Joe Farnsworth is releasing a live album recorded in New York City at the Smoke Jazz & Supper Club with a theme of New York City’s deep jazz history called City of Sounds. Farnsworth explains some of his inspiration behind the title, “I went on a Black Lives Matter march from Inwood through Harlem that ended up at a park on the West Side Highway,” he recalls. “As we marched, people were flying the flags of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, and you’d hear salsa music playing from their windows. Then you went through Harlem and heard funk and soul and rap music. Everyone was cheering for the same thing, but [...]

James Vincent McMorrow is releasing his long-awaited fifth studio album called Grapefruit Season. The album was produced by James alongside fellow genre disruptors Paul Epworth, Kenny Beats, Lil Silva, and Patrick Wimberly (Chairlift) and was recorded in London, Los Angeles, and Dublin. The song’s theme embraces the fact that life is chaos and the idea of growing up but feeling none the wiser. Grapefruit Season sees James Vincent McMorrow push himself (and his sound) in all-new ways through elements of dancehall to soul, country to R&B. The title, Grapefruit Season, seems to indicate doing simply what you want, rather than [...]

Guitarist Lawson Rollins has been described by Acoustic Guitar Magazine as ‘impeccable’ and ‘dazzling.’ At the same time, the prestigious Guitar Player Magazine ranks Rollins as one of the “50 Transcendent Acoustic Guitarists” of all time and writes, “Lawson Rollins is a bona fide star…The key to Rollins’ mass appeal is his signature artistic balance between classically influenced compositional refinement, infectious exotic rhythms, and the unbridled intensity of full-on shred.” Rollins is releasing RISE, a bold collection of ten original songs that showcase his signature virtuoso guitar style [...]

Samantha Fish is back with a new blues-rock album filled with edgy vocal delivery and in-your-face guitar. For her seventh album, Faster, she wanted to develop her sound outside of her normal trad blues-rock and capture the feeling and energy of her live performances. The result is a robust set of songs with producer Martin Kierszenbaum that takes her blues-rock music and encompasses hard rock, electro-pop, and retro soul. Fish is featured throughout, dealing up her searing lead guitar and sultry vocals with a punkish nuance. Also on the album is Hannah Brier, guitar; Martin Kierszenbaum, guitar, keyboards, drums; Diego Navaira, bass, and Josh Freese, [...]

Sierra Ferrell is releasing her mesmerizing debut album on Rounder Records called Long Time Coming. Ferrell sings a dozen songs beautifully uncontrolled by category or period, and the project was co-produced by 10-time Grammy Award-winner Gary Paczosa (Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Sarah Jarosz) and Australian musician Stu Hibberd and recorded at Nashville’s Southern Ground and Minutia studios. Ferrell was joined by an extraordinary collection of guest musicians, including Billy Strings, Sarah Jarosz, Dennis Crouch, Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien, Chris Scruggs, and Rory Hoffman.

“Jeremiah” has a strong foundation in bluegrass, not only [...]

Rosie Lowe is back with her most raw and unfiltered release to date, Now, You Know, released by Blue Flowers. Taking its title from a postcard unearthed on a dig through at her local Deptford market, its scrawled message from the past resonated with her compulsion to act on impulse. ‘Now, You Know’ became a mantra to encapsulate a new era of creative expression, and the mixtape provides a snapshot of an artist who continues to forge a singular path and leave as many doors open as possible ahead of her highly anticipated third album. Lowe retreated to a cabin in the Devon woods, converting a tiny shed into a studio to write the album in isolation. [...]