“[Walter Parks’] style is in the realm of late blues great John Campbell, Keb’Mo, Taj Mahal, & Jon Dee Graham. Yet what makes Walter special — he knows the songs need the region’s dirt & mud in the melody, the swamp diction, southern-fried intonation, humid phrasing, & whiskey tonality.”
Stuff Happens is Stuffy Shmitt’s first record in eight years because, well, he went crazy. Or maybe he just manifested his longtime craziness. Proof: He was bounced from bars in New York’s West Village for years, so he left to live in Nashville. If anyone needs more convincing, please listen to the whole album—the songs, as evidence of severely crazy, would stand up in court.
This unconventional artist (no, that’s not redundant) comes by his off-center musicality honestly. Growing up in Milwaukee, his mother drank, played drums and wrote songs in her sleep; his father played guitar and had a thing for fast cars. Shmitt said, “We read a lot of books, listened to a lot of music and protested social injustices. Our home was loud and nasty and violent. We didn’t spend a lot of time hugging or talking about feelings.”
Stuff Happens is all about disasters, big and small. The songs run the full spectrum of manic depression to bizzaro blues rockers to naked, unapologetic American rock & roll and desolate Americana ballads.
Third time’s a charm? That’s the cliché but, in Ross Adams’ case, it holds true.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based singer/songwriter has released two previous sets (2014 and 2018), which went largely under the radar. For this one though, he calls in the big guns. That would be Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit band and producer Jimbo Hart, who also plays bass in the outfit. READ MORE…
Boston-based indie rocker Carissa Johnson is back this fall with her new LP, Blue Hour. Recorded over lockdown, the record is Johnson’s first solo album since 2016’s Only Roses. In the intervening years, she’s been playing with her band, The Cure-Alls, but quarantine found her retreating inward for one of her most personal offerings yet. READ MORE…
