FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/bradpetersonmusic/

Chicago based singer/songwriter Brad Peterson’s latest release, The Ellipsis Album, might promise to be a rather serious and somber affair if you read about its genesis. Peterson spent a number of years sidelined due to a severe spinal injury that rendered performing and recording impossible for a performer who had risen far thanks to his considerable skills. As his condition improved, however, he found his attention turning back towards music with a renewed emphasis that perhaps been missing before. Moreover, the sound emerging from these thirteen songs has a more comprehensive approach than anything he’s taken part of before and there’s certainly a maturity discernible in each of the song that, undoubtedly, is born from painful personal experience. However, there’s ample humor here as well, some of it dark, some whimsical, and this diversity in the songwriting helps make reality the idea that The Ellipsis Album is one of 2017’s most compelling indie releases.

URL: https://johnbrownlowmusic.com/

Who doesn’t like Singer-Songwriter music? I’d all hands go up in the air. I mean, while Singer-Songwriter, which by the way kind of emerged in the late 60’s and 70’s with the arrival of artists like Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, Elton John, Jim Croce and Billy Joel they represented a close and personal artistic snapshot from the artist in question. The music tended to be at times gripping and powerful. Many feel the Singer-Songwriter sound has lost it’s way evolving into overly commercialized, highly corporate songs that do a better job at getting under your skin rather than getting into your heart.

URL: https://www.barbarajokammer.com/

Barbara Jo Kammer’s One Song at a Time is a ten song collection that, in some ways, attempts putting down in a recording the truth of Kammer’s journey from the clutches of addiction into a new life free from the yoke of self abuse and filled with gratitude for life and survival. It’s also a memorable invocation of music from another time, but it isn’t ever a case of ten gorgeous butterflies trapped under glass for us to gawk and chatter about. This is living, breathing musical art that engages human emotions in a real way and doesn’t merely aim to entertain. It does entertain, however – the mix of instruments brought to bear on this track often possesses a lovely elegance and never risks over-indulgence. Everything comes together on this album in a very natural, live, and intimate fashion – we feel like Kammer is performing for herself and us alone.

URL: https://www.ephrataband.com/

Ephrata’s first full length release is a self-titled eleven song collection expanding mightily on the promise of their previous EP and harboring the potential to catapult this four piece to the forefront of the genre. Their blend of dreamy vocals with atmospheric guitar work and synthesizer playing comes together without ever sounding forced or plotted out. Their subject matter, as well, has a darker edge but is clearly written for adults rather than propping up some pose of teenage despair. Vocalist Skandi von Reis gives the band an added distinctive quality lacking from similarly themed acts, but it’s the songwriting that ultimately makes Ephrata’s first full length such a memorable listening experience. These are organic composition, no two passages ever sounding mismatched, and flows with a natural order that discerning listeners will find quite satisfying. The stew of influences coming to a boil on this album has youth, a vivid musical imagination, and an appetite for risk taking that makes it one of 2017’s most noteworthy releases.

URL: https://www.thesighsmusic.com/

Western Massachusetts 4 piece rock band The Sighs just released their latest 11 song CD entitled Wait On Another Day. From the first notes of “It’s Real” through to the final massive live solos and heavy riffs of “Thinking About Soul”, this release fires on all cylinders. In contrast a band like The Sighs delivers an incredibly balanced blend of Power Pop, Classic Rock and Hard Rock and just a dash of Alternative Rock. The Sighs band members include Bobby LaRoche (Vocals), Tommy LaPluta (Bass), Matt Cullen (guitar), Tom Borawski (Drums). In this aspect LaRoche and company have much in the way of promise and marketability especially to cult fans like The Smashing Pumpkins, Polaris, Counting Cows and even Screaming Trees. The Sighs provide 11 intriguing musical stepping stones and boldly showcase better than average musicianship with no illusions, or farces. This is real and genuine rock n’ roll musical expressionism folks! All tracks are powerful (both in a brutal and soft way), melodic and highly entertaining. Which doesn’t even begin to describe the inducing guitar/vocal presence of guitarist Matt Cullen and front man Bobby LaRoche, respectively. They are both masters at their respective crafts. Like I had mentioned its impressive how well the band have combined often heavy, grunge with alt-rock balladry. What’s more I didn’t fail to notice deep, soulful vocals and emotive lyrics perhaps influenced by John Lennon or Oasis. The band as whole are captivating composers within their own right. Some songs on this latest release seem painfully simple yet not to be underestimated (Tracks Words of Love, Lift Me Up); while some songs know a sure direction delivering the A-Typical Rock flair (Thinking About Soul).

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/BunnySigler/

Bunny Sigler’s latest single, a cover of the jazz standard “Angel Eyes”, shouldn’t be mistaken as tribute. Instead, we’re treated to “Mr. Emotion” tackling a venerable classic with all of the required stylishness and artfulness needed to get it over with a modern audience. This mainstay on the classic soul/R&B scene first came to fame as one of the true titanic talents of the Philly school of performers and his longevity can be marked down to a number of factors, some of which are fully on display with this performance. Sigler retains the uncanny talent for being able to get deep inside any arrangement or lyric presented to him and brings the forcefulness of his own personality to each work. Despite the material’s age, the production helps bring it to vivid life thanks to the clear rendering it receives here. This is a moment that certainly ranks high in Sigler’s long career.

URL: https://www.marcdanielscountry.com/

Marc Daniels is a relative newcomer to the scene and this latest single, “Summer Song”, is cut in the tradition of assertive pop country anthems that has experienced considerable commercial favor over the last decade or more. The production accentuates all of this but Daniels, to his everlasting credit, takes on a different approach to the form than many of his contemporaries. He foregoes the glossy surfaces and seamless changes that distinguish this style in favor of some gritty Southern Rock touches and the experiment at bringing together a smooth presentation with these more “authentic” elements results in a more successful outing overall. The song never risks self-indulgence, either, as Daniels and his collaborators keep things short and to the point.

SPOTIFY: https://play.spotify.com/album/6ge2D0YIJLhifhMq56VHVM?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open

HYTS hails from San Fracisco and Tucson, AZ and are back with their new record Exoplanet. Overall Internet presence is slowly taking shape as I learned a few things about them even before I hit play. The CD hits the deck running with a strong first track properly titled “We Are” - I say properly because it pretty much sums up the tone of the band. It’s somewhat striking reminiscent of Dead Letter Circus, Pendulum and Deadmau5.

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/WeatherBoyMusicOfficial/

The ten song debut from Weatherboy is an outstanding mix of outright upscale pop gems possessing varying degrees of artistry. The collaboration between John Walquist and Ragnar Rosinkranz has wild musical dexterity and utilizes a number of seemingly disparate elements to supreme effect. There’s some clear influences exerting a hold over the musical imagination of this project, but Weatherboy are rare talents who have taken in those contributions, subsumed them into their musical DNA, and now reflect them back in a way unique to them. Their willingness to tamper with tempo, expand the genre’s instrumental vocabulary, and write from a place of immense skill and honesty, positions them to reinvent high pop, ala The Beatles, in unexpected ways. There are a lot of moods, however, weaving this album’s emotional character and they clearly entered into the studio with a clear conception of what they wanted and how to get it.