Each musician’s experience with songwriting and composition differs. Performers may choose to allow their music to reflect experiences that have impacted their lives. One of the beauties in listening to an artist’s different albums is noticing the change and evolution of the music between the records. This reflects my experience with listening to Avi Wisnia’s third studio album Catching Leaves. As Avi alludes to in my video interview with him, 10 years, especially for the music industry, is a long time to release a follow-up album. Nevertheless, within this time, Avi has been sharing the ..read more

Delila Black, the BIPOC Country/Punk singer-songwriter, had a video interview with me for my blog Music Historian. Her new single, a lyrical country-waltz song, “Accountability,” caught my attention for the following reasons. 1) The lyrics made me think about the current call for social justice reform, especially involving Black Lives Matter; 2) the song feels timeless because the lyrics could apply to any situation and; 3) the lap steel guitar and instrumentation takes my mind to a different place. The lyrics in the second verse are: What do you think about, what do you figure out when you w ..read more

Music Historian welcomes back Gypsy George to talk about his new album. This interview is a little different – it is a recorded webinar. Watch, listen, and learn about Gypsy’s new record, Politics, Ex-Girlfriends, and the Ayn Rand Shuffle. Conversations like the one Gypsy and I have in this recorded webinar get deep into his inspirations about releasing an album now, during the pandemic, while also poking some light-heart fun at our own life experiences. Following this conversation, I encourage you to watch Gypsy’s new music video from the new album. The video is for the song “Sailin ..read more

 As a teenager, Nathan Bell got his first performance experience at a rally against the Vietnam War. The singer-songwriter and guitarist from Chattanooga, Tennessee admits that this is not the most profitable way to navigate the music industry. Further, he did not initially set out to be a songwriter. “I wanted to be a journalist, a Steinbeck or Hemingway,” said Nathan Bell about his inspirations. “But I can’t write prose the way I can write songs.” I wondered what made Nathan interested in journalism. He said,”… if you are doing something as a journalist, you cannot present things the wa ..read more

Becky Warren Press Photo. Courtesy of Kyle Dean Reinford Becky Warren, the Nashville-based singer-songwriter returns to the music scene with a 12-track concept record called War Surplus. Although she had been playing music for 25 years, War Surplus – an independent record which has just released – is Becky’s first solo album. To promote her album, Becky is getting ready to hit the road, starting in Baltimore and then traveling to New England, as an opener for the Indigo Girls a second time. During my telephone chat with Becky, the artist recalls the moment in 2004 when she learned that Amy R ..read more

Happy 2016! I should have published this post before December 31st. Please excuse my tardiness. Let’s go into the top five Music Historian blog posts in 2015! No. 5 – The Naked and Famous The Naked and Famous’ Next Chapter: An Interview with the band’s keyboardist Aaron Short  I interviewed Aaron in 2014, just weeks before the New Zealand-native indietronica group would perform at The Governor’s Ball Music Festival. I had contacted about ten talent management organizations for interviews with some of the artists attending the festival. CRS Management, who at the time managed The Naked and ..read more

 On one of her tracks on her debut album, the alternative country singer-songwriter from Australia, Ruby Boots, sings Sliding down Hell’s Backbone/ dark as night, heart unknown/ I’m just looking to lighten my load/ I’m scared, I’m scared, I’m scared… welcome to the middle of nowhere. The name of the song is “Middle of Nowhere,” and the name of the record on which it is featured is called Solitude. In preparation for my interview with Ruby – whose real name is Bex Chilcott, and whom I had the pleasure of learning about through Baby Robot Media – I researched her back story. Visit her web p ..read more

Like many bilingual professionals, Gypsy George, a Brooklyn-based musician whose real name is George Mihalopoulos, has learned to manage two lifestyles simultaneously. You might have guessed that his family is from Greece. Though he was born in the U.S., George says he is “firmly rooted in Greek culture.” He describes to me his every day. “My day to day is quite active and busy. Recently, I’ve added importing olive oil from Greece with my Dad to the mix of things I do. A few years ago, he and I were trying to find ways to bring money back to Greece, due to the financial crisis. My grandfather ..read more