Leaving the Newport Jazz Festival on Sunday, Aug. 6 So it’s been a little while since the last year-end to-do in this here corner of the Internet. I love year-end lists, and there are aspects of making them that I enjoy — most of all the way it nudges you toward revisiting albums you liked but didn’t get to know front-to-back — but things had gotten a little out of hand by 2020. I found myself stressed out during holiday family time, carving out more and more laptop hours so I could finish multi-thousand-word, multi-category, multi-post extravaganzas. Too much blurbing, too little late-Decem ..read more

Happy Bandcamp Friday, y’all! And happy Richmond Folk Festival weekend to those who celebrate! I truly believe it’s what Richmond does best, and I had the great pleasure of speaking with some of the many talented folks who are performing here over the next few days. Some of them have music on Bandcamp and some don’t, but I wanted to share links to those articles here, in case it motivates you fellow Richmonders to head downtown and fly your folk flag high. “It’s so easy to start dancing” Forró accordionist Felipe Hostins looks back at his journey to the Richmond Folk Festival. A Good Steward ..read more

As I’ve done in recent months — I swear I’ll get back to writing actual blog posts one of these days — I’d love to use Bandcamp Friday as an opportunity to shine a light on the Bandcamp-available music from folks I’ve recently had the pleasure of interviewing, starting with… Ms. Jaylin Brown — Take it Easy I had an opportunity to chat with Ms. Jaylin Brown, who is currently raising funds for graduate study in Spain, and who is already raising up those around her with songs that offer peace and rejuvenation. To say the conversation was inspiring would be an understatement. I hope you’ll read ..read more

Bandcamp Friday is back! I thought I’d celebrate by doing a quick catch-up on non-bloggy writing of mine that’s come out in January, starting with… 49 Winchester — Fortune Favors the Bold I had a chance to speak with 49 Winchester frontman Isaac Gibson about the amazing year they had last year, as well as the band’s beginnings in Russell County, Virginia. Click here to check out the resulting article and hear Gibson sing about Russell County below. – Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams — Live At Levon’s! I’m still pinching myself at having gotten to speak with Larry Campbell and Tere ..read more

On the last Bandcamp Friday of 2022 — hopefully not the last ever! — in addition to sharing the usual list of releases I’m excited about, I wanted to celebrate one song in particular that’s been in heavy rotation lately: “aftermath” by Landon Elliott. I had the pleasure of interviewing Elliott about the song, which was written as Elliott was forecasting the impacts of coming out, and I hope you’ll take a moment to check out the resulting Style Weekly Q&A. This exchange in particular has stuck with me: How has your relationship with “aftermath” changed? This song is so special for me beca ..read more

This Bandcamp Friday is shaping up to be a great one, y’all. No foolin’. Here are a few things I have my eye on: No BS! Brass Band — “Applause!“ I’m one Bandcamp Friday late with this one, but there’s no bad time for new No BS! Brass Band. There’s no bad No BS! Brass Band, for that matter, so it’s no surprise I’m loving “Applause!” – L’Rain — Fatigue I’m even later to this party, but I saw L’Rain open for Animal Collective at the National in early March and made sure to pick up a copy of Fatigue on the way out. It hasn’t been far from my turntable since. – Elkhorn — Lionfish The reissue ..read more

Another glorious Bandcamp Friday, another opportunity to support artists via a platform that’s doing good by temporarily waiving its cut of sales. It’s also an opportunity to catch you good people up on some of the folks I’ve had the opportunity of interviewing recently. – Dazy — OUTOFBODY I typically pick a song to feature in these posts, but I’m embedding this whole dang album, because Dazy’s brilliance comes into sharpest focus in aggregate. Dazy is the stage name of James Goodson, a Richmond-based power pop songsmith who started reclassifying his meticulously crafted home demos as final ..read more

Like we never left, y’all. There’s a bunch of non-bloggy writing I’m working on at the moment, so I didn’t get to write up a ton, but I did want to spotlight some music that’s near and dear, in addition to sharing a longer list of stuff I have my eye on today. – Lean Year — Sides Happy release day to one of the most moving albums you’ll hear all year. I had an opportunity to speak with the folks from Lean Year for Style Weekly, and I walked away with so much respect for their poise, their artistry, and the way their music looks unflinchingly at the big, deep, difficult stuff in life, particu ..read more

I normally write up a handful of releases for Bandcamp Friday, and I’ve listed a bunch of stuff I’m excited about below, but this time around, I want to shine an especially bright light on a single song: “Ellington Bridge,” the first single from the upcoming eponymous album by Richmond-based rock group Timothy Bailey & The Humans. On Tuesday, a Style Weekly article went live that I’d been working on for more than five months — a deep-dive into the journey that led to the creation of Timothy Bailey & The Humans, and into the creative community that has rallied around Bailey. (The album ..read more

Vibes are off a bit this Bandcamp Friday, eh? Yeesh. Only time will tell how damaging or beneficial Epic Games’ acquisition of Bandcamp will turn out to be. I’d like to hold out hope for a glass-half-full version of this where Bandcamp picks up some great new capabilities while continuing to be this haven for community and consciousness around the idea — the fact — that artists deserve to be fairly compensated for their work. It’s hard not to be pessimistic, though. All the same, it’s Bandcamp Friday. They haven’t taken that from us yet, and there are a quite a few things I’ve had my eye on o ..read more