Darren Lumbroso

Toad the Wet Sprocket “RINGS: The Acoustic Sessions”

February 12, 2026 Darren Lumbroso 2

Thoughtful acoustic reworkings of well-known tracks and deep cuts. Toad the Wet Sprocket have been around, albeit, intermittently for 40 years, so it feels an appropriate anniversary to release what could be deemed a 14 track […]

Ben Reel “Spirit’s not Broken”

January 28, 2026 Darren Lumbroso 2

Irish bard returns with organ‑infused songs anchored in love, hope and resilience. Ben Reel has been a musician since 1989, when he was 17. He’s been hailed as the “Irish Bruce Springsteen” by some critics and […]

The Top 10 Americana Songs of All Time: Darren Lumbroso

January 22, 2026 Darren Lumbroso 4

Lists of popular songs have been around for more than a century. The US music trade paper Billboard began publishing a rundown of the top ten best-selling pieces of sheet music in June 1913. By January […]

I Was A King “Until the End”

December 18, 2025 Darren Lumbroso 0

Warm, melodic and moving guitar music from Norway. I Was A King have been at the heart of the Norwegian music scene for the best part of 20 years. For their 10th studio album, the band […]

Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It: Calexico

December 10, 2025 Darren Lumbroso 0

Next year, Calexico will have been around for 30 years, which I find hard to believe. Core members John Convertino and Joey Burns first met in 1990 through their mutual friend Howe Gelb, when Convertino was […]

Stamping on the passion: Why AI written PR is a bad thing for music

September 21, 2026 2

If a music writer opens ten press releases this month, they’ll spot something odd. They all sound like the same person wrote them. Not because the artists share a publicist, or because there’s a house style […]

Carla Gover and Friends “Williams Branch is Hard to Find”

September 21, 2026 0

A cycle of Appalachian folk songs from writer and activist Si Kahn, subtitled Songs for Strong Kentucky Women The subtitle for this album is “Si Kahn’s Songs for Strong Kentucky Women”. Si Kahn is one of […]

Ad for American Beauty album 5th December 1970

For the Sake of the Song: Grateful Dead “High Time”