All Good Now

Goose released their debut album in 2016 and quickly took flight, playing countless shows while steadily amassing a fervent fan following for their unique brand of irresistible songcraft, fluid musicianship, and spirited improvisational performance. 2022 proved a career-defining year for the Connecticut-based quintet with their critically acclaimed third studio album, Dripfield. Fueled by such hypnotic tracks as “Hungersite” (which spent multiple weeks among the top 10 at Triple A radio outlets nationwide), the album proved a phenomenon, debuting at #2 on Billboard’s “Top New Artist Albums” chart amidst critical applause from such national outlets as Rolling Stone, which hailed it as “both sweet headphone ear candy and the foundation for a perfect live peak.”

Known for their exuberant grooves and incendiary bursts of musical exploration, Goose has spent much of the past decade on a seemingly infinite tour schedule that includes sold-out headline shows at such renowned venues as Morrison, CO’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Nashville, TN’s Ryman Auditorium, and New York City’s hallowed Radio City Music Hall; a sold-out co-headline run alongside Trey Anastasio Band; a sold-out EU/UK headline tour, and show-stealing appearances at such festivals as Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Electric Forest, and Dead & Company’s Playing In The Sand in Riviera Cancun, MX. Recent highlights also include a sold-out, five-night run at Port Chester, NY’s historic Capitol Theater and 2023’s 10th annual Goosemas holiday celebration at Hampton, VA’s famed Hampton Coliseum, as well as TV performances on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and CBS Saturday Morning.

Goose are: Rick Mitarotonda (vocals, guitar), Peter Anspach (vocals, keys, guitar), Trevor Weekz (bass),  Jeff Arevalo (vocals, percussion, drums), Cotter Ellis (drums)

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead is Marco Benevento, Dave Dreiwitz, Tom Hamilton, Scott Metzger and Joe Russo. We’re a Grateful Dead cover band.

The past three decades have written a story packed full of surreal experiences, epic moments, groundbreaking involvement and huge accomplishments. The String Cheese Incident has been recognized for their commitment to musical creativity and integrity, for their community spirit, philanthropic endeavors, and for their innovative approach to the business of music.

When The String Cheese Incident’s growth first started gaining momentum in the 1990s, as the Internet was just beginning to take hold and the major-label business model was failing, the band decided to make music on their own terms.

Since then, The String Cheese Incident has gone on to carve out a completely unique approach to the business of music; they are truly pioneers of a new way of “making a band.” With the Internet as their tool, SCI was among the first artists to disseminate information online, such as tour dates, release information, and other news, to their growing fan base. Rather than doing business on such terms as “the bottom line,” SCI put their music and their fans first, opening companies of their own, including a ticketing company, a merchandise company and a fan travel agency, to best serve their community. The band’s record label, SCI Fidelity Records, has always operated under the same ideals. Even early on, SCI Fidelity embraced downloadable music and file sharing, delivering SCI’s “On The Road” series, where every show the band plays is made available for download on the Internet. Whether they realized it at the time or not, The String Cheese Incident was inventing grassroots band development. Today, literally hundreds of bands are using some version of this same approach to build their brand.

The String Cheese Incident’s commitment goes well beyond their immediate community, and even beyond the music community as a whole. Early on, the band took a serious interest in giving back to the communities that they visited, and they were among the first performers to encourage “Green” shows and tours. SCI’s support has helped give rise to such not-for-profit organizations as Conscious Alliance and HeadCount. All the while, The String Cheese Incident has stayed committed to music as a creative endeavor, not just in their recordings but also in their live performances. The list of SCI’s special guests and collaborators is long and diverse. Their annual events such as Electric Forest and Hulaween, and holiday shows such as New Year’s Eve, have helped redefine the concert experience and have garnered the band a reputation as live music vibe innovators.

As NPR writes, “siblings Clyde and Gracie Lawrence are not your typical pair.” Clyde Lawrence and Gracie Lawrence have been writing songs and listening to countless Stevie Wonder, Randy Newman, and Aretha Franklin records in their family’s New York City apartment since they were little kids. After years of playing together, they officially created Lawrence, an eight-piece soul-pop band comprised of musician friends from childhood and college. The band has since gained a devoted following for its high-energy, keyboard-driven sound, which features tight, energetic horns and explosive lead vocals.

