April 2025

John R Miller is a true hyphenate artist: singer-songwriter-picker. Every song on his thrilling upcoming debut solo album, Depreciated, is lush with intricate wordplay and haunting imagery, as well as being backed by a band that is on fire. One of his biggest long-time fans is roots music favorite Tyler Childers, who says he's "a well-travelled wordsmith mapping out the world he's seen, three chords at a time." Miller is somehow able to transport us to a shadowy honkytonk and get existential all in the same line with his tightly written compositions. Miller's own guitar-playing is on fine display here along with vocals that evoke the white-waters of the Potomac River rumbling below the high ridges of his native Shenandoah Valley.

Miller grew up in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia near the Potomac River. "There are three or four little towns I know well that make up the region," he says, name-checking places like Martinsburg, Shepherdstown, Hedgesville, and Keyes Gap. "It's a haunted place. In some ways it's frozen in time. So much old stuff has lingered there, and its history is still very present." As much as Miller loves where he's from, he's always had a complicated relationship with home and never could figure out what to do with himself there. "I just wanted to make music, and there's no real infrastructure for that there. We had to travel to play regularly and as teenagers, most of our gigs were spent playing in old church halls or Ruritan Clubs." He was raised "kinda sorta Catholic" and although he gave up on that as a teenager, he says "it follows me everywhere, still."

His family was not musical--his father worked odd jobs and was a paramedic before Miller was born, while his mother was a nurse--but he was drawn to music at an early age, which was essential to him since he says school was "an exercise in patience" for him. "Music was the first thing to turn my brain on. I'd sit by the stereo for hours with a blank audio cassette waiting to record songs I liked," he says. "I was into a lot of whatever was on the radio until I was in middle school and started finding out about punk music, which is what I gravitated toward and tried to play through high school." Not long after a short and aimless attempt at college, I was introduced to old time and traditional fiddle music, particularly around West Virginia, and my whole musical world started to open up." Around the same time he discovered John Prine and says the music of Steve Earle sent him "down a rabbit hole". From there he found the 1970s Texas gods like Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver, and Blaze Foley, the swamp pop of Bobby Charles, and the Tulsa Sound of J.J. Cale, who is probably his biggest influence.

As much as the music buoyed him, it also took its toll. "I always prioritized being a touring musician above everything, and my attempts at relationships suffered for it," he says. Miller was also often fighting depression and watching many of his friends "go off the rails on occasion." He says that for a long period he did a lot of self-medicating. "I used to go about it by drinking vodka from morning to night for months on end," he says. "I shouldn't have made it this far. I'm lucky, I think." Ultimately, the music won out and Depreciated is the hard-won result of years of self-education provided by life experiences that included arrests, a drunken knife-throwing incident, relationships both lost and long-term, and learning from the best of the singer- songwriters by listening.

Moonshine Bandits, the California duo of Dusty 'Tex' Dahlgren and Brett 'Bird' Brooks, are back with their new album Pour Decisions. The duo continues to champion their signature sound of backwoods bravado, country soul, keg-thumping beats, and hip-hop fusion. Pour Decisions is the grittiest, most spirited, and distinctly grassroots release of their sixteen-year campaign of musical badassery.

"Let's face it, our fans love to party and so do we. With the amount of partying we all do, poor decisions can be made," said Big Tex with a chuckle, referring to the inspiration behind the album title. "We flipped it to 'Pour Decisions' to coincide with our new Bucked Up Whiskey brand. Now you can make the right 'Pour Decision' when you choose to pour a shot of our whiskey. Cheers!"

Pour Decisions takes its inspiration from the struggles and successes of America's extraordinary era when dreams were being made while hunting for that elusive precious gem.

"This album is nothing like our past albums because we wanted to level up from the songwriting to the recording. We really stepped up our game in singing and songwriting on this project and it shows," said Bird about the new sonic direction. "The overall sound of the album is big and has a lot of energy. We used more live instrumentation than ever before, we even had a choir come in and sing on a track, everything was meant to sound bigger when we created these songs. I think the fans will see we all stepped up our game."

Big Tex adds, "We didn't cut any corners. In the past, we would have to worry about touring or timelines, but we're finally in a spot in our career that if we can 'dream it', then we can make it happen. We weren't rushed, and we had the finances to do whatever we wanted on this album. We took our time with this and made sure to put the cherry on top of each song."

Pour Decisions features tracks like "I'm A Rebel," "I'm A Problem," "Silhouettes In The Sun," "Chasing Ghost," and "Can't Take My Hometown." The album showcases the Moonshine Bandits' signature style, with the tracks taking listeners on a journey filled with good, bad, and even some ugly experiences. Thematically, Pour Decisions pays homage not only to the band's career journey but also, and profoundly, "a journey about the people we have come in contact with. The people that inspire our songs."

The album is an ode to the brick-and-mortar, mom-and-pop's, local friends, and corner watering holes that provided the foundation of everyday life, culture, and economics in America. Pour Decisions features 15-tracks that continue to show Moonshine Bandits paving their own lane. There aren't stops or boundaries, and with Pour Decisions, they prove that they still live by their code.

This is a genre-bending album from the featured guests to the sound and displays the band's versatility with some special guests. Weed kingpin Afroman joins the group on "Roof Back" to fire it up for the West Coast, Josh Todd of Buckcherry unleashes some crossover rock fury on "Wild," and then American pride crashes head-on with hip-hop swagger on "I'm A Problem" featuring Canadian Juno Award-winning rapper Madchild. Somehow, it all comes together in one musical Molotov cocktail that Moonshine Bandits provide the spark for.

"We are very grateful to all of these super stars to take time out of their schedule to be part of an album that we truly believe in. We got wide variety of guest from Adam Calhoun to Krizz Kaliko, to Demun Jones, Brandon Hartt to help us bring out all the different influences. It feels like and old-school rap record where guys like E-40 or Tech N9ne would just have their friends jump on the album with them. This album is a stacked lineup of all-stars."

Since their formation in Los Banos, California, in 2003, the Moonshine Bandits have continued a campaign of crossover genre-bending musical mayhem that appeals to the eclectic, color-outside-the-lines tastes of listeners. Their musical style has always been full-throttle and in your face. Just like the rumrunners, bootleggers, smugglers, and outlaws of old -- the Moonshine Bandits provide a supply of goods for the demand, defying the mandates and trends of mainstream pop-culture.

