Ocean Alley (Photo courtesy ngage)
If you’re still looking for this year’s summer jams, look no further than Australia — and more specifically, Australian band Ocean Alley. The band brought summer to the Rock and Roll Hotel recently!
Jeff Austin poses at Sleepy Creek SpringDig in May 2019. (Photo by Chester Simpson)
Bluegrass musician Jeff Austin passed away in Seattle on Monday, according to reports. Jeff, 45, was a well-known performer in the DC metro area, where he frequently joined bluegrass and folk festivals like the Sleepy Creek SpringDig. Indeed, the Jeff Austin Band headlined the Sleepy Creek SpringDig at Sleepy Creek on the Potomac in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, in May.
Phish performs at Merriweather Post Pavilion on June 22, 2019. (Photo by Andy Jillson)
American jam band Phish performed to the utter delight of a stupified sold-out crowd at Merriweather Post Pavilion recently, and I was there taking photos and spacing-out to the music and getting into the groove.
Air Supply performs at MGM National Harbor on June 21, 2019. (Photos by Paivi Salonen; Words by Mickey McCarter)
It’s a tried-and-true formula: One man writes the songs, and one man sings them. But when those two men are Air Supply, the rock duo who took the global charts by storm in the early 1980s, the individual strengths become a powerful whole. Full of grace and gratitude, Air Supply played some of those hits at the Theater at MGM National Harbor recently.
Jason Isbell performs at the Old Settlers Music Festival on April 12, 2019. (Photo by Dave Hensley)
“There’s a specific kind of fucked up person who pays good money to see this much sad music,” declared Rockville native Father John Misty after he finished singing “The Palace” recently. After playing “Elephant,” co-headliner Jason Isbell told the crowd at Merriweather Post Pavilion, “That’s a sad song. I made the fucking thing up and I know it’s a sad song. I’ve sung it 150,000 times and it still makes me sad.”
Amy Helm (Photo by Jana Leon)
Singer-songwriter Amy Helm, daughter of Levon Helm of The Band, released This Too Shall Light, a new 10-song album, via Yep Roc Records in September. She performs at AMP by Strathmore on Thursday, June 27.
Deer Tick performs at The Charm City Bluegrass Festival in April 2019. (Photo by Matt Ruppert)
In so many ways, Deer Tick is the quintessential modern American band. Started sometime in the mid-2000s and officially releasing War Elephant in 2007, theirs is a sound born of something many of us can find familiar: as at home on a small stage in the corner of a bar/coffeehouse, in a party club, or on a big stage in the middle of a national park.
Erika Wennerstrom (Photo by Briana Purser)
In our native Ohio, you don’t have to go far from the city, whether it’s Erika Wennerstrom’s Dayton or my Akron, to be in well-water territory. Erika’s singing is a well: deep, resonant, and very, very cool, firm and sturdy.
Courtney Barnett performs at The Anthem on June 19, 2019. (Photo by Matt Ruppert)
Courtney Barnett is the best friend everyone wishes they had — deadpan witty, desperately honest. Her songs grapple with the sorts of emotions familiar to the current generation, that balancing of self-doubt, anxiety, and the expectations for success in a world set against often overwhelming challenges.
The National performs at The Anthem on June 19, 2019. (Photo by Matt Ruppert)
We grow up with the music we love. Maybe that’s the funniest, the best, and/or maybe the very most tragic thing about music and getting older, and maybe that’s why we sometimes stop loving the things we used to love.