In 2024, Lawrence entered a new era with the release of their fourth studio album, Family

Business. The album’s opening track, “Whatcha Want”, broke into the Top 40 on the US Pop Chart, and Lawrence recently performed it on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Today With Hoda & Jenna, and CBS Saturday Morning.

The album is accompanied by their biggest headline tour yet across Europe and North America, which has included iconic sold out shows at venues across Europe and North America like Radio City Music Hall in New York City, The Wiltern in Los Angeles, two nights at the Forum in London, and North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam. They released four singles leading up to the album including, “I’m confident that I’m insecure,” “23,” “Guy I Used To Be,” as well as the album’s title track, “Family Business.” Additionally, they have announced The Family Business Tour Part 2 which will not only bring them to Australia for the first time, but will also bring them back to Europe the UK, with more shows in the US to be added.

In July 2021, Lawrence released their album, Hotel TV, and became the first band to release music under Beautiful Mind Records, the label of Grammy-winning producer/songwriter/artist Jon Bellion, who co-produced and co-wrote the songs on the album. The tracks on Hotel TV have garnered tens of millions of streams across all platforms and have had multiple viral moments on Tik Tok and Instagram. The album’s lead single, “Don’t Lose Sight,” was featured in an international Microsoft commercial, which propelled it into the Top 20 on the USA Shazam Pop Charts, and also hit #33 on Top 40. The band performed “Don’t Lose Sight” on Jimmy Kimmel Live, did a performance of it for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and closed both of their sets at Coachella with it (with the entire audience singing along)! The band also played a single “23” off of the Family Business album live during their set at Jingle Ball in 2023.

Live shows and touring have been key components of the group’s rise to success; the group opened for The Rolling Stones at MetLife Stadium in May 2024, and directly supported the Jonas Brothers on their four month, sixty-five show tour across North America in 2023. The band is releasing a docuseries from their adventures on the road of their Hotel TV Tour, which will finish airing throughout the Summer and Fall of 2024 on Youtube. In addition to The Rolling Stones and the Jonas Brothers, they’ve also toured with acts such as Lake Street Dive, Vulfpeck, Jon Bellion, Jacob Collier, Soulive, O.A.R., and Bernhoft, and appeared at major festivals including Coachella, Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, Firefly, Okeechobee, Hangout, and Summerfest.

In addition to creating music, in December 2022, Clyde Lawrence wrote an article published by the New York Times regarding the unfair dynamics that artists face in the live music industry as a result of the merging of Ticketmaster and Live Nation. In January 2023, Clyde Lawrence and Jordan Cohen were invited to testify at a U.S. Senate Judiciary hearing in Washington, D.C., on the topic of live event ticketing. They sat alongside other industry professionals, as well as antitrust experts, to deliver a testimony about their experiences as a touring band playing in Live Nation-owned venues across the U.S. Lawrence and Cohen continue to spread the word about the challenges in the live event promotion and ticketing space in conversations with outlets like NBC News, Vice News, Politico, and more.

Additionally outside of music, Gracie Lawrence is an accomplished actress that will be appearing as a series regular in the upcoming third season of Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble’s The Sex Lives of College Girls on Max, playing the character of Kacey. Her other television acting credits include “Billions,” a series regular role on “One Dollar,” formerly on CBS All Access, as well as roles in films like Amy Poehler’s “Moxie” on Netflix, Rhys Ernst’s “Adam,” and the Disney+ comedy “Noelle.”

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway—her brand new band of bluegrass virtuosos featuring mandolinist Dominick Leslie, banjoist Kyle Tuttle, fiddle player Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, and bassist Shelby Means—will tour the United States in 2022 in support of Tuttle’s forthcoming Nonesuch Records debut.

