Category: Artists

The best American songwriters create tunes that transcend time and space, with lyrics that intimately connect with listeners far and wide. It’s an art, but it’s also a craft, one that often takes years to hone. Sometimes, though, an artist emerges fully formed, with the chops and tunes of a sage old vet; Shannon McNally, […]

Rob Thomas: vocals Kyle Cook: guitar, vocals * Adam Gaynor: guitar, vocals Brian Yale: bass * Paul Doucette: drums “MATCHBOX twenty has truly become its own entity, and we really wanted to let it grow and evolve on this record. When we get together, we combine all our talents into one incredible whole. That’s the […]

Mates of State is the organ and drums, vocal-laden duo of Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel. The band essentially began in 1997. After a few months in the midwest, they high-tailed it out to a new home in San Francisco. California greeted them with sunshine, pop sounds, and a great music community. Their long-standing motto […]

The fourth of seven children, John Royce Mathis was born on September 30, 1935 in Gilmer, Texas to Clem and Mildred Mathis. As a small boy, the family moved to Post Street in San Francisco. It was there that he learned an appreciation of music from his father who taught him his first song, “My […]

Who is Matisyahu: BAND: Matisyahu – vocals, beatbox Jonah David – drums Aaron Dugan – guitar Josh Werner – bass, keyboards With special guests Marlon “Moshe” Sobol, Stanley Ipcus, and Youssou Its been a ridiculously exciting year for Matisyahu and his bandmates. Since the release of his 2004 debut, Shake off the dust…ARISE and the […]

“I just decided it was crap and never went back,” says Matthew Good of his brief foray into art school. It was the late-80s in British Columbia and soon the young Good found himself in “the usual places that anyone who just has a high school diploma can get jobs at.” Working as a petroleum […]

To the legions of R&B listeners during the mid-’90s, Maxwell presented a new option: the tenderness of true romance, instead of the fleeting joy of sex. With his debut album, Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite, Maxwell united the psycho-sexual funk of Prince with Marvin Gaye’s idea of the romance concept album. Born in Brooklyn in 1973 […]

“With any trilogy,” says John Mayer, “the third in the series blows it open.” On CONTINUUM the singer/songwriter/guitar slinger meets that challenge head-on. Mayer’s third studio album follows the multi-platinum ROOM FOR SQUARES (2001) and HEAVIER THINGS (2003) and marks his first turn as producer. It is his most soulful, cohesive collection yet and he […]

Of all the musical sounds modern technology can produce, none is as expressive as the raw passion of an honest-to-goodness rock and roll band-a band like The Mayfield Four. This is a group that does a lot of things brilliantly-and they do most of them on Second Skin, a sonic monument to the true days […]

The breathtaking soprano of Martina McBride is one of the greatest vocal instruments in contemporary popular music. That she applies it to songs of uncommon integrity makes its impact all the more thrilling. The proof is presented on her landmark Greatest Hits collection. This super-sized serving of music offers 13 of the performances that have […]