HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Mostly Trees Mostly Trees is a 4-piece band from Minneapolis, known for their take on guitar driven rock that ranges from grunge to dream pop. Their new style is a stripped down version of their earlier work, realized after bonding over a modified version of the […]
Maia Sharp Reckless Thoughts Self-released Maia Sharp has been writing songs for 25 years, some for her own albums and others for artists such as Bonnie Raitt, The Chicks, Lisa Loeb, Trisha Yearwood, Art Garfunkel, Cher, Edwin McCain, Terri Clark, and many more in her genre agnostic – hard-to-pin-down approach which she has carried into […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Heatbox Aaron “Heatbox” Heaton (aka The One Man Entertainment System), personifies a true renaissance musical pioneer in his prime. How does Heatbox level up an impossible decade plus career spanning multiple lanes of otherworldly creative mastery? He writes and produces a seminal work of musical comedy, […]
Beth Bombara It All Goes Up Black Mesa It All Goes Up, the seventh album from rocking Americana singer, songwriter, and guitarist Beth Bombara, follows her 2019 acclaimed Evergreen, which unlike some her previous work, delivered hopeful themes. This one is even brighter, as the songwriter reconnected with an old classical guitar during the pandemic and forced herself […]
Darlingside Everything Is Alive More Doug/Thirty Tigers The folk ensemble Darlingside follow their acclaimed 2020 Fish Pond Fish with Everything Is Alive, their fifth, which marks a slight change in their united front, in favor of more individual statements. Band members Dave Senft (vocals, bass), Don Mitchell (vocals, guitar, banjo), Auyon Mukharji (vocals, violin, mandolin), […]
SUSTO My Entire Life New West My Entire Life is the fifth album for the Americana outfit, SUSTO and the first time we have covered them on these pages. The 12-song set was produced by Wolfgang Zimmerman (Band of Horses), Justin Osborne and Johnny Delaware, three of the band’s principals. My Entire Life follows their critically […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Daryl Mosley Grammy nominated songwriter Rick Lang says, “If you want to know Daryl Mosley, just listen to his music. There is a unique transparency in that soft, Southern drawl and his impressive collection of songs.” Daryl writes and sings about small town life, faith in […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Scott Zosel Ellen Stanley dubbed Scott Zosel as ‘a songwriter’s songwriter.’ Inspired by the bold poetry of Emily Dickinson and the psychedelic country of Gram Parsons, the Minneapolis-based artist has always been drawn to artful and fearless storytelling. “Writing songs is the last thing I think […]
The Contenders The Contenders Southern Moon Sometimes an album, even one that’s been out of print for some time, just refuses to die. Such is the case for The Contenders, an immensely talented group of Carolinian singer-songwriters with eclectic tastes that merged in the late’70s in Nashville. The scene was ripe and burgeoning at the […]
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway City of Gold Nonesuch Play the last song of this dazzling bluegrass adventure first. Throughout “The First Time I Fell in Love,” a lilting “Mr. Bojangles”-like melody carries Molly Tuttle’s soul baring recollections of being a teenager. Tuttle was diagnosed with Alopecia as a three-year-old, and it quickly advanced to […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Ben Noble Ben Noble released his 3rd album ‘Bitter Work’ on May 26, 2023. Bitter Work is a journey through the constructs of his religious roots and the ways that he has tried to learn outside the confines of dualism – right and wrong aren’t as certain as we […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene presents an Interview with Aaron Smith Aaron Smith’s songs explore the mystery of human experience, searching for the meaning of love, family, heritage, kindness, doubt, and grace. In vignettes infused with an infectious sense of hope and humor, the unlikely heroes of his songs — grandmothers and grandfathers, street preachers […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Mitch Hayes Americana/Folk Artist of the Year” (2016 and 2018 Queen City Music Awards), Mitch Hayes is an award-winning singer/songwriter, recording and national touring artist from Charlotte, North Carolina who now calls Oklahoma home. His music is as eclectic as the creative influences that have helped […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Pistol Pete Wearn Pistol Pete Wearn is a solo acoustic blues artist who performs raucous and upbeat material accompanied by slide guitar and a stomping foot. His music has been played on BBC 6 Music, described as “as true as it gets” by Blues Blast […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Michelle Malone A mainstay of American roots music for more than 30 years, Michelle Malone has built an award-winning career as a singer, songwriter, and road warrior. Her music is ingrained in the soundtrack of the American South, mixing the rebellious stomp of roadhouse rock & […]
Brian Kalinec The Beauty of It All Berkalin Texas singer-songwriter Brian Kalinec writes about common, everyday subjects but has a special gift for infectious hooks and memorable rhymes. He grabs us right away with his opening autobiographical title track, welcoming us into an album brimming with comforting folk songs. Acclaimed producer Merel Bregante at Cribworks […]
South Austin Moonlighters From Here to Home Self-released Austin and South Austin may not have the bustling roots-rock/Americana scene they had in late ‘90s and early 2000s but The South Austin Moonlighters are here to evoke those glory days and remind us that their music is still a vital part of what the Live Music […]