An award-winning guitarist and songwriter, native Californian Molly Tuttle continues to push her songwriting in new directions and transcend musical boundaries. Since moving to Nashville in 2015, she has worked with many of her peers and heroes in the Americana, folk, and bluegrass communities, winning Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Music Awards. Tuttle’s 2019 debut album, When You’re Ready, received critical acclaim, with NPR Music praising its “handsomely crafted melodies that gently insinuate themselves into the memory,” and the Wall Street Journal lauding Tuttle’s “genre-boundary-crossing comfort and emotional preparedness,” calling the record an “invigorating, mature and attention-grabbing first album.” ​ ​

Tuttle’s accolades also include Folk Alliance International’s honor for Song of the Year for “You Didn’t Call My Name,” from her 2017 Rise EP, and consecutive trophies for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Guitar Player of the Year; she was the first woman in the history of the IBMA to win that honor.

During the pandemic, Tuttle recorded a covers album, …but i’d rather be with you, which was released in August 2020. The record, which features guest vocals from Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith and Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, includes songs by musicians ranging from FKA Twigs to Cat Stevens, Rancid to Karen Dalton, and The National to The Rolling Stones. The New Yorker’s Jay Ruttenberg, in praising her rendition of the Stones’ “She’s a Rainbow,” says: “In Tuttle’s reading, the song uses a bluegrass spirit to look to the past—and a feminist allegiance to peek at the future.”

The Disco Biscuits are a band of transformation and invention. The Philadelphia-based group remains the pioneers of “Trance-Fusion” – bridging the gap between electronic dance music and jam rock – while consistently looking for new sonic boundaries to break and avenues to tell stories within. 

With two rock operas (1998’s Hot Air Balloon / 2000’s Chemical Warfare Brigade) amongst the 8 full-length studio albums under their belt, The Biscuits are back with their 9th studio record, a space opera entitled “Revolution in Motion,” to be released on March 29th, 2024. 

Released in 4 parts and accompanied by comic book-style 3D-animated films, Revolution in Motion tells of an alien species set out to discover and study other life throughout the universe. After partying a little too hard and losing track of their mission, the aliens slip through space in a wormhole, arriving at none other than our planet Earth. Vowing to complete their mission, the aliens set out to abduct and study humans with only The Disco Biscuits able to save their own world, and possibly the alien’s world as well. 

With a vast touring schedule and ever-changing live shows, The Disco Biscuits’ soul belongs as much to marathon dance parties as it does to live improvisational journeys. They employ emerging technologies to help them create music that is 100% human although, perhaps, not entirely of this planet.

If you ever wondered what “seizing the moment” sounds like personified, look no further than Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, the four-piece musical powerhouse known for their head-turning high-energy psychedelic funk shows. Infectious energy is an understatement.

The Maryland quartet — “Scrambled Greg” Ormont [vocals, guitar], Jeremy Schon [guitar, vocals], Ben [bass, vocals], and Alex “Gator” Petropulos [drums, vocals]—not only squeezes the juice out of every second, but they harness life’s energy within their hypnotic hybrid of funk, rock and psychedelic groove.

With a devout audience, affectionately known as “The Flock,” and a trail of sold-out tours behind them, the band takes a major step forward once again on their seventh full-length offering, Day In Time, released on April 26, 2024.

“This album is a snapshot of our band as a group and as individuals,” notes Greg. “The title serves as a reminder that life moves fast, so we better make the most of each day, make each second count. 15 years as a band have flown by. We started in college and now we’re all growing up, most of us have even become dads recently, so we’re evolving both personally and musically, and we’re happily embracing those changes. That said, we still feel like kids when we’re getting wild on stage and know we always will.”

This forward motion has only accelerated over the years for Pigeons Playing Ping Pong. Renowned as a live tour de force, PPPP has tallied tens of millions of streams and performed to impassioned crowds everywhere from Red Rocks Amphitheatre and The Capitol Theatre to festivals such as Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, Jam Cruise, and more. Most recently, they earned widespread acclaim for 2022’s Perspective, a 12-track “funk-filled odyssey” as described by Relix. However, Day In Time saw them realize another level of cohesion in the studio.

“This album is the most cohesive group of songs we’ve ever had in the studio,” says Jeremy. “On our previous albums, there were usually older songs mixed in with our newer material. However, all the tracks on ‘Day In Time’ really represent our current writing style and where we are as a band today.”

