RECENT ARTICLES

There are moments in the new film, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, that are very hard to watch. They’re socially gruesome. But at the center of each is the acclaimed musician (and now actor!), Andra Day, who portrays Holiday in the way any naturally great actor might. She—Day—is lost completely in the roll. Holiday then emerges, bright, brittle voice and all. Cigarette smoke swirl and scary-beautiful eyes. Then, on stage, Day as Holiday becomes the thick, buoyant beam of light that can form only when two other beams merge. That’s when Day’s singing prowess meets her newfound acting talent. Those eyes look up into the camera. Are they Day’s eyes? Holiday’s? And her voice finds you, pulls at your earlobes. You succumb note by note. It’s magic. But it’s also tragic. Holiday’s story is the stuff of tears and tissues. But it’s also much more than that. It’s the stuff of inspiration. Just ask Day.

Famed horror movie director and score composer John Carpenter says he might be addicted to playing video games. But, for the artist, that’s not necessarily an awful thing. In fact, Carpenter says a great deal of music and inspiration have come from the time he’s spent taking a break from his favorite gaming console. And these video game sessions have of late helped usher in a new phase of Carpenter’s creative career, one for which he is especially grateful.

Recently, it dawned on the prolific rock ‘n’ roll guitarist, Ayron Jones, that people, even in his home city of Seattle, don’t really know who he is, as a person. In the Pacific Northwest and beyond, Jones’ name is increasingly synonymous with musician and six-string shredder. But who he is, where he comes from, his perspective—those are much less prevalent than the dynamics of his sonic potency. Now, though, Jones is set to change that. The artist, who rose to national popularity in 2020 with Billboard-charting hit singles and an Instagram shout out from the notorious podcaster, Joe Rogan, is set to release his newest LP, Child Of The State, on May 21. The record’s autobiographical debut single, “Take Me Away,” which already boasts about one million YouTube views, serves as a window into Jones’ life, beginning with the very first lyric: The day my fuckin’ mom abandoned me / was the day I learned to lie.

To call Robert Finley’s life story the basis of a movie is both accurate and overly facile. The musician, now in his sixties, grew up the son of a sharecropper in small Winnsboro, Louisiana. He toted water, milked cows and sweated along with his parents and his seven siblings, barely earning a living and never earning a fair share. As a kid, Finley would go with his family to church (his father was very religious) and he’d sing in the choir while watching the hands of the band members on their guitars.

Finley got his first guitar around 10 years old and he played any chance he could. Later, he joined the military and found himself a bandleader in the barracks. But after leaving the ranks, his creative career never found the proper footing. Finley worked as a carpenter. He eventually lost his sight. He aged. But one day his life changed. Recently, he began working often with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and the Louisiana native will release his second Auerbach-produced rock ‘n’ roll LP, Sharecropper’s Son, on May 21.

For the Los Angeles-based gospel singer-songwriter Natalie Bergman there is a crucial distinction between faith and religion. Bergman, who has endured almost unimaginable losses in her personal life, has worked diligently to transmute those moments into something she can stand on and believe in. She’s done so with the help of spirituality. Bergman, who lost her mother to brain cancer and her father and stepmother at the hands of a drunk driver, retreated to a monastery to find solace and peace to begin to attempt to sort out her ailing mind. In so doing, Bergman reaffirmed her relationship to her devout faith. As such, figures like Jesus continue to pop up in the breathy, organ-buoyed songs of her new LP, Mercy, due out May 7. But that doesn’t mean Bergman is trying to convert anyone. Instead, her songs are simply an expression of what it’s taken to remain upright in life given all that’s attempted to tear her down.

Before she played electric guitar like a God, before she became known as one of the best ever to do it, Nancy Wilson played a rented acoustic. She started when she was nine years old. The action had about two inches between the strings and the neck. But she played it with passion and burgeoning prowess. Later, Wilson joined her sister, Ann, in the seminal rock ‘n’ roll band, Heart, and the rest is Hall of Fame history. Now, with multiple time-tested hits to their credit, the sisters have become legends. (And their story is rumored to be put to film in the not-too-too-distant future.)

But there are slices of the proverbial pie that come along with being infamous that aren’t always as appetizing as the peak of a solo on stage. There’s the grueling travel, constant attention and watchful eye of the press. There’s also the simple reality that to “be a member of Heart” means you might not always get to be yourself. While it may not be the worst problem on earth, it is something to navigate concertedly. Over the years, Wilson has done just that. Now though, she is doing something she’s never done: releasing her debut solo LP.