Pour Decisions is rebellious, anti-establishment, and a little bit symbolic of an elusive time when there actually was Honor among thieves. For the Moonshine Bandits, Pour Decisions is a lesson learned from experience, and it's their way of doing things.

Jagged Little Pill is the go-to Alanis Morissette tribute band, nailing all her biggest and best hits. With a pounding rhythm section, rocking guitars and spot-on vocals, you will think you're at an Alanis concert.

The Lowdown Drifters are a hard living, hard loving and hard leaving group of Ft. Worth based musicians blending country, rock and Americana into a sound of their own; the epitome of a rock band with a fiddle problem. With heartfelt and sincere melodies crafted by their accurately named frontman Big John Cannon, the Drifters live show is a high energy experience, highlighting their songs that capture the highs and lows of the human experience. The Drifters have been propelled to over 500,000 monthly listeners and 50 million total streams by their wildly successful album Last Call for Dreamers which has led them to share the stage with artists including Randy Rogers, Koe Wetzel, LeAnn Rimes and Zach Bryan. The Lowdown Drifters look forward to a packed 2024 with several singles currently in production and a full album to follow with Grammy Award nominated producer Wes Sharon (Turnpike Troubadours, American Aquarium, John Fulbright) and Malcolm Springer (Matchbox 20, Collective Soul) as well as a national supporting tour to follow.

Americana and roots singer-songwriter Jackie Greene is a jack-of-all-trades, and an artist who can croon over soulful piano ballads as much as he can shred a bluesy guitar solo (like he did as the lead guitarist for The Black Crowes in 2013). A road warrior and musician's musician, Greene's new EP 'The Modern Lives - Vol 2' (out October 2018 on Blue Rose Music) finds him at a new chapter in his life: his first months of fatherhood, time off his relentless touring circuit, and a cross-country move from Brooklyn to his birthplace of Northern California.

This new collection of six original songs is a thematic extension of 'The Modern Lives - Vol 1' EP (released in 2017 on Blue Rose Music), imbued with a Brooklyn basement DIY feel and ethos. He is a student of American music, transfixed upon its progression through time, as well as how regional sounds fit in a contemporary context. Whereas 'Vol 1' saw Greene experiment with the Delta blues as a canvas for his examinations of modern society, 'Vol 2' sees Greene embrace the sounds of the bluegrass and folk tapes of his youth.

Lead single "Crazy Comes Easy" showcases Greene's dynamic, multi-instrumental range as he plays slide guitar, organ, bass, and percussion, the guitar licks an appreciative nod to his time in The Black Crowes. Meanwhile, "Good Old Bad Times" highlights Greene as the songwriter as he rattles off lines like "How can somebody find a future? / If they ain't got a foothold in the past?" while taking a critical eye to the idea of nostalgia. Piano ballad "Victim Of The Crime" was one of Jackie's oldest demos up until the feel of these sessions gave him the tools to finish a song that, in his words, was written for his wife before she was his wife. While the title possesses a kind of melodrama, the song itself is tender and heartfelt as he details love's trials and tribulations.

Greene partnered with Academy Award-nominated "king of indie animation" Bill Plympton for a series of music videos for 'The Modern Lives - Vol 1' that would eventually become an animated short film titled 'The Modern Lives'. The film is currently making the rounds at film festivals where it has already won the Jury Award at the USA Film Festival in Dallas, TX, and the Grand Remi Award / Best in Show at WorldFest in Houstin, TX. The short is also being exhibited at the 71st Festival de Cannes/Court Metrage, Melbourne International Animation Festival, and ASIFA-East Festival, amongst others.

Since the release of his critically-acclaimed debut album 'Gone Wanderin'', Greene has built an enduring audience through a relentless touring schedule with the likes of BB King, Mark Knopfler, Susan Tedeschi, and Taj Mahal. He played lead guitar with The Black Crowes on their Layin' Down With #13 World Tour, recorded and toured with Trigger Hippy - his supergroup with Joan Osborne - and in the last four years performed over 300 shows of his own, all while continuing to record and release his solo work. Greene is a frequent member of Phil Lesh & Friends, and sits in with countless other artists including Tedeschi Trucks Band, Govt Mule, Mississippi All-Stars, Amy Helm, Steve Earle, and Bob Weir.

Jason Wade is the lead singer and songwriter of the band Lifehouse. He has been making albums and touring with the band for almost 20 years. Currently, the band is on hiatus while Jason works on his third solo record, called 'A Likely Story'. Additionally, he is also a member of the band ØZWALD, along with his Lifehouse bandmate Steve Stout.

In June 2023, Jason launched a subscription-based members-only area called the 'Time Machine.' This exclusive area includes unheard demos, acoustic performances, reimagined recordings of old Lifehouse songs, and vintage film and video from the early Lifehouse tours.

Starting in 2024, Jason will be performing live acoustic shows. These shows will feature Lifehouse's greatest hits, fan favorites, and songs from his solo records.

Vist allswellrecords.com for tour dates, to subscribe to the 'Time Machine,' and for all merch. Follow on instagram @jasonwademusic to keep up with all of the latest.

The Newest Olympian Live brings all the joy of the #1 Percy Jackson podcast to a stage near you! This comedic podcast covers the journey of Mike Schubert, a grown man, making his way through the Percy Jackson series for the very first time. Each episode and each live show, Schubert chats with longtime PJO fans to cover the plot, take stabs at what happens next, and nerd out over Greek mythology. This show will cover chapters of The Lost Hero, the first book in the Heroes of Olympus series (Percy Jackson sequel books). Like every Mike Schubert live podcast, the show will end with audience Q&A, and also like every Mike Schubert live show, you will have the time of your life! Per-See Ya there! (Check @NewestOlypian on Instagram account closer to the show date to see exactly what is being covered at the show if you want to prep)

In Chicago, a city overflowing with unrivaled blues talent, world-renowned Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials have been standing tall for almost 30 years. The band's big sound, fueled by Lil' Ed's gloriously rollicking slide work and deep blues string bending, along with his rough-edged, soulful vocals, is as real and hard-hitting as Chicago blues gets. The Chicago Sun-Times says, "Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials are the hottest purveyors of bottleneck boogie to come out of Chicago since Hound Dog Taylor."