A bevy of friends also joined the party. On the boisterous “Let The Boogie Out,” Here Come The Mummies’ horn section added healthy doses of funk and “truly decided to let the boogie out,” according to Jeremy. Ben “Smiley” Silverstein (The Main Squeeze; Smile High) shines on the titular “Day In Time” with a raucous keyboard solo, while keyboardists Joey Porter (The Motet) and Alric “A.C.” Carter (Tauk) join forces on the soulful “Overtime.” Carter also adds rich depth with keys on “Beneath The Surface,” while Jon O’Hallaron (Chalk Dinosaur) infuses rhythmic keys and electronic flavor on the instrumental standout, “Skinner.”  Another first, all four members of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong take inspired solos on the same record.

“With this being our seventh full-length album, we’re more comfortable in the studio than ever, which has given us the freedom to take some bigger swings reminiscent of our live shows.” notes Greg.

In the end, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong are certainly making the most of the moment, and they might just inspire you to do the same.

Al Schnier (guitars, vocals) * Chuck Garvey (guitars, vocals) * Rob Derhak (bass, vocals) * Jim Loughlin (percussion, vibes) * Vinnie Amico (drums)

Hailed by American Songwriter for their “mind-bending musicality,” moe. is treasured for their mesmerizing musical synergy, unfettered showmanship, and smart, resonant songcraft. For three decades, the band has corralled myriad musical forms on a truly original journey rich with crafty, clever songwriting and astonishing resourcefulness. Fueled by an impassioned fan base, moe. has spent much of those thirty years on the road, encompassing countless live performances marked by eclectic wit, deep friendship, and exploratory invention. Having built an enduring legacy with hard work and a confirmed commitment to creativity and community, moe. seem as surprised as anyone to find themselves at such a significant landmark.

“The career just very subtly unfolded,” says co-founding bassist-singer-songwriter Rob Derhak, “without any of us noticing it actually happened.”

Al Schnier (guitars, vocals), Chuck Garvey (guitars, vocals), and Derhak first came together at the University of Buffalo in 1990, musician-friends uniting to play for the sheer fun of it. The band followed a handful of cassette-only releases with 1992’s FATBOY, recorded in an apartment studio above Buffalo’s Top Shelf Guitars with a bird’s eye view of Mighty Taco.

“We liked music, we liked to party, and we wanted to put those two things together,” says Derhak. “We wanted to do what seemed like the coolest thing we could possibly do and not have to work a regular job. It didn’t even seem like a decision had to be made. It’s was like, this is what we’re doing and it’s happening. The idea that thirty years later I would be a dad, paying a mortgage and earning a living, based on our band, with the same guys no less, that never even crossed my mind.”

Finding themselves with an increasingly avid local following, moe. ventured forth, now with master rhythmatist Jim Loughlin among their ranks. The more the band traveled, the more they grew creatively, evincing a remarkable willingness to progress as they went along. moe. quickly became part of a burgeoning scene centered around NYC’s Wetlands, a grassroots revolution that embraced freewheeling genre fusion — spanning funk and free jazz, country and classic rock, prog, new wave, calypso, pop and everything else under the sun — fan interaction, and unrestrained improvisation.

“We adapted,” Derhak says. “Initially we didn’t have quite as much of the same ideal at first. We didn’t jam or have long extended solos. But as we went from being an opening act to being a headliner, we didn’t have enough material to do two long sets. We needed more material so our songs started to stretch themselves out. We became a jam band.”

moe. widened its reach across America, earning new fans and national attention with their ingeniously imaginative interplay and a regularly growing catalogue. The band spent almost as much time in the studio as they did on the road, mastering their delightfully vibrant blend of inventive musicality and genre-blurring reach on now-classic LPs like 1998’s TIN CANS & CAR TIRES, 2004’s WORMWOOD, 2007’s THE CONCH (which reached #1 on Billboard’s “Heatseekers” chart), and 2012’s critically acclaimed WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LA LAS. As if all that weren’t enough, the moe. canon — released largely through their own Fatboy Records, as well as via two label deals, one major, the other independent — further includes a wide range of archival live releases (including 2000’s L), a Christmas album, even a re-recorded collection of greatest hits.

