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| Photo - Natalie Jordan |
“Love U the Same”—a plainspoken, broadly strummed pop ballad and the emotional highwater mark of Izzy Oram Brown’s new LP What I Want sketches out a journey toward accepting emotional paradox. Singing in hushed but soulful tones that bring to mind Christine McVie, the Massachusetts-born, Queens-dwelling songwriter returns to chords that she reframes in every verse, setting up a resolution that never comes, mirroring the lost promise of a broken compact between lovers who really tried to make it work. An ambiguous chord, neither bright or despairing, frames both an admission of hurt and bittersweet statement of re-devotion (“But no matter what I do or say, you’re with me.”)
It is only after the narrator accepts that only time can make mutual empathy and acceptance possible that the harmony settles and the arrangement expands: “If we tire of the work/of finding who’s to blame/I will remember/I love you the same.” With its nostalgic, carefully arced melody and lyrics, the song holds pain, contradiction, and a genuine warmth of spirit easily. It’s a combination which often eludes even the greatest artists who write about romantic wires getting crossed.
These strengths permeate What I Want, Brown’s sophomore release, from beginning to end. Each song dramatizes a frank and comprehensive self-analysis session in their basic structure. Throughout the album, Brown convincingly tackles the broadest possible thematic material with deliberateness and clarity. Though she began life immersed in singing folk songs, she has spent much of her musical career as an accomplished session and touring guitarist—known for her work playing with musical legends like Julian Lage as well as rising NYC bands like Why Bonnie and Youbet.
Taking a break from jazz studies, she moved to Nashville in her late teens to do live and session work, and fell in love with the architecture of pop songwriting. For her, writing music is as much a responsibility as a pastime. “Every song I’ve ever written happened because I decided it was time to write some songs,” she explains. Hesitant to waste anyone’s time, including her own, she writes when she is ready to, and as a result, the songs on What I Want ring out with the lucidity of someone who has thought hard about what they are going to say long before they say it.
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River Shook’s self-titled debut album is out this weekend via Blackberry River. On River Shook, arrow-to-the-heart honest lyrics, rock-god guitar solos, shimmering pedal steel, and Shook’s unmistakable voice cuts like a ray of light through a great darkness. A sense of poise, a contagious strength coaxes the listener towards a deeper level of honesty about ourselves, our choices, and the shifting landscapes of modern life.
In the spring of 2025, River Shook was getting through the remaining Sarah Shook & the Disarmers’ tours. The beloved country rock band’s decade-long run was set to come to a close that summer, but Shook was mentally miles ahead already, dreaming up a new future as a solo artist. Despite a powerful armory of brand new songs, Shook’s demos yielded no bites from labels. Frustrated with the slow-turning gears of the music industry, Shook pitched an unconventional idea to their lead guitarist and partner, Blake Tallent - they would make the entire record themselves on a shoe-string budget, and sort out a label deal down the line.
The Disarmers played their final show at the end of June 2025. On the first day of July, Shook and Tallent dug deep into their small home studio, and got to work. The songs felt light years ahead of Shook’s past writing. “I’ve talked a lot about evolving as an artist, about personal growth as a tool to avoid stagnation or hitting a plateau,” explains Shook. “The finality of the Disarmers disbanding felt like a weight had been lifted, like I was seeing my life with perfect vision for the first time. Evolution wasn’t enough for what I wanted to achieve with this record, I had to die. I had to completely kill my old self, and all inhibiting beliefs about myself, my potential as an artist, and my limits as a creator.”
Shook and Tallent pulled off the impossible with River Shook - in a modest home studio in rural North Carolina, two people created an album that feels larger than life. Vast, rolling landscapes of sonic layers gently envelope timeless themes into each other: a great sacrifice that gives nothing in return, a false friend’s betrayal, a longing to be truly seen by an emotionally unavailable parent. Throughout the album, Shook gently illuminates themes we tend to mentally avoid, reminding us we’re braver than we think, we can handle hard truths about our lives, and we can change course the moment we’re ready.
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| Photo - Tom Hazeltine |
Acclaimed guitarist, singer-songwriter, and blues innovator Peter Parcek returns with Most of the Time, a powerful new album arriving August 14th. The album’s first single, “Twistified,” captures Parcek’s fearless approach to modern blues. Fueled by roaring guitar, hypnotic grooves, and a nod to Mississippi bluesman Roosevelt “Booba” Barnes, the track honors blues tradition while pushing the genre into bold new territory, setting the tone for an album that is both rooted in history and unmistakably forward-looking. Listen here.
