Independent's Day Radio

The word ‘maverick’ gets thrown around a lot; politicians, cowboys, designers and others have all been labeled as such when a soul sets itself apart from the mean in order to find out what is truly possible. Singer/songwriter Brad Peterson exemplifies the ethos of the independent, intrepid musician better than almost anyone. Growing up in New Jersey and suburban Chicago, Peterson was experimenting with recording his own original songs as soon as he figured out how to work his tabletop cassette recorder before he was even ten years old. Throughout the late 80s and 90s he evolved through a series of stylistic shifts - from frenetic new wave pop to blue-eyed soul and a kind of nostalgic and organic folky rock - with his powerful and emotive voice establishing an anchor to hold it all together. Over time, his songs got better and he played in a number of bands with increasingly larger spheres of influence. Stages got bigger - as did the crowds in front of them - and Peterson eventually rubbed elbows with som

Anyone who has said that girls can’t rock has never heard Funkyjenn sing. This Los Angeles-based chanteuse doesn’t ‘rock’ in the sexually objectified Lita Ford kind of way, but in the storied tradition of women like Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin who had enough power to not merely hang with the boys in the band - but to lead them with a commanding presence at center stage. Funkyjenn has the soul, the chops and the personality to front a group of top notch players, and although she is a thoroughly modern woman there is a kind of raw sexuality to what she’s doing - and it’s the same rhythmic bump and grind that inspired the progenitors of rock and blues music. But aside from her powerful voice, it’s her collaborative nature that sets her apart from the legions of chick singers leaning hard on the blue notes. Funkyjenn knows that filling up her band with the best players available is a pillar of success in music, and she involves those players every step of the way - from the writing of songs to the hours hamm

Christian Gregory’s blue-eyed soul comes by way of his home, which is immersed in Britain's rich musical heritage. He’s certainly not the first resident of the U.K. to slip a little Motown and Memphis into his sound - Van Morrison practically invented the genre long before Gregory was born and rock bands have been getting funky since they learned to count to four - but Gregory’s syncopated rhythms are drawn from the funkier side of soul, and like so many young artists in the new paradigm, his music displays his keen ability to look back while pushing forward. And steering clear of the over processed, over auto-tuned and overproduced style that is currently en vogue in the R & B world serves him well. Once you strip away the trappings of modern pop, what remains is the same stuff that makes old school funk, soul and rhythm and blues music classic and timeless. Snake-y grooves, funky comping and bedroom-falsetto crooning provide the perfect balance of style and substance that is essential for music in which

Hannah Aldridge is steeped in what Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood calls “The Southern Thing” - a phrase that tries to summarize the living, breathing duality of the rich and troubled history of the American South. Aldridge is based in Nashville these days, but she spent her formative years in the fertile musical turf near Muscle Shoals, Alabama - about 125 miles south of her current home. Muscle Shoals is a small, backwoods southern river town that happens to have long been a legendary destination for world-class musicians. Something in the muddy water seeps into the souls of the people who live and record in Muscle Shoals - and that inexplicable magic winds up in the records cut there. Aldridge’s apple didn’t fall far from the talent tree - her father is noted songwriter and musician Walt Aldridge - but the younger Aldridge has more than enough keen observations in her gritty songs and confidence in her sweet and rural voice to earn her her own hard-won stripes. She writes from the perspective of a s

Crafting an album that defines a decade isn’t an easy thing to do, but Radiohead most definitely raised the bar for all modern rock bands when they released OK Computer in 1997. The band had worked up to that wildly creative period over two previous albums, starting as a more straight-ahead British band before evolving into something wholly new. Eventually, it seems that Radiohead got bored with being Radiohead and completely cast away their guitar-driven origins and focused on experimental music. But what if OK Computer was the starting point for a band that never lost its romance with the guitar? Los Angeles’ We Are Kings And Queens wears their Radiohead influence proudly, and they’ve got the atmospheric songs and musical chops to live up to the inevitable comparisons. Guitarist Benjamin Hancock has the prerequisite colossal pedalboard that is essential for conjuring otherworldly soundscapes, and he uses it with a deft touch. The band’s hypnotic drums and bass provide the perfect rhythmic counterpoint