2020’s THIS IS NOT, WE ARE — the band’s 12th studio album and first since 2014’s NO GUTS, NO GLORY — includes eight new songs, most of which were road tested over the past two years of touring. In addition, the LP features one song making its first appearance anywhere, the Garveypenned “Undertone.” Self-produced by the band, THIS IS NOT, WE ARE sees moe. once again pushing their music forward while simultaneously rifling through their back pages on songs like Derhak’s nostalgic “Skitchin’ Buffalo” and the Al Schnier composition, “Crushing.”

“Our musical paths have diverged so many times,” Derhak says. “All of our original influences became part of what we were at the time and then as we played, our sound kind of just grew. It changed with the landscape of the music business and it changed with what we were listening to. For example, some of our albums further down the road reflect a much stronger Americana influence. It’s like, all of the things that we’ve learned in the past thirty years, all the things that we’ve done, have sort of come full circle.”

“We’re a better band now,” Amico — who came aboard in 1996 and has remained behind the kit ever since — says. “The reality is, you spent thirty years with people doing what you do, you get better. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. Your ears get more trained, your playing gets better and better, your ability to communicate with each other better.”

That preternatural interplay was of course honed through night after night, week after week, of on-stage togetherness. moe. is truly a live band, rightly adored by a fervent following for their epic concert performances, each one imaginatively improvisational, rhythmically audacious, and utterly unique. Indeed, the band has spent much of its 30-year career on the road, including innumerable headline tours, international festival sets from Bonnaroo to Japan’s famed Fuji Rock, music-themed cruises, and sold-out shows alongside such like-minded acts as the Allman Brothers Band, Robert Plant, members of the Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews Band, The Who, Gov’t Mule, and Blues Traveler, to name but a few. As if that weren’t enough, moe. has both promoted and headlined at multiple festivals of their own, including snoe.down and moe.down.

“We built our own career,” Amico says, “where we are able to play places like Radio City or the Fox Theater in Atlanta, playing SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center), my hometown venue where I saw concerts as a kid. We’ve played Red Rocks eight times or nine times or however many times we’ve played it. The fact that we built a career that we’ve played these places and have sustained playing these places, it’s huge.”

That illustrious career path has been supported and nourished by the band’s ever-growing legion of devoted fans and followers, known lovingly as moe.rons. With their astonishing prolificacy and awe-inspiring longevity, moe. is among the rare bands that somehow manage to transcend time and trend to be passed down from one generation to the next.

“We’ve never been the kind of band where you’re one-and-done,” Amico says. “People have gotten married and had kids, now those kids are listening to us.”

“There are people who have been with us right from the beginning in Buffalo,” Derhak says. “Which is insane. But the thing is, we pick up people along the road. There are people who say, I’ve resisted listening to this band for years and then I finally did — I can’t believe I’ve wasted my time not listening to them for so long. Now they’re like, I need more albums, I need more shows.”

Impossible to pigeonhole as anything other than simply moe., this one-of-a-kind band has never been easily categorized, their sonic adventurousness and tongue-in-cheek humor distinctly and undeniably their own. Despite current circumstances, moe. is celebrating their milestone anniversary with characteristic self-deprecation and wistful optimism. Here’s to the next thirty.

“Thirty years is a long run,” Derhak says, “to be with the same guys. I haven’t even been married for thirty years. ”

“You just don’t think about thirty years down the line when you’re starting out,” Amico says. “I mean, you kind of do because that’s what you want to be doing for the rest of your life. Here we are, thirty years later — I’ve had this job longer than I probably would’ve had any job in the real world.”

There are a lot of musical influences and sources that Daniel Donato has drawn on during his career and that inform his latest album, Reflector (Retrace Music), his first all-original album. But within those, Donato has carved out a unique and individualized spot for himself, one that speaks to the deep American music heritage that inspires him — and that he’s pushing towards the future with inspired, intentional vigor.

He calls it Cosmic Country, a moniker that’s both self-descriptive and a statement of purpose. It’s an organic rock band aesthetic with plenty of roadhouse twang; a showcase for Donato’s instrumental virtuosity and facility for melodically infectious songcraft. Bridging Nashville and the Great West, Kentucky and mid-60s northern California, tie-dye and plaid, it’s a world of his own, and a wide world of musical adventure at that.

