Patti Smith, the poet of punk, doesn’t turn out to help with just any old debut album, so that’s one reason to lend an ear to this new song from Oliver Ray’s ‘Out Passed Nowhere‘. Of course Ray was also Patti’s guitarist for a decade so maybe that’s not such a surprise – however ‘Best Game in Town‘ fully deserves that listen, building hypnotically it swirls around like a snow globe of cosmic secrets being tossed around in the blazing desert sun. Existence is the question under examination and it might be that it isn’t always great: “how many words we wrote? How many oaks we broke? How many hearts we choked? ” Yet – predominantly by dint of being the only choice – life remains “the best game in town“.
News from Pitchfork this morning: "Last night, Sufjan Stevens performed at Tibet House’s 30th annual benefit concert, which doubled as a celebration of Philip Glass’s 80th birthday. He joined the Patti Smith Band to perform his version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” “My prayer is that we begin to move our hearts, our minds, our…
First in 12 years is a welcome return for well-connected Nashvillian. ‘Quiet Town’ is the new record from East Nashville habitué Mindy Smith. It was recorded at Skinny Elephant Recording Studio with Neilson Hubbard producing and is her first since her eponymous fifth LP in 2012. Smith assembled a crack…
Echoes of Americana icons in an impressive follow-up album. Two years after her debut ‘Delusions of Grandeur’, released under the moniker Sophie & The Broken Things, Sophie Gault returns with ‘Baltic Street Hotel’, a worthy follow-up to that well-received entry into Americana consciousness. An honest and reflective portrayal of her…
Sure, I could climb high in a tree, or go to Skye on my holiday. I could be happy. All I really want is the excitement of first hearing The Byrds, the amazement of decades of Dylan's music, or the thrill of seeing a band like The Long Ryders live. That's not much to ask, is it?
