POSTED // Nov 8,2012 - Gentleman Jesse isn’t Leaving Atlanta, as the title of his second album suggests—he has a house and a wife. But longtime Atlanta musician Jesse Smith did endure a pivotal spate of bad luck.

POSTED // Oct 18,2012 - Billy Joe Shaver would make a great wingman. He’s seen more honky-tonks than a beer distributor and, even at 73, he can handle himself in a bar fight.

POSTED // Aug 2,2012 - A catchy tune is always welcome, but it’s even better when the singer brings something personal to bear. Secretly, you want to believe that beyond the artifice of the stage and the performance,

POSTED // Apr 5,2012 - Municipal Waste frontman Tony Foresta exists in a sweet state of denial. The throwback thrash act is opening for fellow Richmond, Va., residents GWAR again.

POSTED // Mar 22,2012 - “I have anger-management issues,” Sharon Van Etten confesses. If you’re unfamiliar with the young New Jersey singer-songwriter’s pretty, doleful music, you might get the wrong impression.

POSTED // Feb 2,2012 - Too many bands get caught up in business and forget there’s a reason it’s called “playing.” Philadelphia sextet Dr. Dog set out to embody that spirit with their richly layered psychedelic pop,

POSTED // Jan 5,2012 - There’s a continuum in music between the beauty of straight, unvarnished sentiment (Hank Williams, The Ramones) and the grandiose elegance of arty sophistication (Pink Floyd, Radiohead).

POSTED // Dec 2,2011 - It’s been 35 years since punk reared its mohawked head with self-effacing irreverence and joyous chaos, laying waste to the pretense of its rock-god forebears.