While growing up in Nashville his  his father, who turned his young son on to music of all genres, suggested the fledgling and industriously minded (even at just 14) artist start busking in Nashville’s lower Broadway area and outside concerts, for eight hours at a time on the weekends. One night, the two happened by Robert’s Western World where legendary honky-tonk local mainstay the Don Kelly Band were performing.  “Their songbook was that of my main influences still to this day — Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Bob Wills, Marty Robbins, Bill Monroe, traditional bluegrass music, Hank Williams Sr. — old-timey music with real stories and emotions that everybody has. It just hooked me right away.” Donato eventually became a member of the band, playing four hours a night at Robert’s (464 shows in total).

Another piece of the puzzle came through later in Donato’s teenage years — the Grateful Dead, thanks to a high school American History teacher who gave him a pile of bootleg recordings when he was 18. “When I discovered Jerry Garcia, there’s really never been anyone who writes like that,” says Donato. “From there I went on to discover Bob Dylan and all the great writers and made me want to make that part of what I did as well.”

The whole package of player, singer, writer and band leader was in place. Two albums in, Daniel Donato and Cosmic Country, featuring Nathan Aronowitz (keyboards/guitars/vocals), Will McGee (bass/vocals) and Will Clark (drums, percussion/vocals) are selling out venues throughout the country and bringing their brand of Cosmic Country to an ever growing, passionate fanbase.

On his new album In Plain Sight, Neal Francis offers up a body of work both strangely enchanted and painfully self-aware, unfolding in songs sparked from Greek myths and frenzied dreams and late-night drives in the depths of summer delirium. True to its charmed complexity, the singer/songwriter/pianist’s second full-length came to life over the course of a tumultuous year spent living in a possibly haunted church in Chicago. The result: a portrait of profound upheaval and weary resilience, presented in a kaleidoscopic sound that’s endlessly absorbing.

The follow-up to Francis’s 2019 debut Changes—a New Orleans-R&B-leaning effort that landed on best-of-the-year lists from the likes of KCRW, KEXP, and The Current, and saw him hailed as “the reincarnation of Allen Toussaint” by BBC Radio 6—In Plain Sight was written and recorded almost entirely at the church, a now-defunct congregation called St. Peter’s UCC. Despite not identifying as religious, Francis took a music-ministry job at the church in 2017 at the suggestion of a friend. After breaking up with his longtime girlfriend while on tour in fall 2019, he returned to his hometown and found himself with no place to stay, then headed to St. Peter’s and asked to move into the parsonage. “I thought I’d only stay a few months but it turned into over a year, and I knew I had to do something to take advantage of this miraculous gift of a situation,” he says.

Mixed by Grammy Award-winner Dave Fridmann (HAIM, Spoon, The Flaming Lips, Tame Impala), In Plain Sight finds Francis again joining forces with Changes producer and analog obsessive Sergio Rios (a guitarist/engineer known for his work with CeeLo Green and Alicia Keys). Like its predecessor, the album spotlights Francis’s refined yet free-spirited performance on piano, an instrument he took up at the age of four. “From a very early age, I was playing late into the night in a very stream-of-consciousness kind of way,” he says, naming everything from ragtime to gospel soul to The Who among his formative influences. With a prodigy-like gift for piano, Francis sat in with a dozen different blues acts in Chicago clubs as a teenager, and helmed a widely beloved instrumental funk band called The Heard before going solo. Along with earning lavish acclaim (including a glowing review from Bob Lefsetz, who declared: “THIS IS THE FUTURE OF THE MUSIC BUSINESS!”), Changes led to such triumphs as performing live on KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” sharing the stage with members of The Meters at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and touring with such acts as Lee Fields & The Expressions and Black Pumas.

Recorded entirely on tape with his bandmates Kellen Boersma (guitar), Mike Starr (bass), and Collin O’Brien (drums), In Plain Sight bears a lush and dreamlike quality, thanks in large part to Francis’s restless experimentation with a stash of analog synths lent by his friends in his early days at the church. “My sleep schedule flipped and I’d stay up all night working on songs in this very feverish way,” he says. “I just needed so badly to get completely lost in something.” In a move partly inspired by Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, In Plain Sight takes its title from a track Francis ended up scrapping from the album. “It’s a song about my breakup and the circumstances that led to me living in the church, where I’m owning up to all my problems within my relationships and my sobriety,” says Francis, whose first full-length chronicles his struggles with addiction. “It felt like the right title for this record, since so much of it is about coming to the understanding that I continue to suffer because of those problems. It’s about acknowledging that and putting it out in the open in order to mitigate the suffering and try to work on it, instead of trying to hide everything.”

