music community Archives - Page 4 of 11

The Seattle-based band, Heels to the Harwood, have a new album out called “Let Up”, that will help you turn off that outside noise that rattles your brain and it will assist in easing your soul. The toe-tapping-Americana-fuel ensemble is exactly what the world needs right now to help us navigate this floating rock as it spins into total chaos. The PNW group has always been dripping in wonderful lyricism and smooth melodies, and this album continues with that trend of well-played tracks and brilliant writing. The band formed in 2011 and soon released their debut self-titled album, “Heels To The Hardwood,” in September 2014. They followed this up with their second full-length album, “Love Versus Tragedy,” in February 2017, and their third album, “Where We Come From,” dropped in 2019. In 2023, they released the singles ‘Intentions’ and ‘1 Past 5 (Say Hello)’. The latter now appears on the latest project.

FEATURED MUSIC NEWS

May 21, 2026 Melinoe Macaria Mourningstar

Forrest Frank- “Your Way’s Better” A Christian Artist Spotlight for Felicity

It is not my job to project myself onto anyone. I do express myself vibrantly proud. I am not ashamed of myself, nor how I choose to express myself. Something I have battled with. I have been ridiculed most of my life for who I am and how I choose to be. I do not want anyone else to feel the same sorrow I have felt in the past. To question oneself is an indescribable pain. A pain particularly inflicted upon others by Christians. A pain my Christian Family, Country and Globe continues to inflict upon me to this day. In fact, I can dread sharing my thoughts out of anxiety that it may inflict a negative feeling onto someone else. I hate the thought that my perception, my feelings and my life could trigger such outrage in another being. An outrage so vastly intense that it wishes to diminish my right to exist. It wishes to exile me (and others) out of the tribe. Starve us of love and belonging. All for the Sin of being different. The Sin of Defining God/The Universe/The Divine for oneself. Yet, I shall bravely persevere in presenting this article to you all.

B Sides LIVE REVIEWS MUSIC NEWS

May 6, 2026 Jason Shrum

Music City Madness, Dee’s Lounge & Everything Local | Vendors, musicians & community came together to create a space filled with harmony

This month’s event was hosted by Dee’s Lounge in Madison, Tennessee. Owner, Amy Dee says of her place, “I couldn’t find a classic country venue around Nashville when I moved here, so I opened one”. Since 2016 it has grown to so much more than just a hub for country music, as the venue host all types of genres with just three simple rules: Pay Your Tab, Don’t Be an Asshole and You Must be 21 to Enter. It remains a classic “dive-bar” with lovely locals and a fantastic staff that want to make your experience a great one. The decor is straight out of the 1970’s (think Urban Cowboy) and you feel like you’vefound a second home when you walk through the doors. Not only is there a space to play music inside with nice sound quality, but there is a space out back with a large stage and plenty of seating and room for dancing on those sunny days. This was one of those days.

FEATURED INTERVIEWS

April 29, 2026 Melinoe Macaria Mourningstar

Artist Spotlight on Dolly Cash

I grew up in Abingdon, VA. It was a small historic town in South-Western Virginia, in the Appalachians. But after graduating High School, I bounced around the US in the army. Maryland, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Afghanistan. It was in North Carolina, more specifically Fayetteville, that I began to hone my music skills. The community within the city was very rooted in the arts. I’d crash on my friend’s couch and cut songs with like 5 or 6 different people. They would put on cool local shows and really push each other to create. I got out of the Army in 2016 and moved back to Abingdon. After a year of couch surfing and job hopping, I applied to go to The University of Tennessee. That’s how I ended up in Knoxville. While here, I met my wife, and realized Tennessee was now home. While here, I got back to my mountain roots, fell in love with mountain music, as well as the Goth culture. I believe traveling to the US and war-torn countries has given me an appreciation of where I live.

FEATURED LIVE REVIEWS

April 25, 2026 Jason Shrum

A Night at the Popera

An evening of beautiful music happened as The Vinyl Lounge played host to what was dubbed “A Night at the Popera”. Four classically trained opera singers gathered for a genre-bending, theatrical live show. Powerful women with formidable voices brought pop, folk, synth-pop, hyperpop, and pop-punk to the stage and mashed it up with definitive sounds that you don’t normally hear together. What happened was a gorgeous moment in time. Meghan Pulles, Arily Michelle, Sunshine Scott and Cassandra Pinataro electrified the space with a magnificent showcase of unbridled force. Armed with their voices and the will to be heard these women grasped the attention of their onlookers to deliver messages of courage, femineity and individuality. A Night at the Popera grew out of music but created and curated a likeminded community that thrived in the mantras of these fabulous musicians.

ALBUM REVIEWS FEATURED INTERVIEWS

April 20, 2026 Melinoe Macaria Mourningstar

Garrett Hendricks: Northwest & SouthBound

Throughout the Album I wanted to do nothing more than dance with aloud and proud group of friends. To be lost in my own world. I felt passion. Wielding emotion within a rhythm. You could say there was a hypnotic Siren call within Garrett’s voice. At the very least, he has a message to share, and initiation to bestow. Puppeteer-ing us all into various states of flow, freedom and serenity. Regardless of the theme within the songs, there was a peace that was encouraged to be felt. A steadiness to life and the approach to emotion, inspiration and human connection. I thoroughly enjoyed the works that Garrett Hendricks has created. He is the real deal. Not only is he sweet on the eyes, but he is sweet on the ears.

ALBUM REVIEWS FEATURED

April 7, 2026 Melinoe Macaria Mourningstar

Maria Magdalena’s New Single ‘Smell Me I’m Running’ Is A Mystical Journey

In this modern era, in some small realms of the world, a woman is mostly able to ponder these questions. She is able to act out what it may mean to be a free woman of this world. A woman free from the biased lens of our inherited patriarchal mold. What if we were written without the venom that is the Male Gaze? Not the Masculine gaze that Worships the Goddess, but the Male Gaze that imprisons us all, even themselves. As the song concluded, I had to replay immediately. I wasn’t too sure how I could label the song. There were components of a more Gothic and/or Vampiric Undertone. A scene that could express various moments in time, however particularly, the 40’s-60’s came to mind. We have the melody cloaked in an essence of Femme Fatale, with a subtle bop that reminds one of Marina. Giving the song a connection to the Pop Femme Frequency. There is a darkness and lightness to the song. A duality that only an integrated soul could express. There is a sound in alignment with those who enjoy workings from artists such as, Alexa Dark, Luvcat and Portishead. An eclectic tuning that embodies the complexity of what it means to be a woman and feel as a woman feels.