Becky Warren performs at The Hamilton Live on May 1, 2019. (Photo by Ari Strauss)
After recent set at The Hamilton Live, I told Becky Warren that her opening act for Della Mae ranked as one of the very best I’d ever seen. The widespread critical acclaim — from Rolling Stone Country, NPR — is deserved, and the comparisons to revered figures like Lucinda Williams are apt.
Della Mae performs at The Hamilton Live on May 1, 2019. (Photo by Ari Strauss)
Della Mae puts a fresh spin on bluegrass. In a genre traditionally characterized by a “high lonesome” sound, this Grammy-nominated lineup of all female dynamos is unlike anyone else. At The Hamilton Live recently, the band covered rock songs, like the Allman Brothers’ “Whipping Post,” with a boiling stew of strings, and they played string band music with the fervor and soul of blues rock.
Actors perform at Metro Gallery on April 30, 2019. (Photo by Paivi Salonen)
Dark wave quartet Actors electrified the Metro Gallery in Baltimore recently, as the audience swooned over the intoxicating synthpop from frontman Jason Corbett and company. Paivi was there to take some pictures!
Judas Priest (Photo courtesy Chipster PR)
Judas Priest’s latest studio album, Firepower, landed in the Top 5 of 17 countries (including their highest chart placement ever in the US at #5). The legendary metal band performed at The Anthem last year, and that show was so successful that they have returned to do it again on Sunday, May 12.
Jonny Pierce (Photo by Nicholas Moore)
The Drums released Brutalism, the fifth studio album by the Jonny Pierce-fronted project, last month via Anti- Records. Jonny is on tour with a stop at the Black Cat on Saturday, May 11.
The Devil Makes Three (Photo by Jay Westcott)
Bluegrass trio The Devil Makes Three released Chains Are Broken, their sixth studio album, via New West Records last year, and the California band are on tour with a stop at 9:30 Club on Saturday, May 11.
Julia Jacklin performs at the Rock and Roll Hotel on April 30, 2019. (Photo by David LaMason)
As in America, vast spaces and haunting, uninhabited vistas define the face of the Australian continent. Perhaps it lies in the nation’s geography and its history of colonization, a pioneer spirit shared with the United States, that explains the disproportionate thriving of country music half a world away from its Appalachian and Delta roots. Broad enough to encompass the country pop of Keith Urban and the Americana of Kasey Chambers, it also includes the singer-songwriter oriented, confessional alternative country rock of Julia Jacklin, who brought her music to Rock and Roll Hotel recently.
Druid Hill Park in the wind after a storm during Charm City Bluegrass Festival. (Photo by Matt Ruppert)
Waking on Friday, the forecast indicated thunderstorms and heavy winds in the neighborhood of 3 to 7 o’clock. The hours passed slowly, work keeping me busy; periodic texts from my wife, little checks of the app, and nervous glances outside the windows of classrooms marked the passage of the clouds, the speed of the winds.
Daniel Miller chats at Moogfest 2019 in the Carolina Theatre on April 26, 2019. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of his label, Mute Records chief Daniel Miller chatted with musician and writer Alex Maiolo in a conversation at Moogfest 2019, held in an auditorium of the Carolina Theatre recently. During Moogfest, Daniel also performed two DJ sets — a pure techno set at the comfortable Fruit Company club and art space and an ambient set on modular synths at the 21c Museum Hotel in Durham, North Carolina.
Alex’s enthusiasm sparked Daniel’s brilliance, and the musical svengali reflected on his early days as a musician, how Mute came to be, and his enduring love of synthesizers.
Visit the Moogfest website for more information on the Moogfest conference and festival.
The Twilight Sad (Photo courtesy Clarion Call Media)
In support of their new studio album, It Won/t Be Like This All the Time, Glasgow’s The Twilight Sad will bring their raw, dynamic sound to U Street Music Hall on Sunday, May 12.