The opulent opening track to In Plain Sight, “Alameda Apartments” makes for a majestic introduction to the album’s unveiling of Francis’s inner demons. “I started writing that song maybe six years ago, before I got sober,” he says. “I was going through another breakup and getting kicked out of my place, and I had a nightmare about moving into an art-deco apartment that was haunted, where the walls were all shifting around.” A prime showcase for Francis’s piano work, “Alameda Apartments” simulates that dream state in its untethered melodies, luminous grooves, and lyrics that drift from despair to detached curiosity (e.g., “It remains to be seen if the ghosts are all right”). “The craziest thing is that I’d never encountered the name ‘Alameda’ in any time in my life prior to that dream,” says Francis. “It’s bizarre that I even remembered it, especially since you don’t dream very often when you’re getting fucked up.”

On “Problems,” In Plain Sight eases into a brighter and breezier mood, with Francis mining inspiration from early-’70s Sly & the Family Stone and the glistening soft rock of Mirage-era Fleetwood Mac. But in a stark contrast to the track’s radiant synth and rapturous harmonies, “Problems” centers on Francis’s exacting introspection. “It’s about being half-in and half-out of a relationship, and how untenable that is,” he says. “I wrote it at a time when I really couldn’t maintain a relationship, because I had too many issues with myself that needed to be addressed.”

Graced with a smoldering slide-guitar solo from the legendary Derek Trucks, “Can’t Stop the Rain” arrives as the first unabashedly hopeful moment on In Plain Sight. “I wrote that with my buddy David Shaw, who came up with the refrain and this idea that even though life’s going to throw all this shit at you, there’s still so many things to be grateful for,” says Francis. Propelled by the track’s cascading piano lines and wildly soaring vocals, that refrain takes on an unlikely anthemic power as Francis shares a bit of gently expressed encouragement: “You can’t stop the rain/It’s always coming down/It’s always gonna fall/But you’re not gonna drown.”

On the guitar-heavy and glorious “Prometheus,” Francis nods to the Greek myth of the Titan god who stole fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to the humans. As punishment, Prometheus spent eternity chained to a rock as an eagle visited each day to peck out his liver—which then grew back overnight, only to be eaten again the following day in a never ending cycle of torment. “That song came from the lowest ebb of quarantine, when Chicago was literally on fire,” Francis says. “It came to me while I was driving around all these abandoned streets in the middle of the night, and turned into a song about facing my problems with addiction and feeling like I’m chained to this set of compulsions.” Threaded with plain spoken confession (“It’s not in my nature to try to do better”), the track features a sprawling synth arrangement informed by the many hours Francis spent playing the St. Peter’s pipe organ. “I call that section of the song ‘The Pope,’” he says. “It’s this grand, powerful entry that’s sort of sinister, and then it just drops away.”

By the end of his surreal and sometimes eerie experience of living at the church—“I’m convinced that the stairway leading to the choir loft where I used to practice is haunted,” he notes—Francis had found his musicality undeniably elevated. “Because I was forced into this almost monastic existence and was alone so much of the time, I could play as often and as long as I wanted,” he says. “I ended up becoming such a better pianist, a better writer, a better reader of music.” Dedicated to a woman named Lil (the de facto leader of the St. Peter’s congregation), In Plain Sight ultimately reveals the possibility of redemption and transformation even as your world falls apart.

“When I started the process of writing these songs, I was so emotionally out-of-sorts and really kind of hopeless that I’d be able to come up with anything,” says Francis. “But then I sat down and started working, and embraced whatever inspiration came my way. Sometimes it felt like beating my head against a wall, but I tried to trust that it would lead somewhere. The whole thing was like a weird dream—this very strange time of terrible, wonderful isolation.”

