Adia Victoria was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The 32-year-old has spent much of her life in the South, and much of that has been by choice despite the title of her 2016 single “Stuck in the South.” Now, she calls Nashville home, and it’s a place that she finds herself grappling with the realities of the impact rapid development has on the lower class. It’s within that space that she has found her identity as an artist on this year’s sophomore effort, Silences. Continue reading
Filed under Music.
Taylor Hicks stays pretty busy. Since winning the fifth Season of American Idol, he has toured nationally in a production of Grease, hosted the food and travel show State Plate and released three studio albums. He just wrapped a run portraying Charlie Anderson in the Serenbe Playhouse production of Shenandoah. And somewhere in there, he found time to monitor his investment in Saw’s BBQ and record and produce a new record that he hopes to share soon. Continue reading
Filed under Music.
Influenced by Todd Snider much the way Snider was influenced by Jerry Jeff Walker, Aaron Lee Tasjan’s sound is constantly evolving. He’s lumped into Americana, but he assures that’s just rock and roll. His latest effort, Karma for Cheap, was praised as one of 2018’s best efforts, and he already has plans to reimagine the record and re-release a new version; more acoustic, grittier and raw. The prolific artist that is spending some of this run of shows opening for Alabama’s Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (New Orleans on Friday, Tupelo on Sunday) also already has a follow-up record ready to go, and he says to expect that by 2020. Continue reading
Filed under Music.
I saw one show this year that caught me completely off guard, another show that I am redacting every detail about and a band of punk rock heroes. I saw intimate living room style shows and I went to Red Rocks. I even managed to see Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit a time or two (Red Rocks, the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, Chicago, Brooklyn, Providence, Indianapolis, Nashville, Portland, down the street).
Continue reading
I got way into EDM this year. The world is a dark and sad place and one day this summer at the pool, I was surrounded by youths and they were all listening to EDM. It made me feel a lot better than my usual fare. Though, none of that really made this list of my favorite works of art in 2018. I guess that’s largely because most EDM is taken in small doses (I don’t think I intend that to be a pun). Here are some tracks I particularly loved this year, many of which carry me to a very specific time and place – and that type of song is special. Continue reading
Filed under Music.
Former Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne hasn’t been to the Magic City since 2001. That was an appearance at the now defunct City Stages music festival, and Byrne thinks that visit may have been his only one ever. He returns on October 3 on the heels of his latest solo effort, American Utopia.
Byrne stays busy. In addition to seven solo studio albums since the Talking Heads disbanded in 1991, he’s had four collaborative records (including the most recent, 2012’s Love This Giant with St. Vincent), he’s written nine books, he’s won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Grammy and he’s an avid cyclist and voracious reader. His band, Talking Heads, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Ahead of his visit, he spoke about where he might take his bicycle in Birmingham, his latest record, what may be his largest stage production to date and about the positives to be found in a world that needs some. Continue reading
Courtney Marie Andrews began her professional music career young. While many of her peers were piling equipment into vans and fighting to survive, she was on tour buses with hometown heroes Jimmy Eat World as a background vocalist. She then toured Europe as a background vocalist for Belgian pop-star Milo.
Still just 27 years old, she has now penned six full-length solo albums, including this year’s May Your Kindness Remain, named by Rolling Stone Country in June as one of the “25 Best Country and Americana records of the year so far.” Continue reading
Filed under Music.
Manchester Orchestra has a long history with Birmingham. The band formed in Atlanta more than a decade ago, a time when regional touring was imperative to building a fanbase. As fate would have it, the woman that would become lead singer Andy Hull’s wife was then attending Samford University. Continue reading
Filed under Music.
Japanese Breakfast is Michelle Zauner, an Oregon native that has built her music career in Philadelphia—the new east coast capital of indie music. She makes pop music, but lyrically it’s pretty dark, which makes it something different entirely. Her second record, Soft Sounds from Another Planet, was released in 2017 to critical acclaim. Before returning to Birmingham to headline—her last visit being an opening set for Mitski at Syndicate Lounge—she chats about the City of Brotherly Love, her evolution from her previous band Little Big League and how she maintains balance in her dark brand of indie pop.
Filed under Music.
Erin Rae is one of the most recent additions to the roster at Florence, Alabama-based Single Lock Records. Her first album with the label, Putting on Airs, was released just two months ago, but she’s already earned critical acclaim. NPR, for instance, declared the record would “bewitch and enlighten the nation.” Continue reading
Filed under Music.
Blake Ells 