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Over the past handful of years, global circumstances have often seemed especially dire. Whether you’re observing the hellish California wildfires, the sordid social justice protests or the rapidly damaging COVID-19 virus, there is plenty to worry over. And if you were to turn on the television news on any given evening, you might think the world was going to end that same night. Well, Austin, Texas-borne rock ‘n’ roll group, The Band of Heathens, have noticed those same vents and messages and have come to the conclusion that, despite all the potential reasons to fret, there are still reasons to rejoice. So, that’s exactly what they did on their forthcoming record, Stranger, which the band will release on September 25th.

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Over the past few years, Seattle rapper, Sol, would visit New York City to see his brother, who lived in Brooklyn. Sol would stay with his brother, hang out with him and, generally, enjoy the city through the lens of their relationship. At the end of 2018, though, Sol traveled out to the east coast city, but his brother, who recently moved away, was no longer there. As a result, the emcee experienced the city alone, ridding subways and walking boulevards solo. This trip provided Sol with a fresh and unique experience when he eventually linked up with producer, Davey Ansari, on that vacation to finish their first-ever collaboration – the track, “Not Me,” which the two artists released today.

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Prolific bassist, Marc Brownstein, remembers the day John Lennon died. Brownstein, now 47, grew up in New York City. And on December 8th, 1980, he remembers the news and the outpouring of emotion that stemmed from the murder of the Beatles legend. He saw people flood the streets, make signs, talk on the news. Odd as it may seem, the multitude of responses propelled Brownstein to investigate music more. Whatever could provoke this amount of response had to be powerful. Soon, Brownstein became a Beatles fantastic, diving into their complexities. And his adoration for music continues today with his new funk project, Star Kitchen, which is set to release its debut single, “Entirely,” here with American Songwriter.

“I’d never seen anything like that before,” Brownstein says. “Seeing the responses got me interested in the Beatles’ music. I wanted to know what was behind all those people pouring into the streets to celebrate somebody’s life. So, I asked my parents for some Beatles music to understand those emotions.”

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As a young person, Eric Burton, lead singer and front man for the Austin-based rock ‘n’ roll group, Black Pumas, moved around a lot. Over one stretch of time, his family lived in several Los Angeles locales, going from Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley and other spots. As a result, it was difficult for Burton to keep up and in touch with friends. Often, he found himself alone, watching television. But he paid attention to the actors’ voices, their inflections and diction. He remembers impersonating everyone and everything he heard. It may not have been on his mind then, but this skill and the practice of it eventually led Burton to a burgeoning music career and a recent Grammy nomination for Black Pumas’ self-titled debut LP.

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James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson were brothers. Born two years apart in 1871 and 1873, respectively, the two also became artistic collaborators. James was a writer and civil rights activist. He was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. A poet and novelist, he rose to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance. John was a musician, singer and composer during the Harlem Renaissance. Together, the two created one of the most important American songs in history.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written in 1905 by the two brothers. It was first publicly performed as a poem in celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. In 1919, the NAACP adopted the song officially as the Black National Anthem. For well over 100 years, the song has been sung and performed at important civil rights events around the world, from its inception in the early 20th century to today at protests and marches throughout the United States. (Beyoncé even added the song to her 2018 Coachella set list.)

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Every fan of the independent band, Dispatch, has a favorite song. The group, which was born from three singer-songwriters in Vermont’s Middlebury College in the mid-90s, released its fair share of underground hits. Some like the melodic “Two Coins,” others like the edgy “Headlights.” All Dispatch fans, though, can agree on one thing: “The General” is a classic. But the track, which after its release would go on to be one of the biggest file sharing success stories of the early 2000s, almost never came to be thanks to a passed out engineer and some rickety equipment.

“The recording of ‘The General’ was really ramshackle,” says Chad Urmston, one of Dispatch’s co-founders, along with Brad Corrigan and Pete Francis. “Pete was sick. And the guy recording it – we were just doing a one-off with him. Brad and I had to press record on the tape machine and run into the room to lay it down because our engineer drank and smoked himself to sleep on the couch.”

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To complete the new record, Invisible People, the Los Angeles-based four-piece rock band, Chicano Batman, had to learn to trust one another again. Together since 2008, like many partnerships, the members needed to address some simmering issues regarding the quartet’s communication and creative processes. In fact, bassist Eduardo Arenas, who had been going to therapy for a few years, helped to apply some of the tools he’s learned there to the band. It worked. The result was a breakthrough in the group’s relationship and a signature LP, which Chicano Batman released on May 1st.

Chicano Batman has been a band for twelve years. The group has enjoyed critical and popular success (including gigs with Jack White), to be sure, but with that comes new worries. If one is to devote a life to music – to writing, recording, collaborating, touring, playing late night gigs – pressures of success and repeated success come hand-in-hand. Ten years in can feel like a lifetime with a mortgage over one’s head. Going into the recording of Invisible People, as a result, there was a push to make the album perfectly polished. This, however, doomed the initial days of recording.

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Like so many, Matt Gervais and Charity Rose Thielen have turned to Tiger King during quarantine. The married couple and members of the famed group, The Head and the Heart, have debated Carole Baskin, wondered about the odd private zoo owners and marveled at the entire spectacle. Gervais and Thielen, who live in Seattle, Washington, aka America’s Ground Zero for the Coronavirus, have also taken up cooking more often, playing Scrabble, wood-working, tie-die and making a sweet homemade frothy coffee drink.

“It’s amazing,” says Thielen. “It’s called a Dalgona. You just take instant coffee, hot water and sugar and whip it with a handheld blender. I want to make it for our regular afternoon tea time.”

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Feeling frustrated, Jessica Dobson, front woman for the dreamy rock band, Deep Sea Diver, did just about the only thing she could do these days: she went for a walk.

Dobson, whose Seattle-based band had just finished tours with Wilco and Joseph and was on the precipice of releasing a highly anticipated new LP, had to, like so many other bands worldwide, change professional plans on a dime. Like so many, Deep Sea Diver had to stay home, cancel festivals and tours, and regroup. But, unlike many, Deep Sea Diver came up with a new plan to connect with fans and push the boundaries of their creative process amidst the dramatic shift.

Enter the band’s latest single, “Stop Pretending,” a pensive, distorted mini-masterpiece made in the moment of pandemic mania. The new track, released only on the band’s Bandcamp page (so far), is something Dobson and her husband and band mate, Peter Mansen, say would never have happened without the current quarantine. Yet, they’re glad the song was born.

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It might seem like a difficult task. To play a style of music today made popular when the Old West was still rounding into form. But for the Americana harmony- and string-rooted group, Fruition, the process of superimposing modern complexities overtop a classic musical style is natural. The five-piece band, whose members live in cities throughout the United States, create contemporary compositions and have, in the past six months, conceived of an intriguing way to release music to the ever-changing world. 

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