In Plain Sight has received critical praise from KCRW (“an unapologetically joyful, electric feel”), Rolling Stone (“Neal Francis is making piano rock cool again”), SPIN (“one of the year’s best releases”), and more. Both radio singles from the album—“Can’t Stop The Rain” and “Problems”—charted on AAA and Americana radio, with “Can’t Stop The Rain” going as high as #3 on the Americana charts. Francis has toured relentlessly to support the album, playing to thousands with sold out headline dates at legendary venues in Chicago, San Francisco, Nashville, Denver, London, and many more.

In November 2022 Francis released the EP Sentimental Garbage (ATO Records) which includes a number of standout tracks recorded during the original album sessions at St. Peter’s. “Sentimental Garbage was the working title of our last LP,” Francis says, “which includes the track of the same name. We ended up calling that record In Plain Sight while removing the title track from the sequence. I knew this was my last chance to slap ‘Sentimental Garbage’ on a record jacket, the thought of which always brought me great joy. It also works because this record is compiled of bittersweet scraps.”

The sandy shores of Asbury Park, New Jersey are hallowed ground in the northeast; the rolling waves have ushered generations of venerated musicians to worldwide acclaim. Dogs in a Pile, an eclectic quintet, has emerged as the heir apparent to the town’s rich musical legacy. Merging funk, jazz, and rock and roll with psychedelia, the quintet presents a completely original vibe built on kaleidoscopic soundscapes eerily reminiscent of the days of yesteryear.

The Dogs employ a unified approach to performance and songwriting, crafting aural mosaics through adept instrumentation and humble precocity. As avid storytellers, they draw inspiration from personal experiences, balancing life’s foibles with ever-present youthful sanguinity.

Dogs began when Philadelphia University of the Arts guitar gun-slinger Jimmy Law began playing with young Joe Babick (drums), a student at the Count Basie Theater program in Red Bank, NJ.  Lightning struck when they were introduced to Berklee School of Music student and bass player Sam Lucid, who immediately suggested fellow Berklee student and keyboard player Jeremy Kaplan. The addition of fellow Berklee student Brian Murray (guitar) in 2019 made for the quintessential final piece in the Dogs’ puzzle. 

A string of successful local shows drove the development of a massive northeast fan base, affectionately known as the Dog Pound. The band’s astronomical growth culminated in an epic, sold-out performance at the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park during the summer of 2021. Armed with a fresh batch of new material, Dogs in a Pile is taking its perpetually evolving testament to the Great American Songbook on tour in 2022, visiting plenty of new cities and spreading good music and good energy to good people along the way. 

Song by timeless song Eggy reaches out a hand, inviting you along as a great story unfolds. Eggy’s music traces the full spectrum of emotions, evoked by a life well-lived alongside friends well-loved.

Eggy formed from a high school dream into a full-fledged reality. Aligning together in 2016, the lineup of Alex Bailey (drums, vocals), Jake Brownstein (guitar, vocals), Mike Goodman (bass, vocals) and Dani Battat (keys, vocals) has captured the ears of listeners across the USA and beyond.

Following the release of their 2019 debut record, “Watercolor Days,” the band has toured constantly, performing in over 40 states. Amidst their travels in 2021, Eggy stopped in Nashville to record two singles, released as Nashville Tapes the following year. Highlights from the band’s many eclectic shows have been handpicked by the band for consumption, including the most recent “Eggy Selects: Spring Tour 2023, Vol. 1).”

Eggy’s new record, “Waiting Game,” is out now. Co-produced by White Denim’s James Petralli, “Waiting Game” showcases the band’s artistry through a concentrated and refined studio approach as a compliment to their exploratory live shows.

Definition: The spiritual side of Grateful Dead/Jerry Garcia songs performed in the style of black gospel music meant to be performed on a festival stage on Sunday mornings.

“I pitched the idea of this project as a Sunday morning set to the Lockn’ festival in 2013 and they went with it, so I rallied my Richmond “More than a Little” crew, added two more female singers and convinced John Kadlecic, from Further, to join us on guitar and Grateful Gospel was immaculately conceived. It’s the gospel of Jerry. Awe man. WARNING: this is not a Christian act.” – Kw