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Drive-By Truckers Maintain Nuanced, Southern Rock In ‘The Unraveling’

Drive-By Truckers Maintain Nuanced, Southern Rock In ‘The Unraveling’

To understand the alternative Southern rock band, The Drive-By Truckers, is to comprehend the idea of duality. The group is constantly subverting the conventional world around them. It’s founding members, Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, are longtime brothers in music and former combatants. Their histories are rooted in the South while their politics are rooted in liberalism. They are nuanced. And all of these elements show up on their forthcoming record, The Unraveling, set for release on January 31st.

EssayJake UittiJanuary 21, 2020American Songwriter Magazine

The 10 Best Country Albums of 2019

The 10 Best Country Albums of 2019

In September, Ken Burns released his thorough documentary, Country Music. The 16-and-a-half-hour-long PBS series looks closely at the 100-plus-year history of the American art form. For Burns, whose films have exhaustively covered quintessentially American topics like the Brooklyn Bridge and Jazz, the task meant combing through thousands of photos and hundreds of hours of interviews. The work is staggering and came at the perfect time.

Country music has deep roots and a long tradition. Much of it is beautiful. Listening to Hank Williams or Loretta Lynn is divine, of course, but both America and the genre have changed significantly since the days of Merle Haggard. Today, country music has many influences beyond the prairie and the porch. Pop is infused in the music. So too is hip-hop. Furthermore, the people making the music look and live differently from many of the heroes depicted in the early days of Burns' film.

EssayJake UittiDecember 19, 2019PopMatters

Joseph Explains Genesis of ‘Trio Sessions’ EP, Premieres “Without You”

Joseph Explains Genesis of ‘Trio Sessions’ EP, Premieres “Without You”

On the final day of recording sessions for their latest LP, Good Luck, Kid, the trio of sisters that comprise the Americana group, Joseph, stayed a few extra hours to get something new on tape. The result is a five-song EP, called Trio Sessions, featuring stripped-down versions of recent songs. The soon-to-be-released collection – the first track of which, “Without You,” is premiering here – harkens back to the band’s early days playing secret shows in Northwest art galleries or filming stirring music videos just the sisters and a guitar.

EssayJake UittiDecember 10, 2019American Songwriter Magazine

Music Is Family, and Vice Versa, for The Allman Betts Band

Music Is Family, and Vice Versa, for The Allman Betts Band

When Duane Betts, son of Allman Brothers founding guitarist, Dickey Betts, and co-founder of The Allman Betts Band, first started to play guitar around 13 years old, he asked his Hall of Fame musician father for a little advice. While Dickey was known for his robust – even shrieking – playing style, he offered his son a more philosophical, even Zen-like response.

EssayJake UittiNovember 27, 2019American Songwriter Magazine

SEATTLE’S SMALL TO MEDIUM-SIZED MUSIC VENUES KEEP ON, DESPITE AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

SEATTLE’S SMALL TO MEDIUM-SIZED MUSIC VENUES KEEP ON, DESPITE AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Jodi Ecklund lives two miles away from the Clock-Out Lounge, the Beacon Hill music venue she opened a few years ago that provides pizza, drinks and enough room for a small stage, small backstage and space for about 250 people to see a show. Ecklund has made the trip countless times back-and-forth, on-call seemingly 24/7, as she books live events and manages the house in its day-to-day operations. And while the average passerby might not look at the modest, blue-painted exterior and think the Clock-Out is one of the most important buildings in the city, it is.

EssayJake UittiNovember 5, 2019Artist Home

THE LAND OF RIP CITY

THE LAND OF RIP CITY

If you’ve ever walked through downtown Portland, Oregon, and wondered about the origin and meaning of the “Rip City” signs and banners, the answer is rooted in the city’s professional basketball team, the Portland Trailblazers. The term was reportedly coined by local broadcasting legend Bill Schonely during the team’s inaugural 1970-71 season.

EssayJake UittiOctober 1, 2019Alaska Beyond/TMR

Chronicles of Country Music

Chronicles of Country Music

Ken Burns remembers sitting in a tiny editing room, sobbing, as he put together his latest documentary, Country Music. In fact, the acclaimed filmmaker says, there are often a half-dozen boxes of tissues in the office for him and his staff to use as they pore through old photographs and emotional testimonials—content they choose from to tell intimate stories about impactful time periods, iconic structures and significant cultural movements in American history.

EssayJake UittiSeptember 3, 2019Alaska Beyond/TMR

A 30/30 Vision

A 30/30 Vision

Seattle music producer Ryan Lewis, one half of the Grammy-winning rap duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, remembers telling his elementary school class that his mother was HIV-positive. Julie Lewis, now a 35-year survivor, contracted the virus in 1984 from a blood transfusion during the complicated birth of her first daughter, Teresa.

