Guitarist, singer and songwriter Matt Munisteri’s debut straddles several genres with honesty and conviction. Jazz, swing and cabaret are found embedded in the songs themselves, as well as in the playing and arrangements.
With his warm and flexible voice, combined with considerable six-string chops, Munisteri leads his curiously-named combo (accordion/piano/organ, bass, drums, and trumpet) through fourteen [...]

Big Medicine is a four-piece old-time string band from around Dur-ham, North Carolina. While many old-time bands focus mainly on dance music, choosing to mine the repertoire of a specific fiddler or region, Big Medicine looks at the music through a wider lens.
Too Old To Be Controlled demonstrates their familiarity, and proficiency, with the broad [...]

Named for the old house band at Fred Boettcher’s Music Lounge in South St. Louis — which has, under the ownership of Boettcher’s son, Fred Friction, become a favorite alt-country venue — Fred’s Variety Group started out as a lark between guitarist Mark Stephens, singer Sunyatta Marshall and bassist Sherman S. Sherman, but has, with [...]

You may have seen Tim Grimm on a movie screen in the mid-’90s (Clear And Present Danger). While still doing a little acting, lately he’s been farming hay and raising chickens with his wife and three boys on a farm outside of Columbus, Indiana. Turning back to music upon his escape from Los Angeles, he’s [...]

Sporting two equally talented song-writer/guitarists (Ken Morton and Mike Goldman, who also divvy up the lead vocals), the Indicators specialize in mid-tempo garage rock bashed out in the ramshackle spirit of the Goo Goo Dolls circa 1990 — albeit with a heavy dose of southern drawl.
Tethered to a granite-solid rhythm section (the snare-happy drumming of [...]

A collection of, as the subtitle puts it, “acoustic folk, blues & swing” more or less centered around a theme, this is an engaging set that leverages the presence of some familiar names to draw attention to others that ought to be, while solving the problem of what to give the fishing enthusiast who already [...]

Brooks Williams follows the shimmering folk blues of 2001’s Skiffle Bop with a richer-sounding, tightly constructed, often pop-inflected set that includes several intriguing covers.
Williams kicks off with ’80s Scottish popsters Aztec Camera’s “Birth Of The True”. Later he reprises John Martyn’s classic “May You Never”, blues singer and pianist Memphis Slim’s “Mother Earth”, and Scottish [...]