Lil' Ed Williams comes to the blues naturally. His uncle, Chicago slide guitar king and master songwriter J.B. Hutto, taught him how to feel, not just play the blues. Nine albums and thousands of performances later, Lil' Ed is now universally hailed as a giant of the genre. Lil' Ed and The Blues Imperials--bassist (and Ed's half-brother) James "Pookie" Young, guitarist Mike Garrett and drummer Kelly Littleton--have remained together for nearly 30 years (an extraordinary feat for any group), the band fueling Ed's songs with their rock-solid, road-tested, telepathic musicianship.

The Big Sound Of Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials is the musically electrifying, emotionally intense and downright fun new album from the band Guitar Player calls "a snarling boogie-blues machine...they blow down the walls." The CD features Lil' Ed's incendiary playing and playful, passionate singing, with the ragged-but-right Blues Imperials cooking like mad alongside him. Produced by Williams and Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, it is a tour-de-force of authentic, deeply rooted Chicago blues. Williams wrote or co-wrote all but two of album's 14 songs, the other gems written by Uncle J.B. The Chicago Reader says the band's music "is a soundtrack for dancing and celebration infused with a sense of hard-won survival. Williams attacks his lyrics like he attacks his guitar: with bare-bones intensity that makes each word sound like a matter of life or death."

Born in Chicago on April 8, 1955, in the heart of Chicago's tough West Side, Ed grew up surrounded by music. He was playing guitar, then drums and bass, by the time he was 12. Ed and Pookie received lessons and support from their famous uncle. "J.B. taught me everything I know," says Ed. "I wouldn't be where I am today without him." Ed and Pookie spent their teen years making music together, and in 1975 formed the first incarnation of The Blues Imperials. They played their first gig at a West Side club called Big Duke's Blue Flame, splitting the $6 take four ways. Over the next few years, the group played every club in the neighborhood. Even so, they still needed day jobs to pay the bills. Ed worked ten hours a day as a buffer at the Red Carpet Car Wash. Pookie drove a school bus. Night after night they played their roaring brand of blues in tiny clubs, and eventually the word reached Alligator president Bruce Iglauer.

At the time, Iglauer was looking for local talent for The New Bluebloods, an anthology of some of Chicago's younger blues musicians. "Ed and his band had a good reputation," recalls Iglauer. "I had only seen them live once or twice. I knew Ed was a hot slide player, but I had no idea what he and the band were really capable of. I just knew that their music reminded me of Hound Dog Taylor and J.B. Hutto, two of my favorite musicians. It seemed like having a band this rough and ready would be a nice change of pace for the anthology, so I asked them to come down to the studio and cut a couple of songs. I never expected what happened."

The band--never having been in a recording studio before--treated the studio like a club, playing live to Iglauer, the engineer, and all the people on the other side of the control room glass. After Ed recorded his two rehearsed songs quickly, there was still plenty of studio time left, so they just kept playing. After 10 songs were in the can, Iglauer offered the band a full album contract. The end result of the session was 30 songs cut in three hours with no overdubs and only one second take. Twelve of those songs became the band's debut album, Roughhousin', released in September of 1986.

The national press reacted with amazement to the blues world's new discovery. Feature stories ran in Spin, Musician, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune and dozens of other publications. The Village Voice declared, "Roughhousin' just may be the blues album of the year." The New York Times raved, "Raw-boned, old-fashioned Chicago blues has a new young master--Lil' Ed Williams."

But it wasn't until 1987, when guitarist Mike Garrett joined the band, and a year later, when Garrett recruited his Detroit hometown friend Kelly Littleton to play drums, that things really began to take off. Garrett's risk-taking rhythm guitar work and Littleton's unpredictable, old school drumming were the perfect complement to Lil' Ed's and Pookie's rambunctious playing. With their 1989 album Chicken, Gravy & Biscuits, doors opened and audiences poured in. Through relentless touring, the group crystallized, becoming tighter with each performance, more adept in their abilities to read each other's musical moves. Their spontaneous and unpredictable live show became legendary among blues fans worldwide.

They have played the Chicago Blues Festival multiple times, and have appeared at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Portland's Waterfront Blues Festival, The Tampa Bay Blues Festival, The San Diego Blues Festival, The Pennsylvania Blues Festival and dozens of other festivals around the country. Satisfying worldwide demand, they have performed at festivals in Canada, Great Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Japan, Australia, India, Turkey and Panama.

Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials released eight Alligator albums between 1986 and 2012. With each one, the band's national and international stature grew as their fan base--known internationally as "Ed Heads"--continued to expand. With 2006's Rattleshake, Ed and company reached a whole new audience. Die-hard "Ed Head" Conan O'Brien brought the band before millions of television viewers on two separate occasions. Success and accolades never stop pouring in. Living Blues called 2012's Jump Start "scorching and soulful" with "crafty, clever lyrics...joyous and stomping."

The group took home the Living Blues Award for Best Live Performer in 2011, 2012 and 2013. They won the prestigious Blues Music Award for Band Of The Year in both 2007 and 2009. The Associated Press says, "Williams fills Chicago's biggest shoes with more life and heat than anyone on stage today."

With The Big Sound Of Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials, the band continues to bring their blistering Chicago blues to "Ed Heads" new and old. Their infectious energy, joyful showmanship and masterful playing have been honed to a razor's edge by their many years together. Lil' Ed, Pookie, Mike and Kelly have seen sports stars and presidents, musical fads and fashion trends come and go. Meanwhile, their fiery music has more than stood the test of time. "We're not band members," says Williams, "we're family, and families stay together." Night after night, gig after riotous gig, the musical family called Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials bring their big, dynamic Chicago blues sound to fans across the country and around the world

James McMurtry is heading out on the road where he'll be including songs from his recent record, The Horses and the Hounds (released August 20, 2021 on New West Records) as well as some of his old favorites, a few comments on the State of the Union, perhaps a couple of touring tales, but mostly, just a fabulously fun time!

