It’s really hard not to burst into superlative overload when it comes to Kelli Schaefer’s voice. It’s an instrument of such distinction, power, and nuance that it’s capable of telling stories and painting worlds as readily as an entire orchestral pit of instruments. Those pipes of hers have proven remarkably versatile over Schaefer’s decade-long musical…
Seattle singer/musician Rusty Willoughby’s demeanor is so unassuming, the simple acknowledgment of his music feels like it’d give him a case of the awkwards. He’s never seemed super-comfortable with attention, or with the kind of networking and extroversion necessary to be a Big Time Rock Star. Even the times he’s edged close to outright breakout success…
There’s undeniably something elemental about The Maldives’ sound. After all, roots music, folk, and country—sub-genres that, at their best, have always evoked the Earth and the elements—form the band’s bedrock. But like so much that’s elemental, The Maldives’ longevity (13 years and counting) and dependably awesome live presence can be taken for granted with alarming…
The assignment starts out as nothing more than another fun Artist Home web piece. AH co-founder Kevin Sur brainstorms the idea to me via email—an ongoing series of articles highlighting some of our favorite Northwest-grown album cover art and packaging. The spark for the idea comes from the stunning presentation behind the vinyl pressing of…
Full disclosure: 2016 has given me a Doctoral crash course in navigating seriously wrenching financial, personal, and emotional loss, especially in the last two months. So for me at first blush, the recent deaths of Leonard Cohen and Sharon Jones—right in time for the holidays— just felt like two more reasons why 2016 could…
Halloween’s just around the corner, and you’ll need a soundtrack for all of the trick-or-treating, parties, and all-around skullduggery. Doubtless, there’s a ton of horror-themed songs out there for your All Hallows Mix. Northwest artists have generated their share of genuinely spooky/scary/horrific tunes, to be sure—enough to put together a pretty primo playlist. I’m not…
It’s an overcast Saturday afternoon in Upper Queen Anne, on one of the first honest-to-God, truly autumnal autumn days of 2016, and I’m on my way to interview Ravenna Woods lead singer/guitarist/songwriter Chris Cunningham. The wind’s picking up, and the trees—some flashing lambent autumn reds and yellows, others bare and skeletal—are bending and eddying with…
Aaron Roden is the kind of guy who’s incredibly easy to bullshit with over beers. Affable, unpretentious, and funny, he possesses a gift for talking—and listening—to relative strangers. And often, those relative strangers open up in unexpected ways. That unique gift’s enabled the veteran podcaster to carve out a distinctive and steadily-growing niche. Roden’s shepherded…
For the benefit of the uninitiated: Spokane is a rural Eastern Washington manufacturing town, isolated from the rest of humanity by Canadian wilderness to the north, arid Palouse plains to the south, the Cascades to the west, and the Rockies to the east. Even today it’s known as a conservative little place without much patience…
Yeah, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s proven to be about as relevant an arbiter of, y’know, actual merit as the Oscars. And no, that’s not a compliment. But I still got the feels when Cheap Trick were selected as 2016 inductees on April 8. When Cheap Trick was born in the mid-1970s, the Billboard…