Experimental art can be an acquired taste, but once it gets into your head nothing else will do. Classical composer John Cage built a career on doing things differently, and The Beatles transformed from a garage band ripping off Chuck Berry to the biggest band that ever was by experimenting with just how far a pop song could be pushed into unknown sonic territory. Caspar Sonnet’s music exists in a world that is at least partially free of the conventions of what most people recognize as pop music. In Sonnet’s world, song structures do not conform to traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus forms and melodies are juxtaposed against a richer harmonic palette that most ears find familiar. Listening to Caspar Sonnet’s music can be jarring at first, but if listeners have the courage to abandon comfortable conventions there is a discordant beauty lurking below the surface. It helps that Sonnet is talented enough to both sing his angular melodies and accompany himself on instruments that have been modified to fit i

There are a million people out there with a guitar and a voice making music, but Jeff Crosby is a diamond in the rough. After spending his formative years in Idaho, Crosby set out to establish himself as a professional musician the honest way, by playing his music in front of fans on the road… anywhere that would take him. By 2014, a decade of sacrifice and commitment to a strong work ethic is beginning to pay off. Two songs from his debut EP, Silent Conversations, recently found their way into episodes of the FX network’s gritty series, Sons of Anarchy, and in short order Crosby noticed that more and more people were showing up at gigs - even in far off places like rural Canada. With the kind of visibility a hit show provides, Crosby’s natural talent and well-worn songs are earning him even more fans. But it’s Crosby’s voice that is his not-so-secret weapon. His singing style is confident and familiar, and it perfectly suits his songs of traveling and longing. Most interestingly, when listening to Jef

When people think of the home of country music, they tend to think of Nashville, or maybe Texas, or even anywhere a weepy pedal steel guitar crackles out of the radio of a pickup truck on any of America’s endless dirt and gravel back roads. But way over the horizon, past where the sun sets over red clay and sagebrush, California has long served as a key Western outpost for sturm and twang. Beatified saints of country music like Woody Guthrie and Gram Parsons earned their bona fides in California, and latter-day legends like Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Dwight Yoakam made damn sure that Southern California was more than a whistle stop on the country map. The new Los Angeles band comprised of the already-established musicians Kirsten Proffit, Manda Mosher and Aubrey Richmond gave themselves some big boots to fill when they named their new trio Calico the band - a portmanteau of ‘California’ and ‘country.’ The thing is, the women of Calico the band are far more than just pretty faces in Scully shirts. All

Music is woven into the city of New Orleans in a way that should make every other city in the world envious. A stroll through the French Quarter is like being given a well-curated iPod stuck permanently on shuffle. But it isn’t just a big show for the tourists. Nearly every take on the human experience has passed through New Orleans, headed one way or another on the Mississippi River - a wide and muddy artery that makes up the heart of America - and it has all seeped into the lives and the songs of the Crescent City. Musician Rick Solem spent some of his formative years in Minnesota - at the very headwaters of the Mighty Mississippi - but he was brought to California when he was only three years old and missed his first chance to get caught in the current that was destined for New Orleans. He made his way through school, studied classical music and and started a career playing the piano. At some point, he met and jammed with the famed New Orleans pianist and cultural emissary, Dr. John, but still Solem

Jaime Wyatt is what you might imagine Otis Redding would sound like if he had been a young, attractive and talented female singer/songwriter. Her soulful voice leans on the same blue notes and husky timbre that gave Redding his distinctive and instantly recognizable style. Wyatt’s timeless white woman blues also draws heavily from harder-rocking influences – she could just as easily slide into the arena rock shoes of original AC/DC front man Bon Scott - and fill them amply. But there is a bit of red dirt twang mixed into her songs as well, and this rust-colored rural influence lands Wyatt squarely in the Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris camp, and she can handle that yoke, too. It is hard to write a fresh blues-rock song this late in the game, but give a spin to her music and it will soon be evident that Wyatt knows her way around a song as well as around a bluesy melody. And if that’s not enough, Wyatt is also a solid guitar player. Not a know-enough-chords-to-get-through-a-song-or-two guitar player, bu

