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Interview & Premiere with Signe Marie Rustad at PopMatters

Signe Marie Rustad by Marthe Amanda Vannebo

Signe Marie Rustad’s latest album, When Words Flew Freely arrives 1 November from Die with Your Boots on Records. Reminiscent of classic singer-songwriters of the 1970s (Joni Mitchell, Judee Sill), Rustad has a voice and musical vision that’s decidedly of this time and, also, timeless. Listening to her latest single, “A Thousand Lights”, one hears her sense of optimism come through in the wordless, ethereal choruses and in the tune’s sweeping, lush arrangement. If ever there were a song that captured rediscovering hope after a long walk with hopelessness, “A Thousand Lights” is it.

First Listen: Immersive Atlanta streams new EP from Quiet Hounds

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Over the course of their previous five records, Quiet Hounds have remained a fairly mutable entity. Not changelings, mind you, able to slip in and out of entirely different skins, but adaptable enough to keep listeners off guard and on their toes. The band’s last LP, Characteristics of Living Things, was a pensive and wistful affair anchored by its shimmering centerpiece “Emperors.” That album found the group experimenting in varying degrees with new textures and atmospheres, but for the most part it remained rooted in the firm clay soil of Southern indie rock, folk, and Americana the quartet had been tilling for years.

With Everything Else is Noise, however, Quiet Hounds found themselves seeking out lush new terrain to sow. The seven-song effort is the group’s most pop-centric effort to date, a sprawling, radiant work that explores an array of varying sonic avenues. While for most bands adopting a greater pop presence simply means chasing down more anthemic hooks and brighter sounds, for Quiet Hounds the process meant rethinking their identity as a group and assuming greater risks.

PopMatters streams EG Vines’ new LP ahead of release

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EG Vines is a cunning roots rock craftsman. Angled towards rock, Vines finds the raw potential for incorporation in many of the genre’s subcategories. Throughout Family Business, his first full-length album as a solo artist, Vines uses elements of rock in many forms to craft his overarching sound. These range from Southern rock to progressive Americana and infectious pop-rock that recalls the early aughts, to gypsy-tinged psychedelia and beyond….

Wide Open Country premieres Sara Melson’s “Same River”

Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Sara Melson acknowledges that change is the only constant in life on the gorgeous and pensive “Same River,” the latest release from her forthcoming EP Wild & Precious Life (out Oct. 11).

The singer and actor, who’s appeared in The Wonder Years, Grey’s Anatomy, Frasier and more, says the dreamy song was inspired by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus and a day spent with her parents…

Caitlin Anne Webster’s “Powhatan River Blues” premiered on Adobe and Teardrops

If we have to do a reprise of the late 60s and early 70s — complete with presidential impeachments, we might as well get the soundtrack, too. Caitlin Anne Webster’s got the kind of rich, clear singing voice that would have made every beatnik drop their espresso and every hippie drop their doobie — and make you drop your vape pen. “Powhatan River Blues” luxuriates in time, space, and musicality. It’s a simple finger-picking pattern that showcases Webster’s poise and insightful lyrics. Clocking in at five minutes, it’s a reminder that we deserve to spread out and take things slow as much as possible.

Glide Magazine premieres New Song from Karen and the Sorrows

Karen & the Sorrows. Photo by Leah James

For the last eight years, queer country trailblazers Karen & the Sorrows have also been at the heart of a growing queer country community, running the Gay Ole Opry Festival and the Queer Country Quarterly, and creating space for people who love country music even if country music doesn’t always love them back.

With the Sorrows’ third album, Guaranteed Broken Heart, singer-songwriter Karen Pittelman has struck off in new directions. While many of the songs still center around the dark, country-rock twang that Pittelman loves, she also dove more deeply into both ‘90s country and string-band inspired sounds.