Next Friday, August 21st, Lotus releases their new studio album, Free Swim, a ten-song hypnotic voyage featuring the best of the band’s strengths, which is to say a sublime mix of rock, funk, disco, and jazz, and - true to form - a healthy dose of catchy melodies and harmonies.

Gangstagrass is a multi-racial group of string pickers and MCs creating a shared cultural space for dialogue and connection between folks that usually never intersect. No Time For Enemies, the group’s fifth studio album, is their most collaborative to date, breaking loose and running across genre lines with abandon. The album has quintessential Country elements and classic Hip Hop adrenaline, merged with Rock, R&B and Pop.

After what have been an unpredictable few months due to COVID-19, Joe Hertler & the Rainbow Seekers will return to the stage for four separate performances at The Deck in Muskegon, Michigan on Wednesday, August 26th, Saturday, September 12th and Sunday, September 13th, with an additional date, Friday, September 11th, added due to popular demand. More seats have been made available for all shows, including the originally sold out September 12th date. 

“The backing track for this song is from a piece called ‘Prelude to Play It Like The Record.’ A great piece of music to improvise to on guitar. We looped it, got a great tone from my Nash ‘telecaster style guitar’ on the neck pickup by using my late 1970’s Fender Deluxe Reverb amplifier and Full Tone’s Full Drive 2 pedal. We recorded multiple takes and over time engineer Jose Salazar masterfully edited the piece together. He and I take very detailed notes on guitar tones and what we did to get them.

Greensky Bluegrass recently announced their live tour project, “The Leap Year Sessions” and held a successful first broadcast of the series last Friday. Tomorrow, Friday, August 14, fans can catch a brand-new show, and can tune-in every Friday throughout August and September for more (8 shows scheduled, with 7 shows remaining).

Ripe is set to perform a special encore show at the Yarmouth Drive-in on Cape Cod. The band marked the return of live music to Massachusetts with a sold-out show at the drive-in on August 1. Now Ripe will return for round two Saturday, September 5. Tickets for the show go on sale Friday, August 14 at 10:00 am on yarmouthdrivein.com. 

International advocacy organization Global Citizen and voter registration organization HeadCount today announced a nonpartisan multi-year partnership to engage young Americans to check their status, register, and vote. Through their joint initiatives, Global Citizen and HeadCount will mobilize support from artists, entertainers, media, corporations, and nonprofit organizations, to give young Americans the tools to use their voice in the November 3, 2020 election and beyond.

Noa Zimmerman is honest. The 21-year-old songwriter, producer feels as though it’s her responsibility to be. Having written songs since before she can remember, Zimmerman has always felt that pursuing music was less of a choice and more of an instinct. Her multiple self produced folk-pop records, as well as her acceptance to the University of Southern California’s Popular Music and Production programs are a testament to that.

As a result of one of the most disturbing eras of blatant American racism in a generation, Black musicians and industry veterans are holding a conversation to accelerate racial equity in Americana, one of our nation’s most essential musical genres. On Thursday, August 20th, at 1 PM PDT/4 PM EST, Black Equity in Americana: A Conversation will occur. The live Zoom panel streaming on Facebook via the Americana Music Association’s Facebook page will feature an honest, restorative dialogue featuring a group of Americana music’s top Black artists and creative professionals.

“The music goes ’round with love. It’s why this band means so much to so many,” writes MC Kostek about his favorite band, NRBQ, in his liner notes from the band’s new rarities retrospective.