And ~ Spoiler Alert! ~ as there is a new James McMurtry album in the works with legendary producer Don Dixon, James has recently begun throwing a few of the new songs into the live setlist.

James McMurtry's first full-length studio album in seven years,The Horses and the Hounds embodies effortless elegance and endless energy as familiar foundations guide the journey.

"There's a definite Los Angeles vibe to this record. The ghost of Warren Zevon seems to be stomping around among the guitar tracks," James quips. "Don't know how he got there. He never signed on for work for hire."

McMurtry recorded The Horses and the Hounds with Ross Hogarth, legendary producer (Van Halen, John Fogerty) and old friend (Hogarth recorded James' first two albums and mixed his first self-produced effort - see below for specifics), their first meeting being thirty years ago when Hogarth was a recording engineer in the employ of John Mellencamp. Much more about the new songs/album below - check it out.

James McMurtry tours year-round, consistently throwing down unparalleled powerhouse performances famous for his outspoken, sensible views, melodically succinct lyrics and lauded storytelling.

Expect nothing less from this tour as James McMurtry lets loose The Horses and the Hounds.

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Raised outside Houston by first-generation Korean immigrant parents, BettySoo grew up listening to the Great American songbook and country radio. Older sisters led her to the world of singer/songwriters, and nights spent at The Cactus Cafe and Hole In The Wall turned her on to the legacy of Texas song.

Her 2007 solo disc, Little Tiny Secrets, garnered heavy regional airplay; 2009's Heat Sin Water Sin produced by Gurf Morlix (Lucinda Williams, Ray Wylie Hubbard), provided building blocks to a national (and international) audience. In 2014, When We're Gone, co-produced with cellist Brian Standefer (Alejandro Escovedo, Terry Allen) placed her firmly in the first rank of songwriters working today.

She's won the requisite awards: Kerrville NewFolk, Big Top Chautauqua Songwriter of the Year, Dave Carter Songwriting Award at Sisters Folk Festival, Mountain Stage NewSong Competition. She's played the festivals: multiple SXSW's, Kerrville, Calgary, and more. And the radio shows: E-Town, Mountain Stage, WoodSongs, BBC 2 with Bob Harris.

BettySoo tours nonstop, these days either as a solo headliner or as dedicated support for James McMurtry and Chris Smither. Along with her agile guitar playing, her intelligent, tightly-constructed lyrics and captivating melodies keep audiences entranced, and if you're lucky, you'll also find her onstage demonstrating her other super-power when she is singing harmonies with various luminaries.

In the Time of COVID-19, BettySoo was found cutting a unique path through the broad streaming landscape with her weekly Nobody's Happy Hour zoom shows, often praised as the most creative online residency in the songwriter world. As with everything she does, she approached it in a way that invites authentic connection, encourages compassion, and merits listening.

May Erlewine has split her heart wide open and hasn't hidden any of the contents from view.

One of the Midwest's most prolific and passionate songwriters, Erlewine has a gift for writing songs of substance that feel both fresh and soulfully familiar. Her ability to emotionally engage with an audience has earned her a dedicated following far beyond her Michigan roots. She shows us her heartbreak, but she also shows us her empowered and emboldened spirit. In her quest to find her most authentic self, Erlewine gifts each listener with a powerful, emotional experience that immediately connects us.

Raised in a home full of art and music, Erlewine began writing songs at a very young age. As a teenager she hitchhiked across the country, honing her skills as a performer and absorbing the kind of stories and landscapes that would inform her music. Her songs show a very real connection and concern with everyday folk.

Erlewine draws from a wide variety of influences to create her sound. Lyrically, her songs are rooted in hard-wrought wisdom, joy and sorrow, simplicity, and stories from her own experiences. Musically, May's songs wash over the audience like a tender hug. She is a magnetic solo performer and is also often supported by her carefully chosen backing bands.

Erlewine uses her music as a platform for positive change. She considers her job a service-oriented one and carries the torch of the folk-singer activist. Her voice on stage encourages connectedness and stresses the importance of environmental advocacy, social justice, creative empowerment and community building as necessary work for all of us.

Erlewine's music has touched people all over the world. Her words have held solace for weary hearts, offered a light in the darkness, and held space for the pain and joy of being alive in these times. She is a true artist, an anthem, and another example of why we need to listen to women. We need to hear these stories. When she starts to sing, there's no way around it: The time is now.

A tribute to the music of Supertramp featuring the biggest hits.

Hypnotized is a tribute group performing in homage to Fleetwood Mac, one of the bestselling rock and roll bands of all time. Evoking the spirit and sound of the 70s, Hypnotized performs album tracks, deep cuts and chart topping hits from Rumours, Tusk, Tango In The Night, Mirage, Mystery To Me and more. With steady percussion, soaring vocals and articulate guitar work akin to that of MAC's powerhouse line up, Hypnotized replicates the music to a tee. Prepare yourself for a night of memories brought back in song.

For more than 50 years, Nektar won the hearts of a devoted following by taking legions of fans on audio-visual journeys to far reaches of the universe and the depths of the ocean with their immersive and innovative "Sound and Light Theatre" presentations.

Lady Luck has not always been as kind to Nektar as the music seemingly deserves, however in its many incarnations over the years that concept has always persevered despite it all.

2024 finds the band at crossroads that would have been hard to imagine with the sad recent loss of founding member and musical brother Ron Howden, and obstacles like the covid shut down and general malaise of the concert scene in recent memory, but incredibly, a new chapter is unfolding in a very positive way.

When the band reformed in 2019, founding member Derek "Mo" Moore talked about that Nektar situation as "Unfinished Business," and it felt like that in many ways.

Back in 1978 when Nektar was being reformed after Roye Albrighton's departure, Mo and Ryche Chlanda together wrote the new music that many years later would be recorded as "The Other Side" album. Ryche left the band to tour with his other projects before it could be recorded and performed live on tour. Jumping forward to 2020 during "The Other Side" sessions it felt like the band was picking up right where they left off back then, right down to the setlist, which would have fit in perfectly that way.

Nektar played well over 100 live shows over the course of the reunion, starting off with the debut at ProgStock 2019 and encompassing strongholds like the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville in Illinois and The Dunellen Theatre in New Jersey, so close to where Nektar had relocated to in 1975, and where Ron Howden's next to last ever gig was recorded and filmed, just weeks before his untimely passing.

