MUSIC REVIEWS

“Summer Girl (Redux)” by The High Plains Drifters is a refreshing yet bittersweet anthem that perfectly captures the ephemeral nature of summer flings, packaged in a tune that will haunt your playlists well beyond the season. As the band continues to explore new musical territories, this latest single ventures into …

Inviting us to get closer with both her words and the surprisingly staunchness of the melody pushing them forth, DawgGoneDavis is anything but inaccessible in her new single “Love Wins;” on the contrary, she’s so open in her tone here that it’s hard to believe this is only her latest official release …

Phil Coyne is a breath of fresh in an era where there are many nostalgic knockoffs, but very few traditional wins. With his band The Wayward Aces, he’s able to craft a pitch-perfect Aussie blues record, but still injects an appropriate dose of originality into the mix. The result is …

I think Universal Dice’s “A Very Small Man”, the latest single from their new album release Misfit Memoirs, is the best representation yet for this collection. URL: https://universaldice.com/ It’s a bold claim. The single’s predecessors, “Once Upon a Time”, “Slip Away”, and “Curse”, are powerful singles that make a case for …

Owning a verse with more than your voice doesn’t mean inviting a lot of nonsense into the mix just to obstruct the audience’s view of your skill. There’s no hiding behind a hook if you want to make a splash in modern hip-hop; you’ve got to be out there front …

James Robert Webb’s six-track EP Ride or Die stakes his claim as one of the most important new voices in modern country music. He mixes anthemic compositions alongside raucous life-celebrating tracks that are sure to find widespread favor. It lays the groundwork for Webb’s next full-length collection Weekend Outlaw, but still leaves a …

Oregon-based songwriter Keith A. Getchell’s “Send Your River” has a decidedly human message. It doesn’t have any political axe to grind. It doesn’t have a social cause de jour to champion. Instead, it flies the flag for individual sanctity. Life calls upon us to follow our heart, and Getchell’s “Send …

Retrospection, both poetic and aesthetical the same, has been the greater theme of country in the gospel slot this past year, but while they aren’t rejecting this trend in their new album Straight from the Heart, High Road can’t be accused of trying to blend in with a crowd here, either. Straight from the …

While his peers are seeming content to relive the past in their work through one melody or another, Chris Chitsey doesn’t want to be the same kind of ranch poet that has dominated the country music conversation for five generations and beyond. FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/chrischitsey/ In Chitsey’s new single, which is …

Co-produced with Grammy award-winning Mark Prentice, Mark Conklin’s new collection, The Gospel According to Mark, exponentially expands on the New Jersey native’s musical vision. The album’s predecessor, an EP release entitled Starting Over, established his reputation as a major league singer/songwriter after a near-lifetime as an artist manager and music executive. …