William Lee Ellis Ghost Hymns Yellow Dog Ghost Hymns is the first album in over a decade for versatile roots artist William Lee Ellis, godson of Bill Monroe and son of Blue Grass Boy banjoist and composer Tony Ellis. Currently William Lee Ellis is Associate Professor of Music and Chair of the Fine Arts Department […]
HOME PAGE Making A Scene presents an Interview with Sara Petite An outlaw country headliner whose music reaches far beyond the genre’s borders, Sara Petite has built an award-winning career with songs that owe as much to the rock & roll roadhouse as they do the honky-tonk. Hers is a raw, rough-edged version of American […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Don Richmond of The Rifters The Rifters formed in 2002 in the fertile and creative music scene of Taos, New Mexico from members of two popular bands already active in the area. Jim Bradley and Don Richmond of Hired Hands, and Rod Taylor of the Rounders, […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Brings you an interview with Dean Mueller A professional musician for nearly 20 years, Dean Mueller has worked as a performer, producer, promoter, recording engineer and teacher. Now he begins a new phase of his career with Sky Fallin’, his solo album debut. The bassist-turned-singer-songwriter recorded his album of original […]
The Drive-by Truckers The Complete Dirty South New West This is more of a buyer’s guide than a regular review. Let’s just say for this writer, that The Drive-by Truckers’ The Dirty South, has long been the crown jewel of their robust catalog and that this enhanced version only improves on it. Going further, The […]
Son Volt Day of the Doug Transmit Sound/Thirty Tigers Day of the Doug is the Son Volt album that doesn’t sound like a Son Volt album until we reach the last two tracks. Surely, it’s a tribute to the Tex-Mex stylings of Doug Sahm but that’s not the point. The lonely, weary, burnished voice of […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Brian Kalinec Texan Brian Kalinec has been called “a combination of Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck, James Taylor, and Rodney Crowell in the stories he tells” in a review in music magazine Rootsy. He has also been described by Robert Bartosh of Roots Music Report as “one […]
Tremoloco Curandera Volume 1 Slo Poke Bandleader Tony Zamora has put together and infectious concoction of what he describes as Gulf Coast, Country, and Mexican music on Curandera Volume 1, and album recorded in two different studios involving seven engineers, and a collective of seventeen musicians who augment the core trio of multi-instrumentalist and lead […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with The Dilly Dally Alley Dilly was formed with the intent of eternally seeking out the perfect groove, as well as repairing and re-embodying communal spaces that dissolved from the pandemic. The tunes from Make You Whole are meant to be interacted with live. Crowd games and […]
The Cowboy Junkies Such Ferocious Beauty Cooking Vinyl Such Ferocious Beauty is the third album of new material since The Cowboy Junkies returned from a six-year hiatus in 2018. Over a 35-year career, the band has released 29 albums and were doing this roots-Americana thing before people were even thinking in those terms. The original […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Erika Olson Erika Olson, an American Expat, raises babies and write songs in the high weald of East Sussex. Erika combines vulnerable vocals, contemporary storytelling, and musical influences spanning indie, folk, country, blues, Americana and pop. When pressed to describe her music, Erika likes to call […]
Making a Scene Brings you Gerry Casey’s Interview with Jonny Parry Living and working in Liverpool for a number of years now, he’s ‘living the dream’, playing the Cavern Club and Pub at various times throughout the week. Jonny has had the opportunity to work for many well established tribute bands throughout the years, […]
Robert Ellis Yesterday’s News Niles City After a string of five strong and truly varied albums for New West, Texas troubadour, the enigmatic Robert Ellis issues his first album, the richly intimate Yesterday’s News on his own label, Niles City Records. This writer once heard an artist state that every album should be different from […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Carter Sampson Carter Sampson is an Oklahoma born and raised, award winning singer songwriter. She tours nationally and internationally playing both solo and with her trio & band. Sampson won 1st place in the Chris Austin Song Contest at Merlefest and was a top 5 finalist in the […]
Michelle Malone Fan Favorites Vol. 1 Unplugged SBS/The Orchard Independent Atlanta bluesy singer-songwriter Michelle Malone, like many musicians, got resourceful during the pandemic. Riding the success of her singer-songwriter album, 1977, and especially the single/video “Dust Bowl Man,” Malone began streaming her stripped-down songs from her living room during the shutdown, satisfying fans and amassing […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Sarah Morris Sarah Morris has a habit of missing the forest. From the day the Minneapolis based singer-songwriter picked up a guitar, armed with the bone-deep memory of her parents’ well-loved record collection and rooted in the storytelling fire of a Mary Chapin Carpenter tune, she’s […]
Rodney Crowell The Chicago Sessions New West The title of Rodney Crowell’s new album speaks to a collaboration with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco who produced the album that was recorded in Wilco’s Loft by Tom Schick. In terms of sound, knowing that, you might not expect that it is more in line with Crowell’s first […]