At no time in the reunion was there a desire for Nektar to fall into "nostalgia act" status. Mo and Ryche had recognized all along that new music would be the key to making this chapter worthy of the legacy and both had been storing up ideas in the hopes that the proper situation would present itself, and to that point it hadn't, but it seemed that once the "Mission to Mars" concept was decided on, the project took on a life of its own.

Mo and Ryche attacked the skeletons of songs they had that would be chosen for the album with a vengeance, with both remote and in-person writing sessions.

Determined not to let the music die, they arranged for a GoFundMe to make studio time committing it to both Vinyl and Digital a reality and as usual our "Nektarines" were there for the band to make it possible with their support.

Nektar returned to Shorefire Studios in Long Branch New Jersey for these sessions, the same studio they had used for "The Other Side," but this proved to be a different animal.

Whereas the majority of "The Other Side" material had been written in 1978 and was more being polished than completed, this would be quite a different experience as the songs were new and more of a reflection of where the band is today, with five years under their belt since reforming and a sense of urgency that was palpable.

Mo and Ryche proved to be an amazing team. Together they seemed to craft every note with a purpose, bounce ideas off each other, execute the idea and choose the best route. Every section was composed and refined with the utmost care and foresight.

Kendall Scott had been talking about ideas that he had for Nektar music both new and old for some time and it seemed he would now have the space to spread his wings a bit more given the opportunity, so we had a good idea of what to expect.

Maryann Castello had made her singing debut on the album, "The Other Side." After several tours with the band, continuing to be our head cook and bottle washer helping to move the band forward, Maryann was written a much larger singing role bringing her out of the shadows on the latest album "Mission To Mars."

Of course, how Jay Dittamo would fit in was an unknown. Jay knew Ron and had been given his blessing years prior but losing what was one of few remaining original rhythm sections in the rock world was new territory. Could he and Mo be the driving force needed to propel the music that was coming together nicely to the next level?

As it turned out, the chemistry would instantly be apparent and the week spent in the studio would be some of the most enjoyable and rewarding of the bands entire career, and the album would come to fruition just as envisioned -- a record deeply rooted in rock just as it had been in the beginning, but with the complexity of the concept album one might expect to evolve from the bands past epic forays.

Truly magic, and an album each band member grew proud of very quickly and looked forward to taking on the road to perform live.

There were, however, questions to be answered on the live presentation from the visual perspective as well. Mick Brockett had stepped away from touring due to some health concerns and the lightshow needed to be brought up to a more modern standard.

The visual aspect of a Nektar concert had always been what separated Nektar from its peers, and the intention was to return to the shows being events, a true sound and light theatre experience as it once was.

Jay Petsko had been working with Mick since that first show at ProgStock and like the band had done with the new songs had been squirreling away his visual ideas on possibilities and visual concepts. He would now have the opportunity to try and bring those forward.

The concerts proved to an incredible return to form from both a sound and light perspective -- the entire new album was played live and was so well received that the nightly ovations for the new songs met or exceeded those received for the classic material played, very gratifying for the band that had worked so hard to see it through.

The visuals just amazed everyone who saw them, and I think had the same effect as they did in the classic era and became as much a part of the show as the music.

Jay had taken the show all-digital, and the presentation looked just amazing, as bright and vivid as any other and taken to an even further level through the use of 3-D for the title cut of the album.

2024 finds Nektar in a very exciting place, with the new album about to be released officially, and more new music to still be recorded. The lightshow continues to evolve, a living breathing part of the proceedings that will incorporate more 3-D effects as well as new projections, respecting the past while Remembering the Future...

To our brothers on the Other Side we love and miss you Ron Howden, Roye Albrighton, Taff Freeman and Vinnie Schmid.

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Paul Bielatowicz, an accomplished English composer and musician, has recorded and toured with some of the biggest names in progressive rock, including Carl Palmer, Dream Theater, Yes, and more.

He describes himself as "a classical pianist trapped in a rock guitarist's body" and brings his passion for music to life with the diverse range of instruments he plays on stage. The live event will thrill audiences as he is joined by Michael Dutko (Gary Hoey) on bass and Leah Bluestein (Eagles of Death Metal) on drums. The mesmerizing multimedia production is further enhanced by virtual all-star guest appearances on three video screens, including Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), Arthur Brown (Crazy World of Arthur Brown), Dave Bainbridge (Strawbs, Iona), Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal (Guns N' Roses, Sons of Apollo, Asia), Peter Zay (New Bedford Symphony Orchestra), and Simon Fitzpatrick (ELP Legacy, Jennifer Batten).

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio--or as it is sometimes referred to, DLO3--specialize in the lost art of "feel good music." The ingredients of this intoxicating cocktail include a big helping of the 1960s organ jazz stylings of Jimmy Smith and Baby Face Willette; a pinch of the snappy soul strut of Booker T. & The M.G.'s, The Meters, and sprinkles Motown, Stax Records, blues, and cosmic Jimi Hendrix-style guitar. It's a soul-jazz concoction that goes straight to your heart and head makes your body break out in a sweat.

The band features organist Delvon Lamarr, a self-taught virtuosic musician, with perfect pitch who taught himself jazz and has effortlessly been able to play a multitude of instruments. On guitar is the dynamo Jimmy James who eases through Steve Cropper-style chanking guitar, volcanic acid-rock freak-out lead playing, and slinky Grant Green style jazz. From Bellingham, Washington is drummer Julian McDonoough who has been in the scene since Delvon first laid his hand on the hammond organ. To say that Julian was destined for this trio is pure explosive chemistry that is sure to have you movin' and groovin'.

Founded by Larmarr's wife and manager Amy Novo, the trio started from humble beginnings in 2015, but since then has released two Billboard charting albums and toured the world to sold out venues.

Chris Cain was born in San Jose, California in 1955. His parents were huge music fans and shared their love of blues, jazz and popular songs with Chris. His African American father and Greek mother had a huge, shared record collection, which fascinated Chris from an early age. Chris was three years old when his father first took him to see B.B. King. His father gave him his first guitar at age eight and Chris learned lick after lick, song after song. He'd listen to his father's records over and over until the music had seeped into his soul.