EssayJake UittiMay 1, 2019Alaska Beyond/TMR

Opportunities To Succeed

Opportunities To Succeed

San Francisco Mayor London Breed knows the importance of community support at the right time.

A native of the Bay Area, Breed grew up in the Western Addition housing project in San Francisco. However, an internship with the nonprofit Family School when she was a teenager helped change her life.

EssayJake UittiFebruary 1, 2019Alaska Beyond/TMR

Artists In Residence: Macklemore Helps Seattle-Area Youths Gain Experience In The Music Industry

Artists In Residence: Macklemore Helps Seattle-Area Youths Gain Experience In The Music Industry

WHEN BEN HAGGERTY WAS 7 YEARS OLD, he already knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. The Seattle-based emcee/rapper, now better known as Macklemore, was aware even at this young age that he wanted to be onstage with a microphone, hearing his voice boom through speakers as he shared his music with an audience. Now, 28 years later, in the midst of his Grammy-winning career, Macklemore is helping to make similar dreams come true for young musicians through The Residency, a music-education program born in the city where he made a name for himself. Macklemore’s work with this program, which is supported by Alaska Airlines and other local organizations, reflects his broader interests in giving back to his community and providing opportunities for aspiring musical artists.

EssayJake UittiJanuary 1, 2019Alaska Beyond/TMR

Path of the Storm

Path of the Storm

It’s late in practice Thursday afternoon, and the Seattle Storm has just finished scrimmaging. Team members, legs tired, sweat dripping, line up around the basket to take free throws. It’s in these worn-out moments when mental and physical precision are key, after all. After a round of shots, Storm coach Dan Hughes brings his squad in for one more talk before dismissing them for the day. Practice is over.

But not for Breanna Stewart.

EssayJake UittiAugust 7, 2018Seattle Weekly

ERIN RAE FINDS HER VOICE IN COLUMBIA CITY’S OPEN MIC SCENE

ERIN RAE FINDS HER VOICE IN COLUMBIA CITY’S OPEN MIC SCENE

Like guerrilla outposts packed with tallboy Rainier cans and old guitar cases, the venues invite people out of their apartments to fill small rooms and play at open mics across Seattle. In Fremont, Mo’ Jam hosts weekly improvised group jams. In Capitol Hill, Capitol Cider hosts regular open mics in its basement. In Ballard, Conor Byrne has long kept its open mic going. In Wallingford, the Seamonster is an oasis for jams. And in Columbia City, the community has turned the open mic into an art form.

EssayJake UittiAugust 5, 2018SSE

The Strangest Place I Ever Lived in Seattle

The Strangest Place I Ever Lived in Seattle

If you’re like me, you’ve imagined Seattle’s future as one giant homogeneous apartment complex. The Showbox is long gone. All those quirky little neighborhood homes—they’re gone too, as is that rickety old powder-blue rooming house dubbed the Monarch, where I used to live in a subterranean room underneath the building’s stoop. Inside my place, the floor was one part blue wood, one part chipped checkered tile. It gave off a moldy odor in the summer and every time someone in the building flushed, I heard it. I lived there for five years, from about 2010 to 2015. The rent was low (about $450 a month; it’s much more than that now), and many of the Monarch’s spaces were filled with artists, writers and musicians looking for a cheap place to stay in the city; we’d often drink on the stoop until 3 am and smoke cigarettes in the same spot when we woke up in the morning.

EssayJake UittiJuly 31, 2018The Stranger

A little stop along the Texas highway where Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean stayed while shooting the 1955 film "Giant."

A little stop along the Texas highway where Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean stayed while shooting the 1955 film "Giant."

In tiny Marfa, Texas, the buildings across the skyline don’t get too tall. The comfortable little town is about as far away from glitzy New York City or Los Angeles as you can get in most respects. But, in one way, the hamlet shares a little bit of history with those international metropolises. In 1955, maybe the most famous trio in Hollywood history graced the dusty streets of Marfa to make a movie.

EssayJake UittiJuly 17, 2018Atlas Obscura

A Changing Of The Guards

A Changing Of The Guards

In the final home game of the 2017 season, the WNBA Seattle Storm caught a promising glimpse of its future. Although the Storm lost that game to the Phoenix Mercury, the Storm’s young star guard, Jewell Loyd, scored a career-high 33 points and raised many eyebrows, including those belonging to teammate and shoo-in Hall of Fame point guard Sue Bird.

EssayJake UittiMay 1, 2018Alaska Beyond/TMR