For London-based musician, Dodie (born Dorothy Miranda Clark), to be an artist today means to be bilingual. But that’s not to say that Dodie is fluent in Spanish or French (though she may well be). What it means is that Dodie, as a producer of her own original songs, must be able to navigate and speak to both the internet and analog interfaces to be successful. Dodie, who grew to prominence online via the social media platform, YouTube, has since crossed over into more traditional, mainstream recognition. But that, of course, doesn’t mean she will abandon her nearly two million YouTube subscribers. It means that she should continue to increase that audience while also acclimating to and growing a new in-person one, which the 25-year-old has been doing diligently for the past few years. On Friday (May 7), Dodie is set to release her new LP, Build A Problem, which will likely win over more fans while also showcasing Dodie’s signature sense for the theatrical.

It’s rare that a musician has to move away from New Orleans to find her place in music, but such was the case for the now-London-based (via The Big Easy and New York City) soul singer, Acantha Lang. Unlike many big-voiced performers, Lang didn’t grow up in church and/or a particularly musical household. Her older sister would share records like Sade and Anita Baker, but songs, melodies and rhythms weren’t particularly prioritized.

Lang’s career began to click when she left The Crescent City for The Big Apple. Upon landing in New York, Lang says she quickly realized it was “sink or swim,” so to supplement her new music passion, she modeled. But when she found a regular residency at a new club in Harlem, her career began to progress. Today, Lang is poised to premiere her latest single, “Whatever Happened to Our Love,” which showcases her vocal prowess and signals a new record release later in 2021.

To listen to the new album, The Million Masks of God, from the Atlanta-based rock group, Manchester Orchestra, is to inhabit a cathedral-like building and let your ears take in each swell, each ring and each echo as the vibrations subsume and the medicine of music takes hold. The forthcoming record (out April 30) is spacious. It’s like wind and chimes but if they occupied a symphony. But these qualities make sense when you consider the earliest memories the band’s frontman and principle songwriter, Andy Hull, has when it comes to music. As a kid, Hull’s mother would play classical music at night to help him fall asleep. He’d drift toward slumber as the compositions of Chopin or Bach unfurled. Now, the music Hull makes is similarly epic-yet-tasteful. It’s a fine line to walk but one he and the band’s co-founder and guitarist, Robert McDowell, traverse expertly.

As an artist, Marie Ulven (a.k.a. the popular musician, girl in red), lives a dichotomous life. In one sense, she has a rather uneventful day-to-day in her home country of Norway. She grew up in a small Norwegian town, she really likes fingerboarding and she walks her dog regularly. But in another sense, Ulven lives a very engaged life with music and fame at her fingertips. Today, she has millions of fans and even more video and song streams. Since releasing her smash 2018 hit, “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend,” Ulven’s career has continued to take off thanks to her devastating honesty, eclectic sonic sensibilities and knack for saying just the phrase to perk and ear or raise an eyebrow. This week, Ulven will release her debut LP, if I could make it go quiet. The album, which begins with brash statements and keen personal insights, should continue to garner Ulven a large following while still continuing to allow her to live the life she’s always dreamed.

Los Angeles-based R&B singer-songwriter, Asiahn (born Asiahn Bryant), remembers the many Greyhound bus rides she took from her then-hometown in South Carolina to the creative hotspot of Atlanta, Georgia. From nine years old, Asiahn knew she wanted to sing and perform for people. So, by 15 she was taking the 300-mile often-overnight Greyhound bus trips every other weekend to A-Town to learn the ropes, to write and record. When not in transit, however, Asiahn would continue to work. At home, she’d film herself singing in-performance with her family’s handheld video camera, critiquing a high note or watching how she moved with a microphone in her hand. It’s not that she was obsessive, exactly. It was more than that. She was determined to be better. These days, Asiahn is working even harder, inspired by a session with the famed singer, Jennifer Lopez.

If you were to examine the record collection of Finnish musician, Jesse Markin, you’d inevitably encounter a veritable library. The artist digs it all, from progressive rock to pop to hip-hop, jazz, funk, soul and trap music. Indeed, the vast assortment that is Markin’s albums is an indication both of his eclectic tastes as a listener and of his creative music-making philosophy. When listening to Markin’s songs, you hear a wide swath of genres—There’s 808s & Heartbreak-era Kanye West, there’s Gorillaz, Arcade Fire and the Fugees. In a way, to listen to Markin is to put on a blindfold and walk through a neon midnight blue cavern, lit and warmed by the various songs and sounds you hear along the way. Markin takes pleasure in providing you this journey and on his forthcoming LP, NOIR, the artist is sure to attract many interested in signing up for his signature adventures.