PATTY LARKIN - 25 - INTERVIEW BY: DANNY McCLOSKEY A quarter of a century.....twenty-five years. Children have been born, gone to school and had children of their own. All to the soundtrack of Patty Larkin songs. Her recorded output began in 1985 with the Philo/Rounder release, “Step Into The Light”. On her website, Patty casts herself as an urban folk singer. I asked her if she came up with that wording, she wasn’t sure. If she can’t claim the phrase, her years of honing a craft which began in coffee houses, moved to busking on the streets of Cambridge, Mass and on to time spent at Berklee College of Music to study jazz guitar certainly make it appropriate.   Patty has marked the time put in with a new album, aptly titled ‘25 Years’. To celebrate her songs and her achievements, Patty has collected twenty-five artists to guest on her songs. On the double disc set, the names range from originators (Janis Ian, Bruce Cockburn), contemporaries (Mary Chapin Carpenter, Greg Brown, Cheryl Wheeler, Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega, Rosanne Cash, Chris Smither) and those expanding on the genre (Martin Sexton, Dar Williams, Jonatha Brooke). CLICK HERE TO READ THE FEATURE STORY

CARRIE RODRIGUEZ-ON LIFE,LOVE AND CIRCUMSTANCE -INTERVIEW BY:  DANNY McCLOSKEY Carrie Rodriguez says it best on the opening/lead track, “Big Love”, from her latest release, ‘Love and Circumstance’. Her claims of being a ‘full grown woman’ and later on states, maybe a little out of context, “I’m here to stay”. Both statements are true. Carrie has not logged a lot of belly button birthdays but in road dog years, she is one of the ancients. On “Big Love’, like all the tracks on the album, she wears the character like a second skin, the song is hers. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FEATURE STORY

FANNY REMEMBERED WITH JUNE MILLINGTON - INTERVIEW BY: DANNY MC CLOSKEY The late 60’s had an outpouring of artists that could put together a groups of songs, maybe you have heard about them.....the results were called albums. Artists did not have to rely on the single, they could take chances, push the music that they loved: soul, folk, jazz, rockabilly into what was their own art. At the time it was innovative. The music that came in was challenging existing forms of Top 40....longer songs, solos, album cuts. That was the early days of a dangerous new format. Today, the same songs are called classic rock. One of the bands that rose to fame was Fanny. They were different. Fanny were the first all female band to release an album on a major label. Forget what the movie posters claim....it was neither The Runaways nor the Go-Go’s. In a 1999 interview, longtime fan David Bowie stated that Fanny were “one of the most important female bands in American rock and has been buried without a trace. And that is Fanny. They were one of the finest... rock bands of their time, in about 1973. They were extraordinary... they're as important as anybody else who's ever been, ever; it just wasn't their time." CLICK HERE TO READ THE FEATURE STORY

BRIAN MOLNAR AND THE NAKED HEARTS - INTERVIEW BY: REB LANDERS With three consecutive albums charting on the Americana Music Airplay Chart, several national and regional tours and a solid footing in the burgeoning New York City roots music scene Brian Molnar and his band The Naked Hearts are poised to stake their claim as one of the best young bands on the Americana roots music circuit. Their latest effort ‘Miss You’ is a gutsy pseudo live recording using studio equipment in a “live” setting. Think of it as recording the album live but sounding more like a studio album. Like I said, a gutsy move for a young up and coming band. Molnar and his mates pulled it off in fine fashion and the record quickly found a home on Americana radio. It has a very warm feel to it and Molnar’s vocals are more than up to pace with his transcendent writing style. His songs are deep, cerebral, thought provoking...in the style of the classic troubadours like Townes Van Zandt, Kris Kristofferson and Steve Earl. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FEATURE STORY