Cain formed his first band in 1986, and, in hopes of getting more gigs, released his first album, Late Night City Blues, on the locally-based Blue Rock'It label. Almost immediately, everything changed. Booking agents came calling and Chris began touring Europe. The album received four W.C. Handy Award nominations (now the Blues Music Awards) and the offers to perform kept rolling in.

With his 2021 Alligator Records debut album, Raisin' Cain, Cain's star began to rise even higher. Press, radio and the public all agreed that Cain was, as Blues Rock Review stated, "a classic, sophisticated, soulful virtuoso...He seamlessly combines blues, jazz, funk, and soul." Cain received four 2022 Blues Music Award nominations, including for Album Of The Year and Best Guitarist.

On his recordings and on stage, Cain plays his beloved Gibson ES 335 guitar named Melba that he's had since 1990, and plugs it into his equally beloved Music Man RD 112 amp that he's had since 1987. Melba, well known among Cain's most ardent fans, is prominently featured in the new book, Gibson ES Believers, part of the Vic DuPra Believers Series.

Cain has toured all over North America and made repeated trips around the world. He's performed at the Chicago Blues Festival, The Doheny Blues Festival, The Philadelphia Blues Festival, The Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, and many others. He's played concerts and festivals (and often taught workshops) in Argentina, Uruguay, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Ukraine, and more.

Now, with Good Intentions Gone Bad, Cain will find his largest audience yet, as his good musical intentions continue to pay off. According to Kid Andersen, there's no better blues player working today. "Chris Cain is the rarity whose blues prowess is so undeniable that he has gained everyone's approval. Ask any of your favorite guitar players who they think are the greatest living masters of the instrument, chances are they will all have Chris Cain at the very top of their list."

Vincent Neil Emerson has become a staple among folk and country music fans nationwide, celebrated for his honest tales of life on the road, heartbreak, and struggles of all sorts. His first LP, Fried Chicken & Evil Women, from 2019, established him as a refreshing voice in the modern country music landscape. The songs from that first album were charming and playful songs, but didn't reveal the entirety of Emerson's story.

On his brilliant new album, The Golden Crystal Kingdom, Emerson transcends the role of a honky-tonk country singer and becomes a chronicler of his history. The album is a bold continuation of the story he tells on Vincent Neil Emerson, with songs like the title track exploring the feelings he was left with after his days spent playing in Texas honky-tonks and dancehalls, and the track "The Time of The Rambler," inspired by the early days of living in his car and busking on the streets.

He was born and partly raised in East Texas, around his Choctaw-Apache family, and spent most of his life moving around the state. Raised by a single mother, he lost his father to suicide when he was nine. Emerson dealt with those feelings of abandonment and loss on his self-titled album, with the track "Learning to Drown" in particular.

His grandmother and grandfather brought the family to Texas when Emerson's mother was a child, leaving their ancestral Choctaw-Apache homelands in Louisiana behind to try and build a better life for themselves and their children. Emerson always identified with his Native American roots, but it wasn't until 2021's self-titled album that he examined and tried to shed light on the devastating history of his tribe with the song "Ballad of the Choctaw Apache."

Sonically, The Golden Crystal Kingdom finds Emerson expanding his scope into rock and roll territory, tapping into the storied sounds of folk music gone electric, and following in the footsteps of artists like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. On the album, Emerson retains his diamond-sharp storytelling while imbuing the work with a freewheeling rock and roll aesthetic, creating an album as fun as his live shows and as cathartic as his previous work.

With production from Shooter Jennings, Emerson wanted to establish some sounds as touchstones but emphasized following his own intuition for the aesthetics of his record. "I didn't really want to model this record after anybody else's music, but I've been heavily influenced by a lot of old rock and roll music from the sixties and seventies singer-songwriter music," Emerson explains.

The album wasn't necessarily created as an opposing force to the country and folk sounds his fans have come to expect, but he did want to make a record that showcased another side of himself as a writer. He also leaned on friends and collaborators like Jennings, Steve Earle, and Rodney Crowell to help him flesh out this album.

Emerson has been able to call these one-time heroes friends and mentors, and it is these relationships that have helped the songwriter find his confidence in writing about his personal history and standing up for the causes he believes in. Emerson wrote "Man From Uvalde" after the horrific and tragic mass shooting in the city of Uvalde, Texas, and he was initially hesitant to include the track on The Golden Crystal Kingdom. "It's a daunting thing to try to dive into social issues in songwriting because I wasn't sure how people would really take it," Emerson says. "I recorded a rough demo version of the song, and I sent it to Steve [Earle]. I just wanted to get his thoughts on it and see if it was worth anything. He got back to me, and he said he really liked the song and thought it was great. He gave me a few ideas and ways to look at the subject differently, and it really helped me finish the song. That encouragement gave me the confidence to include it on the album."

The Golden Crystal Kingdom also pays tribute to some of the peers Emerson cut his teeth with in the music scene. He covers the Charley Crockett song, "Time of the Cottonwood Trees," and is quick to pay tribute to his labelmate and dear friend Colter Wall. "Those two had my back since day one. They've been some of my biggest supporters, and they've always inspired me to write better songs and encouraged me to pursue this," Emerson reflects. "Especially at a time when I was starting out and I didn't really have a lot of encouragement or even self-confidence to do this, they were always there for me."

As a kid who grew up in a trailer with a single mother, went through bouts of homelessness as a young man, and grinded through countless shows to get where he's at, Vincent Neil Emerson is never quick to praise his own work ethic. He always refers to the friends, family members, and collaborators who have shown their faith in his vision.

But humility doesn't mean Emerson isn't one of the hardest working, most talented songwriters to emerge from the alt-country underground in years. His style is one of a kind, and his ability to blend tales of the everyman with tributes to his past, present, and future make him a peerless songwriter. On The Golden Crystal Kingdom, Vincent Neil Emerson carries on the torch of his singer-songwriter forebears while infusing the legacy with his unique and thrilling point of view.

Whenever Oliver Wood isn't touring with The Wood Brothers -- the Grammy-nominated roots trio that he co-founded in 2006 -- he typically begins his mornings the same way: in Nashville, at home, with a coffee cup in his hand and a notebook in his lap.