A 13-song collection of originals and inspired interpretations, Most of the Time showcases Parcek at his most expressive—as a songwriter, vocalist, arranger, and one of today’s most distinctive guitarists. From the haunting title track, written by Bob Dylan, to soulful takes on Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands,” John Hiatt’s “Mississippi Phonebooth,” and Mose Allison’s “Don’t You Worry ’Bout a Thing,” the album balances emotional depth with extraordinary musicianship.
The album also marks new territory for Parcek, incorporating horns on four tracks for the first time and featuring an exceptional lineup of guests, including Duke Robillard, Luther Dickinson, Mickey Raphael, Kevin Barry, Danielle Miraglia, and Tom West, alongside longtime bandmates Marc Hickox and Tim Carman.This is Parcek’s fifth major release and follows an acclaimed run of albums including the Blues Music Award-nominated The Mathematics of Love, the EP Pledging My Time, Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven—praised by Premier Guitar for its “close to the bone” approach and “earthy and ethereal” sound—and 2020’s Mississippi Suitcase, which expanded his signature blend of blues, rock, folk, and gypsy jazz.
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| Photo - Aram Aghababian |
Sam Burchfield has released a new single on Cloverdale Records (Evan Honer, Winyah), “One More Setting Sun.” Over rapturous rhythm and zagging electric guitars, Burchfield celebrates another year of vibrant life.
He shares: We're just little eternal beings trapped in bodies trying to love each other and navigate the cosmos. The world is beautiful, we are in it and we are part of the beauty. I wanna love you forever—that’s what this song is. What else can I say? It’s a summer bop.
This is the second glimpse into a new full-length expected later this year; details to be announced. Burchfield shared “Leave the Light On” this spring to acclaim from Northern Transmissions, Atwood Magazine, DittyTV, and Whiskey Riff among others, amidst a rolling tour including dates with The Strumbellas. The run continues with headlines as well as support for Joe P, Wilderado, Max McNown, and Evan Honer.
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Twin Bloom’s self-titled debut EP, slated for release in summer 2026, captures a moment of transition, caught between looking back and pushing forward. Lead single “Summer’s Gone” distills the band’s approach most clearly, pairing an easy, driving rhythm with a bittersweet sense of seasonal shift. Twin Bloom isn’t chasing trends or big statements. The band is focused on writing songs that stick, sound good turned up in the car and feel just as natural on the tenth listen as the first.
Twin Bloom makes indie rock that balances momentum with atmosphere, drifting between the glow of 80s new wave, the haze of shoegaze and the melodic pull of classic guitar pop. Based in Oakland, the band leans into warmth over sharp edges. Guitars shimmer and blur, melodies stick quickly, and close vocal harmonies give the songs a familiar, lived-in feel. Influences like Teenage Fanclub, Alvvays, The Cure and The Strokes are present, but never foregrounded, filtered instead through a sensibility shaped by years of playing rooms, basements and clubs.
There’s patience in the band’s writing, but also a steady sense of drive. Songs unfold gradually, carried by chiming guitars and propulsive rhythms that keep things moving even as textures bloom and recede. The arrangements stay lean and focused, favoring clarity over excess and letting repetition, tone and melody do the work. The music feels emotionally grounded and immediate, well suited for hazy summer drives and warm, nostalgic nights that stretch on longer than expected.
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Created and developed in Montreal’s DIY scene, Empty Melon (the solo project of Ada Lea bassist/producer Summer Kodama) follows up on her debut single, “Hoping to Find,” with “Don’t Look Away,” an atmospheric, dark, and emotionally charged song that transforms late-night spiralling into something strangely beautiful. Blending experimental electronics, art pop textures, and cinematic sound design, the track embraces discomfort rather than avoiding it, finding clarity through directness, vulnerability, and self-confrontation.
“Don’t Look Away” first emerged during a solitary drive in the early hours of the morning. “It started with spiralling while driving alone at 2am and improvising on the bass guitar,” Summer explains. What began as a fleeting emotional moment gradually evolved into a meditation on honesty, both with others and with oneself. “I think there’s a catharsis to expressing yourself and your needs with plain, direct language,” she says. “It allows you to facilitate an alignment with your most authentic self. Honesty is the most important component of self-expression.”
That sense of emotional directness is reflected throughout the production. Where “Hoping to Find” drifted through the hazy space between sleep and wakefulness, “Don’t Look Away” occupies a darker emotional landscape. Summer describes the two songs as “polar siblings,” with one basking in sunlight while the other emerges under the cover of night.
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