Joshua Radin (Photo by Catie Laffoon)
Joshua Radin is a singer-songwriter, originally from Shaker Heights, Ohio, who has been writing songs, performing, and recording music for the last 17 years. He’s appearing at The Birchmere on Friday, March 18. Josh and talked to Parklife DC’s Mark Engleson about their shared Ohio roots, finding your creative heart, and life on the road.
Railroad Earth (Photo courtesy IVPR)
Easing into their third decade as a band, jam-scene pioneers Railroad Earth have been hard at work keeping their bluegrass soul and rock and roll spirit alive and well. On April 22nd, the next chapter of RRE will unfold with the release of their new album All For The Song; a 10-song collection filled with tales of biblical road-trip rainstorms, Louisiana getaways, and losing their brother too soon.
Meanwhile, Railroad Earth return to DC for a show at 9:30 Club on Thursday, March 24.
Trapper Schoepp (Photo by Mitch Keller)
Trapper Schoepp explores themes of ghosts and rebirth, springtime and renewal on his latest album, May Day. You can explore those themes with Trapper yourself in a show at Jammin’ Java on Sunday, March 13.
Parklife DC is giving away up to 10 tickets to the show! To get on the list, leave a comment on this blog post below!
For Allison Russell, taking a chance and sending a message to Brandi Carlile’s Instagram paid off. It started a conversation with Carlile’s wife, which lead to getting detailed, track-by-track feedback on her debut solo album, Outside Child. From there, it led to yet bigger things: a contract with the label Fantasy Records, which released the powerful record to “universal acclaim” (per Metacritic) last May. It has been nominated for Americana Album of the Year at this year’s Grammys, and the standout song “Nightflyer” has been nominated for Best American Roots Song and Performance.
“I have a great team behind me,” Russell told the audience at the sold-out Barns at Wolf Trap recently. “That’s why I’m ’emerging’ at 42,” she said, referring to her nomination for Emerging Artist of the Year at last year’s Americana Music Awards.
OURS performs at Jammin’ Java on March 3, 2022. (Photo by Marc Shea)
Jimmy Gnecco is a very soft spoken, down to earth person. As a musician and an artist, he is a powerful, uncompromising force. After Jimmy founded the band OURS, they played a total of five shows before the record label bidding war began.
But it was far from the dream that musicians hope for. It took years for Jimmy to get his first album to sound the way he wanted it to sound. And that wonderful sound was on full display in a recent performance by OURS at Jammin’ Java in Virginia.
Luna Honey performs at DC9 on Feb. 26, 2022. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
(Editor’s Note: It’s been longer than we would like since this show but Luna Honey are a wildly innovative and important DC band, and so we present this belated review of a recent concert.)
Experimental rock trio Luna Honey opened a recent turn at DC9 with a droning, wheezing, foreboding dirge of a song called “The Sky Is Blue” from their most recent album, and immediately enthralled the growing crowd gathering for a night of post-punk bands.
Tank and the Bangas (Photo by Jeremy Tauriac)
New Orleands funk collective Tank and the Bangas are set to release their third studio album, Red Balloon, on May 13 via Verve Forecast. They have already launched a North American tour that will bring them to 9:30 Club on Monday, March 21.
There are great songwriters that aren’t so compelling to watch, but they create great art, and then there are great performers who put on a great show but whose music is, well, forgettable. And then you have the rare gift of Kristian Matsson, aka The Tallest Man On Earth, who not only crafts heartbreakingly poetic verses wrapped in lines that hook you in but puts on some of the best live shows with just himself and a guitar… or a banjo… or a keyboard.
Due to complications of traveling and the COVID-19 pandemic, catching The Tallest Man On Earth live again seemed like an increasingly distant dream. The last time I had seen Matsson perform was before the release of his last LP, I Love You. It’s A Fever Dream, back in 2018 at the Lincoln Theatre. A performance that stuck with me. So, standing in line on Sunday night for a sold-out show at the 9:30 Club, it felt like the thaw from a long winter of waiting. And it was well worth the wait.
Rick Mitarotonda leads Goose on the first of back-to-back sold-out nights at 9:30 Club on March 1, 2022. (Photo by Casey Vock)
Few endeavors can be as damning out of the gate as charting the course of a jam band, a breed of live and recorded music that has — whether right or wrong — earned itself a preconceived reputation.
But take stock of the group that wears that tag like a badge of pride in grabbing the whole scene right by the short and fluffies.
Behold: Goose.
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova perform live. (Photo courtesy the artists)
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova perform their first shows together in over a decade to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the film ONCE. The duo, who performed together as The Swell Season, reunite for a date at The Anthem on Friday, March 18, and only a handful of tickets remain!