"There's a chair in my living room, right in front of a window," he says. "Every morning, I go down there to drink my coffee, meditate, and write. It's like a therapy session for me, because I can write without any specific goal in mind. I can be creative without being self-judgmental."

Many of the songs from Fat Cat Silhouette, Wood's second solo record, began taking shape in that chair. Produced by his Wood Brothers' bandmate Jano Rix, it's an album of unexpected twists and turns. Longtime fans will recognize the earnest, elastic voice that has always anchored the Wood Brothers' mix of forward-looking folk and southern country-funk, but Fat Cat Silhouette doesn't spend much time looking backward. Instead, it abandons convention, breaks a few rules, and positions Oliver Wood as a roots-music innovator who's every bit as interested in the process as the product.

"I wanted to get outside my box and embrace the uncertainty of what's out there," he explains. "I wanted weird guitar tones. The song 'Yo I Surrender' has the worst guitar sound I've ever heard in my life, and I just love it. I wanted more percussion and less drums. Once we began experimenting and doing whatever we wanted, the pressure melted away and I felt liberated."

On the album's opener, "Light and Sweet," Wood matches an imaginative storyline with a melody that leaps from ground level into the stratosphere. Eight songs later, he brings things to a close with "Fortune Drives the Bus," which he recorded on an iPhone in his own backyard. While tracking the rest of Fat Cat Silhouette to analog tape, Wood pushed himself to keep things weird. This is an album that finds the art in the unexpected, and Oliver Wood -- whose songwriting and vocal chops remain as sharp as ever -- at his most adventurous.

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Among the most prolific artists on the Americana scene today, Seth Walker is a multi-dimensional talent who combines a gift for melody and lyric alongside a rich, Gospel-drenched, Southern-inflected voice with a true blue knack for getting around on the guitar. With his 12th studio album Why The Worry, Walker further builds upon this reputation.

Set straight by the title's mantra, Why The Worry finds the veteran singer-songwriter letting go of the worry about perception, the worry of over-preparation, and the worry that seeps in constantly from the news and noise of everyday life. Taking a page from Willie Nelson, Walker embraced the country music legend's sage wisdom, "I've never seen worry accomplish anything, so I decided not to do it." Indeed, the album was just about finished when Hurricane Helene hit Walker where he lives in the mountains around Asheville, and as a result, the record almost didn't see light. As catastrophe took shape, the album's importance wavered in his mind until the central theme came back into view. The worry wouldn't undo any damage, and there was still service in song.

Growing up on a commune in rural North Carolina, the son of classically trained musicians, Walker played cello long before discovering the guitar in his 20s. When his introduction to the blues came via his Uncle Landon Walker, who was both a musician and disc jockey, his fate was forever sealed. Instantaneously, Seth was looking to artists like T-Bone Walker, Snooks Eaglin, and B.B. King as a wellspring of endless inspiration. The rest is history. He's released twelve albums, broken into the Top 20 of the Americana Radio Charts, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart and received praise from NPR, American Songwriter, No Depression and Relix, among others.

Alongside his extensive songwriting and recording pursuits, Walker is consistently touring and performing at venues and festivals around the world. Along with headline shows, he's been invited to open for The Mavericks, Marc Broussard, The Wood Brothers, Raul Malo, Paul Thorn and Ruthie Foster, among others.

Prior to relocating to Asheville in 2020, Walker did stints residing in Austin, New Orleans and Nashville. He's used those experiences wisely, soaking up the sounds and absorbing the musical lineage of these varied places. With a bluesman's respect for roots and tradition, coupled with an appreciation for--and successful melding of--contemporary songwriting, Walker sublimely incorporates a range of styles with warmth and grace. Perhaps Country Standard Time said it best: "If you subscribe to the Big Tent theory of Americana, then Seth Walker--with his blend of blues, gospel, pop, R&B, rock, and a dash country--just might be your poster boy."

Formed in 1995, Save Ferris remains one of the seminal and most beloved bands from the third wave of ska. The group's Orange County home was fertile ground for a thriving music scene, with punk, rock, and ska emerging from the region. Save Ferris blended the best elements of these sounds to help bring the region's sound to the world.

The group's humble beginnings saw them play house parties and local venues, powered by Monique Powell's high-octane vocals. Save Ferris' live show instantly became a hit. As the word spread, the band got a much-needed boost. Legendary KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer got a hold of the band's self-released album. He played their cover of Dexys Midnight Runners "Come on Eileen" on his Rodney on the ROQ show and the response was overwhelming. Soon thereafter, Kevin Weatherly picked up the song and it was added to the legendary taste-making rock station's rotation. All of this happened independently without a record label and with Powell serving as the singer and band manager.

Major labels started noticing the buzz that was emanating from Orange County. In 1996, the band won a Grammy showcase award for best unsigned band, and with Epic Records' David Massey as one of the judges, Save Ferris would sign with the label. Epic re-released the Introducing Save Ferris EP and, in 1997, Save Ferris unleashed their debut album, It Means Everything. Save Ferris toured the world for the better part of the next six years, with 1999's Modified released during that time.

In 2003, the band went on a hiatus. Starting in 2004, Powell switched gears and used her vocal talents to become a go-to studio musician. She appeared on albums for The Used, Goldfinger, Foxy Shazam, Lost Prophets, Mest, and Hilary Duff, among many others. Slowly, however, Powell started having health issues. In 2015, after years of painful back issues, she underwent a risky procedure to fix her broken neck that could have damaged her greatest musical weapon: her vocal cords. Ahead of the procedure, Powell made a promise to her father, who had been begging her to return to the stage: if the surgery was successful, she'd bring back Save Ferris. And it was a success.

That year, Powell, with a new cast of characters, reformed Save Ferris. The hype surrounding the band was massive. After months of rehabilitation, Powell brought Save Ferris home to Orange County where it played a sold-out show at the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa. Another giant show at the Santa Monica Pier, with over 20,000 people in attendance, was put out on vinyl. These raucous shows proved that the band wasn't just back, but ready to roar. Through a crowdfunded campaign in 2016, Powell and her bandmates went into the studio to record a new EP. Titled Checkered Past, the collection was released the following year, and produced by John Avila of Oingo Boingo. The EP featured an appearance by Neville Staple of The Specials, one of Powell's favorite artists.