The Wood Brothers Heart is the Hero Honey Jar/Thirty Tigers The Wood Brothers admonish us to slow down in the rollicking opener “Pilgrim” on their eighth album, and that slowing down to appreciate the little, oft overlooked aspects of life, is essentially the theme of this infectious record stock of songs with the kind of […]
The Infamous Stringdusters A Tribute to Flatt & Scruggs Americana Vibez Records Here they go again, those Infamous (and incredible) Stringdusters, demonstrating that to rock as creatively and successfully as they do in the progressive bluegrass realm, frequent trips back to the music’s Appalachian sources to really know the stuff, are an obligation. Besides enormous […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Hilary Tipps and Steve Obermiller It took no time at all for Fort Worth, Texas songwriters Hilary Tipps and Steve Obermiller to fall in love and start their lives together. But it was a decade of trying to create life, deal with death and build careers […]
Mike Miz Only Human Blackbird The singer/songwriter/guitarist Mike Mizwinski, better known as Mike Miz, took a major step by moving to Nashville three years ago. Miz has a strong following in his native Northeastern Pennsylvania as a jam band icon, from early band Morning Pride to his various Miz band lineups to Phish and Grateful […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Jake Ybarra It can be hard for an artist to pinpoint when the muse first struck and launched them into a creative life. For 25-year-old Jake Ybarra, the first step on his journey came in Harlingen, Texas, where Ybarra (pronounced “e-BAR-a”) was born into a musical […]
David Haerle El Camino Sierra Edendale Los Angeles singer/songwriter/guitarist and indie-label owner David Haerle releases his third album, El Camino Sierra, his follow-up to 2020’s Death Valley. Like that album, the themes are rooted in California geography and personal experience. While this writer described his previous effort as “an uneven set of songs, some of […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Sarah Rogo Sarah Rogo is an artist, composer, and guitar player residing in Los Angeles, CA. With her haunting and unique slide guitar work, she defies genres and reshapes how the guitar can be used in composition and songwriting. You can find her as one of […]
Steve Dawson Eyes Closed, Dreaming Black Hen Music Steve Dawson’s status in his home country Canada could decorate the face of a skyscraper. Dawson has played remarkable guitar on, and/or produced, over 200 albums since emerging in the late 1990s, winning a cabinet full of trophies including seven Juno Awards for his efforts. Now in […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an interview with Martha Groves Perry Martha Groves Perry is a singer-songwriter, entertainer, and multi-instrumentalist based in San Francisco, California. Her original music has a straightforward, compelling and sometimes edgy clarity with strong blues, southern rock, and experimental influences and a badass Americana flavor. Her penetrating lyrics, described by her producer, Kenny […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Skarlett Woods Entwining Swing and Jazz into folk-themed stories of love, she has a stage presence that demands the attention of a room. Taking her listeners on up-beat rhythmic rides over heart- swelling arrangements of originals and covers, Skarlett has simply become more comfortable showing herself […]
JP Ruggieri Gradually Descend Into Chaos Self-released For those who follow The Wood Brothers or the excellent album from singer/songwriter Jarrod Dickenson, guitarist and fellow singer/songwriter JP Ruggieri may be a familiar name. To the rest of the you, this may serve as an introduction although Gradually Descend Into Chaos is his second full-length album. […]
Jaimee Harris Boomerang Town Folk N’ Roll/Thirty Tigers On just her second album Jaimee Harris has proven to be an impressive singer-songwriter, creating vivid character sketches, a myriad of emotions, and an honest way of expressing her own personal feelings through her narratives. She echoes Springsteen and Gretchen Peters to name just two. Those alone […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Buddy Mondlock Buddy Mondlock writes songs. He does it so well that some great songwriters have recorded his songs on their own albums. Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith, and Janis Ian, to name just a few. You might’ve heard his song “The Kid” (recorded by David Wilcox, Peter, […]
Buddy Mondlock Filament Self-released Buddy Mondlock is one of the better, albeit lesser known Nashville-based singer songwriters. After all, any songwriter who co-writes with Guy Clark is in a lofty category, just be virtue of that. Yet, there’s much more here on Mondlock’s latest, Filament, than just “The Dark,” the co-write with Clark. The album […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Scott Allen As a Minnesota music fan, singer/bassist and live sound engineer, Scott’s had a unique exposure to Minnesota music and the artists performing it. On the bass and backing vocals, he’s played in bands with songwriters like Tom Mason, Mark Hasbrouch (Surahoolies), Phil Solem (The […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Laura Zucker Singer-songwriter Laura Zucker wins audiences over with a hard-won perspective and a positive spin. The powerful imagery of her songs and stories ring so true you might think she’s read your diary – and you’ll find yourself humming her infectious melodies for days to […]
