Artist Home Premiere: “Please Be Nice (to Me)” by Forest Ray

Seattle band Forest Ray kicks up some serious dust on “Please Be Nice (to Me),” the second single from their forthcoming full-length, Windf**ker, and Artist Home is damned proud to be premiering it here. If you want to put a fine enough point on it, Forest Ray’s often rootsy, very handmade sound could be dubbed…

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Artist Home Premiere: “Party with You” by Chris King and the Gutterballs

Singer/Guitarist Chris King and Bassist Malcolm Roberts, mainstays of The Gutterballs, want to (wait for it) Party with You. News flash: The world’s enduring an extra-tumultuous time at the moment. Given that unfortunate truth, there’s no way of overstating the cathartic curative power that a great song can deliver. So if a single addresses these…

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Stephanie Anne Johnson and The Hidogs: Americana Soul from The City of Destiny

Singer/songwriter Stephanie Anne Johnson is proudly Tacoma-born and bred, and there’s something about her songs and voice that reflect that, in the best possible way.  In contrast to the airs of pretense that its sibling to the North—Seattle—often puts on, Tacoma’s a scrappier, more blue-collar, and much less pretentious place. Tacomans have no problem keeping…

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Late Summer Jams from Charlie and the Rays, hERON, and Slang

Summer’s almost gone. And while that obscene yellow ball of gaseous flame in the sky doesn’t feel like slinking away just yet (here in Seattle, at least), it doesn’t have a habit of sticking around much past the first week of September. That lends some urgency to these recommendations, as all of them have made…

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The Maldives’ “Mad Lives” Sounds Like a Classic

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…

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