Every now and again, an event happens that captures the zeitgeist of America. Charles Lindbergh’s seminal 1927 crossing of the Atlantic in his rickety airplane was a major milestone in American history, and it brought the young pilot a level of fame that was theretofore unimaginable. Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon in 1969 riveted not just a nation, but the entirety of humankind. And on July 11th, 2013, the Syfy network released a made-for-TV movie called Sharknado. The plot - by all accounts utterly and intentionally absurd - was based on the occurrence of a series of disastrous tornadoes (water spouts, more accurately) that sucked up untold numbers of sharks and deposited them on the streets of Los Angeles; carnage and camp ensued. Far from the first of its kind, something about the low budget disaster flick transfixed a goodly number of Americans, a few of whom took to Twitter about Sharknado. A buzz turned into a roar and the movie was re-aired more than once on Syfy, even making the jump f

American roots music is currently having a Renaissance of sorts, with bands across the country and across the pond ditching their Les Pauls and Marshall half stacks in favor of acoustic instruments, beards and bowler hats. There are a lot of ways to bring a little bit of yesterday to the new millennium when it comes to music, and Los Angeles’ The Walcotts have staked their claim on a rustic mixture of roadhouse blues, Memphis soul, swampy delta jazz and underground Nashville twang. And all of this sounds as if it has been stirred together by a spoon lifted from the kitchen of The Big Pink - the Hudson Valley house where Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson hung out with Bob Dylan and wrote the bulk of The Band’s debut album. Singer and guitarist Tom Cusimano is the master of ceremonies, and the large band he leads isn’t limited in the least to folk instrumentation; there are Telecasters and tube amps, piano and Hammond organ, trumpet, trombone, pedal steel guitar, fiddle and a healthy helping of fe

Lots of artists like to sing about wandering, but few log the kind of actual miles that Mississippi-born singer/songwriter Gann Brewer does. Brewer is a rambler in the truest sense of the word. Ask him where his home is, and he’ll pause to ponder the question, because the answer might be hard for him to figure. He has been known to hang his hat in New York City and California, but never for long. Mostly, he has spent the last twenty years spinning wheels and spinning yarns with his original songs, penned in the tradition of of the trailblazers of his genre. World-class wanderers like Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Woody Guthrie, John Prine, Guy Clark, Mississippi John Hurt, and Hank Williams all come to mind. Fully seven of the fourteen songs on his sophomore album, titled Peddlers & Ghosts, name check specific places in their titles, and the characters in his songs that ground Brewer - and inspire him to leave again - could only be conjured by meeting real people somewhere along the way from one show to anothe

Chicago’s Dolly Varden is a band that could be called local legends, but the 5-piece has accomplished too much over 19 years, six albums and numerous shows across the U.S. and overseas to be relegated to mere local status. One half of the songwriting team that fronts Dolly Varden is guitarist and vocalist Steve Dawson. Dawson was born in California and raised in Idaho, but he is Chicago through and through - and his brilliant songs and gentle tenor perfectly reflect the complex, friendly and often frozen city that has long been his home. Dolly Varden has some big plans in the works for their 20th anniversary next year, but Dawson has a very busy schedule of his own. His new side project, Funeral Bonsai Wedding, is a based on a wholly new and improvisational approach that builds on his solid pair of solo albums, Sweet Is The Anchor and I Will Miss The Trumpets And The Drums, both of which are filled with exquisitely crafted songs that deftly include elements of classic country, old school pop and blue-eyed

Rich McCulley’s approach to life might well be called “the Tao of Rock.” After spending his formative years playing in bands and touring out of California’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley, McCulley fell into working at a recording studio in Fresno. When he outgrew that gig, he relocated to Los Angeles and started his own recording studio, Red Hill Recording. Fast forward to 2014 and he’s a successful songwriter, engineer, guitarist and producer with several albums under his belt and his commitment to not forcing things is as strong and easygoing as ever. It has worked out well for him. His songs are well-crafted and his studio and stage calendar is as busy as he wants it to be. His rolodex is full of some of Los Angeles’ top musicians, and when he calls, they pick up the phone. Songs he wrote or co-wrote have been heard in TV shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Cold Case” and in movies like “Little Birds” and “Donner Pass.” There are hundreds of gigs on his resume, but these days he spends more of his d

