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1 week ago | 
popmatters.com | Steve Horowitz
Best of Compass Rose Singer-songwriter Steve Gillette is best known for writing the folk ballad “Darcy Yarrow”, first recorded by the Canadian duo Ian & Sylvia in 1965 and later popularized by John Denver on his 1972 album Rocky Mountain High. The song has been covered by more than 300 artists, including Linda Ronstadt, Waylon Jennings, and Nanci Griffith. Therefore, it would make sense that Gillette would highlight the song on his recent ‘Best of’collection. Nope.
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2 weeks ago | 
popmatters.com | Steve Horowitz
Paper Flowers Howdy Skies Nostalgia can be a good thing; a warm blanket to wrap oneself in, offering comfort when the present day seems too much to bear. For many people these days, this means watching old movies on television, playing the records of one’s youth on an old turntable, and reminiscing about old, pleasant memories. There is nothing more uncool than a boomer reminiscing about back then.
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2 weeks ago | 
iowasource.com | Steve Horowitz
I’m With Her is a folk-rock supergroup. Members Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan are all well-known and highly respected in their musical fields. Individually and collectively, they’ve won Grammy Awards, including a Best American Roots Song Grammy for I’m With Her’s 2019 single “Call My Name,” as well as a slew of other honors and prizes. They’ll appear at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City on June 15 as part of their 2025 tour. Watkins may be the best-known of the three.
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3 weeks ago | 
popmatters.com | Steve Horowitz
Corn Queen Pigasus / Big Loud / Songs & Daughters Hailey Whitters hails from a small town in the Midwest and embraces her roots. While others may eschew being called a “Corn Queen” as an insult, the Shueyville, Iowa, native takes pride in her rural origins. The 16 tracks on her overstuffed new record are full of coy references to her bucolic upbringing. She’s not afraid of being, well, corny.
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1 month ago | 
popmatters.com | Steve Horowitz
World on Fire Xenon Sometimes the hardest music to play well is the simplest stuff. That’s especially true of the blues and why masters of the one-note style (B.B. King), the unpretentious verse (Mississippi John Hurt), and the unsophisticated melody (Reverand Gary Davis) are the most revered. These great artists understood that the humblest song can have the most significant impact through its very guilelessness.
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1 month ago | 
popmatters.com | Steve Horowitz
Wild and Clear and Blue Rounder I’m With Her is a folk/Americana supergroup. The all-female trio (Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins) have won several Grammy Awards individually and collectively and been nominated for dozens more. Their sophomore album, Wild and Clear and Blue, will win them even more honors. The three singer-songwriters penned all 11 lilting and literate songs together. They are all listed as written by “Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, Sara Watkins“.
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1 month ago | 
popmatters.com | Steve Horowitz
Gee Whiz: The Get Away From Me Demos Omnivore Recordings Twenty-one years ago, the 21-year-old Nellie McKay released her debut album Get Away From Me to much critical acclaim. Reviewers from the New York Times to Pitchfork and PopMatters praised its eclectic mix of musical styles from Tin Pan Alley to hip-hop, cabaret jazz to spoken word, blues to Broadway, singer-songwriter to rock, and its unclassifiable singularity.
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1 month ago | 
popmatters.com | Steve Horowitz
We're All Gonna Live Blue Corn Music Do you remember that suicide poem, “Resumé” by Dorothy Parker? The narrator lists the various ways one might kill oneself and concludes they are all too messy, unpleasant, or just plain dull. “You might as well live”, the speaker wearily concludes. Tony Kamel’s new album features a host of songs about death and dying, but unlike Parker, he deduces, “We’re All Gonna Live”, so we should enjoy it.
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1 month ago | 
popmatters.com | Steve Horowitz
Long After the Fire Label 51 Recordings Nothing comes from nothing, especially in music. Every song has its roots in something that came before it. That said, the magic of a great new track is found in how creatively interesting the artist tweaks an older formula and turns it into something fresh. Rock and roll may not have improved since Chuck Berry first started laying down licks (and even he owes a debt to Louis Jordan, Al Jolson, and many others, but it has evolved into many forms.
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1 month ago | 
iowasource.com | Steve Horowitz
Jackie Venson was born and raised in Austin, Texas, and still lives there. Her music incorporates many of the diverse genres (blues, soul, rock, hip-hop, electronica) that have found a home in the “Live Music Capital of the World,” as the town’s official slogan proclaims. She said the Midwest is more responsible for the growth and development of American music as an art and entertainment form than her hometown. “Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis—those places are the epicenter of it all.
