one of the most successful music Kickstarter campaigns in history. The album includes fan-favorite tracks “The Moment”, “California Wasted” and “Enough” that showcase the bands growth and versatility. The album received critical acclaim and was followed by a successful tour.

Toad's most recent studio album "Starting Now" (2021) marked a return to form for the band, with its catchy melodies, introspective lyrics, and signature harmonies. It well-received and showcased the band's signature sound while also exploring new sonic territories. Songs like “Transient Whales”, “Starting Now” and “Hold On” serve as core performance tracks at live shows and as fan favorites.

Throughout their career, Toad the Wet Sprocket has remained humble and grateful for the support of their fans. Lead vocalist Glen Phillips has stated in interviews that the band is amazed by the loyalty of their audience and is honored to continue creating music that resonates with them.