Skip Heller is a walking encyclopedia - a comprehensive repository of information about music that spans the width and breadth of more artists, songs and history than most music fans will ever even know exists. And it’s not just trivia. Heller knows music like a savant sports statistician knows who had the best batting average in the 1948 World Series. It’s a kind of reverence when someone knows who built the house we are all living in. But Heller is not just an academic, he’s an active player, composer and arranger who fronts more than one ensemble that bears his name; for the past few years he has been billed as the Skip Heller Trio, the Skip Heller Quintet, Skip Heller and The Hollywood Blues Destroyers and he has worked with scores more. Heller’s Quintet is a group of accomplished players which allow him to fully explore his more recent stylistic forays into ‘countrypolitan’ swing and jazzy blues and he leads them like a master conductor. Nothing less than excellence is required, and the band strive

Music allows us to time travel. Put on a song that we loved in high school and we are right there, dancing nervously and closely in the gym or cruising out of the parking lot at 2:50pm with the stereo blaring. And some music takes you to a specific place even if you were never there. The Far West plays music that would sound right coming out of a Chevy’s AM radio in Joshua Tree, California in 1972. Singer Lee Briante’s John Prine-worthy, croaky baritone is out front, but all five members of The Far West play like they’re making music at the same time, which seems like a rare commodity in the new millenium. They have an affinity for recording their music live in non-traditional spaces… a garage, a VFW hall… and that practice delivers an authenticity that transfers from their live shows to their albums and back again. They have the classic lineup of two guitars, bass, drums and keyboards, and this instrumentation serves them - and their music - well. Close your eyes and spin their new album, Any Day Now,

Whoever said that nice guys finish last had obviously never been to the American Midwest. Plenty of heartland dwellers accomplish amazing things in the world without being jerks, and the Chicago-based duo, FinleyKnight, exemplifies the idea that affability can produce great music. FinleyKnight is comprised of two brothers, John and Connor Detjen, who create their music with a fearless approach that incorporates any and all technological accouterments. There are drums and guitars aplenty, but they share the expansive sonic space of FinleyKnight with loops, drum machines, synthesizers and anything else that the composers can get their hands on. The result informs the listener that these guys grew up in a mashup world in which they are natives to the types of modern technology used to make music in entirely new ways. Working with producer/drummer Joey Waronker on their eponymous full-length debut album brought a new focus on rhythm to FinleyKnight’s sound, so thumping, ticking beats keep the soundscapes fro

Eleni Mandell has managed to carve out a decent career for herself in the last 15 years. She’s a native of Los Angeles, and that geographical good fortune afforded her the opportunity to immerse herself in the rich musical scene of Southern California during her formative years. Now that she’s been at it awhile, fans might not make the connection between her elegantly simple songs adorned with acoustic guitars and the underground punk and rock shows she grew up frequenting. Along the way, she has worked with music-savant producer Jon Brion, guitarists Nels Cline and Tony Gilkyson, drummer/producer Joey Waronker and the back up band on her new record, Let’s Fly A Kite, was borrowed from none other than Nick Lowe. Over the years, Mandell has been compared to such diverse artists as PJ Harvey, X, Patsy Cline and Tom Waits and her life and career have continued to evolve. In addition to guitars and merch, Mandell now takes along a set of twins when she hits the road, and the shift in perspective is evident o

Every now and again, a young musician comes along who makes you go, "Damn!" Something about the way they turn a rhyme or phrase a melody feels utterly natural in a way that is seldom seen or heard. James Byous is that kid. But really, he’s hardly a kid, because his music exudes both a musical maturity and a sensual, blue-eyed soul that belies his 25 years. He’s soft-spoken, but articulate. He knows his music history enough to know that we’re all standing on the shoulders of giants, but he’s talented and confident enough to sing every song as as if were his own. He can hold his own on guitar, and he writes his own catchy songs, too. The eleven songs that comprise his debut album, Broken Ghost, show a range that would be rare for an artist of any age. But above all, Byous is blessed with a facile tenor voice that, in a style of music more prone to vocal gymnastics than his breezy acoustic pop, would be just another platform for excessive autotuning. Justin Timberlake could learn a thing or two from Byous