A few weeks back we featured Peter MacDonald Blachly as our interview guest as we discussed the song “Evening,” which Michael wrote as a posthumous co-write with Peter’s great-uncle, the poet Clarence Dan Blachly. Michael and Aaron also wrote “I Stood Upon a Hill,” from our album Crooked Fiddle, based on Clarence Dan’s words. In addition to being a great custodian of his family’s history, Peter is also a great performing songwriter in his own right. This week we’re featuring his song “Vicksburg.” It’s based on one of the stories he told us during our conversation. This story is covered […]

You know Michael G. Ronstadt’s alternative folk side, but do you know he’s classically trained, with a master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music? Check out this piece, which we bet you’ll like.

Tim Reisert writes songs with meditation, nature, and memory close to the surface. His songs bring the listener into a shared world. He began writing songs while living in New York City, then spent a few years involved in the DIY music scene in Phoenix, Arizona. He currently lives and teaches in Cincinnati, Ohio. His album Viewfinder is a love letter to the natural world–with no expectation of a reply. It is his view of the natural world through the lens of fatherhood, love, and photography. Here’s what he has to say about the song “Oleander True”: “The story of […]

The stunning sound quality on “Hello World” was made possible by Gregory Hugh Brady, a recording engineer at Smithbridge Studios (Greg is at center in the photo). We started recording with him for “Shadow of the Cyclone,” and when the world shut down just before its release in 2020, there were no gigs… So, we just kept recording, leading to our most recent album. Greg, of Delaware County, PA, brings wonderful energy into the studio, allowing artists to do their best work. We were grateful to have him as our companion, guide, collaborator and co-producer on these two albums. In […]

This week we feature our friend, the amazing multi-talented LisaBeth Weber. She’s a writer, a visual artist, and a creative consultant from Bucks County, PA. She’s an important part of the Philadelphia folk scene, whether it’s in the songs she plays, the beautiful pins she designs, or just the way she’ll show up and support you. She has opened shows for Nanci Griffith, Ralph Stanley, Dave Grisman, Roy Clark, and many others, along with having two songs featured on NPR’s “Car Talk.” She has a wonderful energy about her. And you can hear real energy in this song from her […]

Rachel Mousie, vocalist, songwriter, and looper, was born and raised in Cincinnati, OH. Her songs feature spare but meaningful piano parts, looped vocal harmonies, and percussive rhythms behind melodic vocal lines. It’s music that makes you feel something. During the day, she’s a clinically licensed social worker at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and a child mental health therapist. She often pulls from her personal and professional experiences for lyrical inspiration to address issues that mean something to her.  She wrote “I Can Do What You Can Do” as a part of a Songwriter group intended to help increase creative output and […]

Who was Clarence Dan Blachly? Michael came upon his book of poems named “Stubble Fields,” published in 1939, when he was wandering through a used bookstore in Phoenixville, PA more than a decade ago. He was so taken with the beauty of the prose, he asked Aaron to help put music to one of the poems. That led to “I Stood Upon a Hill,” which opens Aaron & Michael’s first album. Michael set another Blachly poem, “Evening,” to music for the latest Nathans/Ronstadt project.  But Clarence Dan Blachly remained something of a mystery. Aaron and Michael had been in touch […]

This week we are featuring a musical force of nature here in the Philadelphia music scene: Rob Lincoln. Rob reminds me a little of myself (Aaron) in his willingness to write about anything, including real people. We share an appreciation of historical figures — he took the stage name Lincoln, after all. (It’s his middle name.) Today we’ll present his song about a different former president. But first, i want to tell you a little more about Rob. He’s a leader in the local music scene. I met him shortly after I moved back East in the mid-2000’s, and at […]

These days, so many of the Ronstadt family members actively perform and sometimes tour. In the fall of 2022, they held a family gala that packed the Fox Theatre in Tucson with 1200 seats full! Two of those featured family members are Linda’s nephews Petie and Michael G. Ronstadt, who travel and perform as Ronstadt Brothers. They toured with their late father and Linda’s brother, Michael J. Ronstadt, as Ronstadt Generations. That group was an outstanding five-piece band featuring saxophone, upright bass, cello, guitars, banjo, drums and tons of family harmonies.  In the 1990’s, Michael J. Ronstadt closed up shop at the Ronstadt […]

Aaron’s love of baseball history led him to Rory Costello’s fabulous essay about the secret history of Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the two-year period after the Dodgers left and before the beloved park was razed. Costello’s Essay, “Twilight at Ebbets Field,” (click on this link to read it) tells of the many activities that took place at the park during its final years, including soccer, amateur baseball, and even an auto thrill show. Aaron and Michael interviewed Rory from his home in Brooklyn. Rory Costello is Co-Chairman of the Society for American Baseball Research’s BioProject Committee […]