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Glide Magazine Reviews Conor Donohue’s New Album

October 10, 2024

Conor Donohue’s latest, Stray Dogs, may be rooted in Americana, but it exists in a genre-agnostic space that sees his music careening from pop to funk to cosmic country to psychedelic rock on any given track. The result is a refreshingly satisfying playlist that sounds more like a soundtrack with contributions from various artists rather than a standard standalone album.

From the drummer’s count off on the opening “Wasteland,” Donohue begins a deceptively strong swagger, though the song is based on the anxiety brought about by forced isolation during the pandemic. He switches to a falsetto on the driving “Feel That Hit,” and equally compelling earworm, before switching gears a few songs later on the psychedelic mid-tempo “Franklin And Royal.”

The vibe of the music is a reflection of what the New Orleans musician was dealing with at the time, suffering from chronic pain and a series of health issues. “I started seeing a functional medicine doctor and really focusing on my health/healing my body,” Donohue says, discussing the influence on his songwriting at the time. You can hear themes of anxiety and uncertainty throughout the record, like on the title track and songs like “Wasteland,” but there are also moments of optimism throughout. 

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Americana UK Reviews Brendan Forrest’s New Album

September 26, 2024

An impressive mix of bluegrass, blues and Celtic folk with a hint of jazz.

Chicago-born Brendan Forrest has now moved to the mountains of south-west Colorado and on this, his debut album, you can hear the influences of both Chicago blues and the bluegrass of rural America. It is very strong musically with Forrest’s flatpicking guitar complementing the mandolin and fiddle perfectly. The excellent mandolin comes from Grammy-winning young Nashville musician Dominick Leslie. IBMA winner George Jackson shows great flair on the fiddle.

Forrest has been a producer in the past and has also played many shows worldwide. This has caused him to be influenced by the “world” music he has encountered on his travels. This album is a move towards the acoustic folk and bluegrass which he loves and away from the earlier electric sounds of his youth where he had a taste for 70s psychedelic rock.

Five of the nine tracks are instrumentals and they are impressive. Most interesting is ‘D Min Tune’with fiddle providing a Gaelic folk feel but the piece ending with jazzy guitar and bass. However with instrumentals, you lose the chance to either interest, inspire or touch the heart of the listener with your words and so it is the tracks with lyrics that are more memorable here.

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Blog Critics Reviews Mac Leaphart’s Album

September 24, 2024

Mac Leaphart, Motel Breakfast. It’s been three years since Mac Leaphart’s last album, Music City Joke, on which he sang about how difficult it is to make it in the music business. But the Nashville-based singer/songwriter seems to be doing just that, in the wake of the prior CD’s strong reception.

The mostly self-penned new one—which like its predecessor sounds redolent of Jerry Jeff Walker and Guy Clark—should further widen his audience, thanks largely to sprightly full-band performances and Leaphart’s folksy vocals. Another plus is his witty songwriting, which is exemplified by this couplet in the title track: “They got waffles in the lobby shaped just like Texas / Life is good, let’s go get some breakfast.”

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Adobe & Teardrops Interviews Laura Zarougian on Her New Double Single

September 13, 2024

Laura Zarougian brings all of herself to her new double single “Double-Sided”/”New Used Car.” The self-described sidewalk cowgirl leans heavily into country, Western, and East Village folk on these two songs, though her Armenian heritage is never far from her mind. “New Used Car” has the jaunty, freewheeling nature of a Dylan song, while “Double-Sided” is a luscious serving of pedal steel and loneliness. Zarougian commands these performances with a sense of self and dogged perseverance. Below, she describes her process for the two songs.

I wrote ‘Double-Sided’ after moving to Brooklyn. The song started out as a reflection on a particular run-in with the wrong crowd, but has evolved since I first performed it. It definitely has strong roots in the folk storytelling tradition. Although the themes in this release are more rooted in the American landscape than the Armenian immigrant stories of my first album, Nayri, I feel like this song faces my conflicting identities. There is the sidewalk cowgirl of Brooklyn, and then there is the daughter of Armenian immigrants and refugees — both sides looking for belonging. 

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Glide Magazine Reviews Mac Leaphart’s New Album

September 12, 2024

Much like his last release, 2021’s shamefully underrated Music City Joke, Mac Leaphart’s latest seems to capture him once again genuinely enjoying doing what he does. Not since John Prine has Americana had a musician that acts so casual and even surprised by their own brilliance. There is nothing forced or manufactured as Lephart reels through a dozen superb tracks on Motel Breakfast. 

Humor and unpretentious are just as much of Leaphart’s musical makeup as is his blend of Honky Tonk and Rock n Roll. And those Prine influences are clearly not lost on him as he gives nods to the legend on “Belly Full of Peaches” (“No flag decals in heaven/Just love & love alone/John Prine’s Jesus, the one we all find on our own”). The album is crammed with colorful characters, from a musician on the road (“Rock & Roll Hey”) to a dive bar in Charlotte, North Carolina (“Ode to the Thirsty Beaver”), and Leaphart has Dylan’s knack for teasing out the details of each character slyly rather than spelling it out simply.  

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Americana UK Reviews Mac Leaphart’s New Song

September 11, 2024

Well, ok, it looks like this is going to be roots rock week – who knew?  This latest single from Mac Leaphart is the third taken from the new album ‘Motel Breakfast‘ which is set for release in a couple of days from today.   Now, it might sound like an ode to a lady called Rosey – but that is not, Mac Leaphart has explained, actually the case: “I started writing this one at the height of the pandemic when my son wasn’t in school. I was just sort of following him around the house with my guitar. The melody came first, and I decided to literally write a song about a rose that was making this person happy. Obviously, I think most people will hear it and think Rosey is a woman, but it’s actually about a flower.”  Hmm…ok.

The loose and almost honky-tonking feel of the song is no accident – it was the kind of presence that Mac Leaphart was aiming for although it was approached very ,uch on the level: “I took a few months off, didn’t play any shows, and I just wrote like it was my job,” he reveals with the aim of creating “upbeat and intelligent songwriting, à la Jerry Jeff Walker, Dr. Hook & Doug Sahm.”

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