Following Checkered Past's release, Save Ferris played the entire 2017 Warped Tour on the main stage, headlined shows, and played festivals across the world.

The future is as bright as it has been for Save Ferris in a long time. Powell scrapped a record she wrote prior to the pandemic and is currently at work on the first new Save Ferris album in nearly two decades. The band recently packed the House of Blues in Anaheim, playing in front of fans of all ages. Powell is the centerpiece of the action. Her dazzling on- stage presence continues to wow audiences and the band's energy is infectious. Save Ferris are out to prove that they're no nostalgia act, with their best days still ahead of them.

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L.A. Witch have always exuded an aura of effortless cool, whether it manifested as the Americana noir and laconic back-to-basics rock n' roll of their self-titled debut or the blistering austere adventurism of their sophomore album Play With Fire. The band--comprised of Sade Sanchez (guitar/vocals), Irita Pai (bass), and Ellie English (drums)--began as an informal affair, but the sultry and beguiling reverb-draped songs they created caught on with the public, moving the project beyond the insular space of the band's friends and peers in Southern California into the broader world. On their latest album, DOGGOD, the trio push their craft beyond their previous creative and geographical confines, opting to craft the material in Paris, recording the tracks at Motorbass Studio on the Rue de Martyrs. DOGGOD explores broader swaths of sonic terrain, employs a greater arsenal of tones, and probes larger existential and cosmic themes, all while retaining the band's signature sense of the forbidden, the forsaken, and the foreboding.

DOGGOD is a way of tackling the universal riddle tangled in the spiritual nature of love and devotion. "I feel like I'm some sort of servant or slave to love," says Sanchez. "There's a willingness to die for love in the process of serving it or suffering for it or in search of it... just in the way a loyal, devoted servant dog would." The album title is a palindrome fusing together DOG and GOD--an exaltation of the submissive and a subversion of the divine. It's a nod to the purity of dogs and an acknowledgement of their unconditional love and protective nature that's at odds with the various pejoratives associated with the species. "There is this symbolic connection between women and dogs that expresses women's subordinate position in society," Sanchez explains. "And anything that embodies such divine characteristics never deserved to be a word used as an insult."

These conflicted explorations of love and subservience manifest themselves in L.A. Witch's fusion of their trademark smooth and smoky garage alchemy with a newfound utilization of post-punk's disciplined reserve and icy instrumentation. Album opener "Icicle" captures the band journeying out of the proto-punk, psychedelia, and gritty riffage of the '70s into the chorus-drenched guitars and forlorn minimalism of Joy Division and early The Cure. A parallel is drawn between romantic suicide and martyrdom that carries over into the second song, "Kiss Me Deep." Here Sanchez describes a love so pure that it transcends time and carries over into multiple lifetimes. It's a song about passion delivered in the worldly and wounded stoicism of early goth pioneers. From there, the band segues into the lead single "777," a song about devotion to the point of death. A propulsive beat, a driving distorted riff, and Sanchez's ethereal vocals come together to create a song that's both dire in its fatalism and sensual in its faithful passion.

Across the entirety of DOGGOD, L.A. Witch never strays from their muse. On "I Hunt You Pray," Pai lays down a hypnotic bass throb while English employs a cyclical krautrock groove and Sanchez paints a picture of an abandoned dog on the roadside, alone in the night, living as both the hunter and the hunted. On "Eyes of Love," the band harnesses the meditative mid-tempo repetition, deconstructed chords, and esoteric ruminations on love, death, and spirituality that made Lungfish such a beloved entity. It reinforces the parallel between the unwavering love seen in the eyes of a dog and the self-sacrifice of a savior. On "The Lines," the band takes the propulsive pulse of post-punk and adds an extra dose of chorus to the mix. "Chorus is a modern effect that comes from the idea of replicating the slight pitch discrepancies of a choir. There is a shimmering quality which ties us back into this spiritual godly feel," Sanchez explains. Coupled with the addition of organ and applied to a brooding minor-key melody, the song simultaneously conjures both the holy and the sacrilegious. The title track "DOGGOD" bears perhaps the strongest resemblance to the material found on the previous album Play With Fire, pitting lean and mean guitars against a scrappy rhythm section and dreamy vocals. But whereas their previous album was a rallying cry to carving one's own path, "DOGGOD" adheres to the album's "til death do us part" theme, going so far as to describe a level of submission that crosses over into dangerous and unhealthy places, with Sanchez singing "hang me on a leash / 'til I wait for my release."

Ultimately, DOGGOD is a perfect encapsulation of L.A. Witch's approach. It's simultaneously romantic and menacing, reverent and profane, a celebration and a lament. It finds the thread between the past and present, taking familiar sounds and revamping them for the modern age. But it also heralds a new era for the band, looking beyond the Kodachrome memories of midcentury America and digging deeper into the medieval and gothic energies of Paris and beyond, all while probing inward at a sullied heart.

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DAIISTAR is an Alt-Indie band formed in Austin, Texas in the spring of 2020. The band takes their inspiration from the neo-psychedelic era of the 80s and 90s (The Jesus and Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, Primal Scream) and pulls it into the future with modulating synthesizers, heavy guitars, bouncing bass lines, and spiraling hooks, creating a narcotic blend of noise and melody. DAIISTAR recorded their first studio album produced by Alex Maas of The Black Angels and engineered by James Petralli of White Denim in the summer of 2021. The band signed to UK based label Fuzz Club Records with their debut album GOOD TIME released on September 8th 2023. The album is available on vinyl including a Levitation Exclusive Edition pressing, as well as CD and digital. DAIISTAR has performed at SXSW, Levitation Austin, Levitation France, Barcelona Psych Fest, KEXP, KUTX and has toured with The Black Angels, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and The Dandy Warhols. In May 2024 DAIISTAR released a 7" Limited Pressing of their single "Clear" Backed by Spacemen 3 co-founder Peter Kember aka SONIC BOOM's remix of the 'Good Time' album track "Velvet Reality" on the B-side.