Nikki Lane ’s new album, Highway Queen , sees the young Nashville singer emerge as one of country and rock’s most gifted songwriters. Co-produced by Lane and fellow singer-songwriter, Jonathan Tyler, this emotional tour-de-force blends potent lyrics, unbridled blues guitars and vintage Sixties country-pop swagger.

Had he lived one hundred and fifty years ago, Bradford Loomis may have been riding rail cars out west or sailing down the Mississippi on a paddle boat. Or maybe he would have claimed his stake in the flat lands of the Midwest. Perhaps he would have plied his hand on a ranch in Texas. Born in the Northwest in more modern times, Bradford has lived to tell a different, but no less exciting, tale.

Throughout his precarious northern New Hampshire youth, Matt Pond was often photographed without trousers, stumbling along the icy mountain runoff and over snow-flecked grass, a loyal and ferocious black-and-white Rough Collie half-heartedly giving chase. The years passed. The film flickered but mostly stayed static until, in Philadelphia in ’98, he put the headphones over his ears and first listened to ELO. It was a lightening-bolt-for-one: the strings, they said everything. That’s when the

Angelica Garcia appropriately likens her journey to “ going down the rabbit hole. ” Upon graduating from Los Angeles County High School For The Arts, the 17-year-old native Angeleno found herself living in a 200-year-old gothic brick home encircled by magnolia trees and under a blanket of bright stars in Accomac, Virginia. Her stepfather traded a career in the music industry for Episcopalian priesthood, and an Eastern Shore church would serve as his (and the family’s) first congregation. Behind

Where some musicians lock themselves away in a studio to create an album or a concrete collection of songs, Jonathon Linaberry can’t help but write whenever inspiration strikes. The blues singer and multi-instrumentalist, who incorporates elements of old-time folk into the all-encompassing persona of The Bones of J.R. Jones , describes his songwriting as “ a continuing evolution. ” Nonetheless, he admits he often wishes his ever-wandering creative spirit would settle down. “ I would jump at the

Looking back over the past 25 years of rootsy, string-based music, the impact of Leftover Salmon is impossible to deny. Formed in Boulder at the end of 1989, the Colorado slamgrass pioneers took their form of aggressive bluegrass to rock and roll bars at a time when it wasn’t so common, helping Salmon become a pillar of the jam band scene and unwitting architects of the jamgrass genre.

From the start, Nashville artist Renn ’s journey into music was far from the conventional tale. Time spent torn between passion and insecurity, hobby and calling eventually lead to Heartache and a Song - Renn’s debut album. Poignant lyrics blended with raw, soulful melodies give listeners a starkly personal glimpse into his journey, in a way that connects us to our own.

John Paul White’s new album, Beulah , is his first in nearly a decade - a remarkably and assuredly diverse collection spanning plaintive folk balladry, swampy southern rock, lonesome campfire songs, and dark acoustic pop. Gothic and ambitious, with a rustic, lived-in sound, it’s a meditation on love curdling into its opposite, on recrimination defining relationships, on hope finally filtering through doubt.

One of the finest songwriters of his generation, Jeffrey Foucault has taken, in his own words, ‘ the small roads; ’ building a brick and mortar independent international touring career of ten studio albums, countless miles and critical accolades. He’s been lauded for "stark, literate songs that are as wide open as the landscape of his native Midwest" (The New Yorker) and described as "quietly brilliant" (The Irish Times), while catching the ear of everyone from Greil Marcus to Don Henley to Van

Aussie folk-rockers The Paper Kites initially formed around the duo of Sam Bentley and Christina Lacy, who had been performing and writing together since high school. Members David Powys (guitar/banjo), Sam Rasmussen (bass/synth), and Josh Bentley (drums) were recruited from other Melbourne-based bands in 2010 to complete the lineup that was responsible for their debut single "Bloom."