Independent's Day Radio

Perhaps the most aptly-named band in music history, The Dustbowl Revival is everything that their clever name implies. It all started as a small string band focused on playing anachronistic music styles that were popular in the early 20th century - pre-bop jazz, swing, jump, blues, gospel, bluegrass and folk. Founder Zach Lupetin took the show on the road on numerous tours up the West coast and as the band's following grew in number so did the band itself. By 2013, The Dustbowl Revival has evolved into a sort of musical collective where any given show might include eight or more performers rambling along on vocals, guitars, drums, mandolin, kazoo, trombone, trumpet, washboard, clarinet, fiddle, pedal steel guitar, harmonica, banjo, accordion, tambourine, euphonium, tuba, upright bass and whatever else might be handy. The result is a musical mashup of anything remotely considered to be 'old-timey' that is at once retro and fresh. But most importantly, it is fun. The performers love making this music and it sho

After arriving in Los Angeles in the late 1960s, Neil Young made a name for himself by introducing the world to a simple, haunting and idiosyncratic brand of music that mixed gentle acoustic guitars, visceral fuzzed-out electric guitars, lonesome harmonica and cryptic lyrics sung in a warbled tenor. Whether or not this sonic territory was what Los Angeles' Dinosaur Horses were aiming for with their debut record, "So Much For That," they succeeded in spades. Imitation may be a divine form of flattery, but there is a reverence in this music that comes not from a calculated mimicry but from a perhaps subconscious desire to make the most honest music possible by Dinosaur Horses' leader, Angelo Felder. Dinosaur Horses have the geographic credentials in order - they hail from the woody and tranquil Topanga Canyon area just outside of Los Angeles - and the ten songs on this record simply reek of a raw, unpretentious authenticity that would sound right at home drifting out of the windows of a sun-bleached Topanga cab

Although Austin may have laid claim to the title of the "live music capitol of the world," there really is only one town where musicians with a hardcore jones for country music make their pilgrimage. Native Canadian Lindi Ortega had already made a name for herself up north, releasing a pair of EPs and a record that racked up a pair of Juno award nominations when she arrived in Nashville. But once in Guitar Town she hit the red ground running, enlisting fellow Canadian journeyman musician Colin Linden to produce her newest record, "Cigarettes and Truckstops." The result is a set of ten songs that play like Dolly Parton on steroids. There are nods to the female forebears of torch and twang - Emmylou, Loretta, Tammy and Patsy (all the demigoddesses that should be on Music City's Mount Rushmore) but Ortega is also a writer of substance who is not afraid to singlehandedly attempt to pull country music into the 21st century by questioning the authority of Nashville's politically incorrect establishment. Her songs p

After spending his formative years in the small central Kansas town of Kinsley (population 1,457), Freedy Johnston followed the tried and true path of many musicians - he went away to college and then dropped out to chase his dreams. A sign in his hometown had a pair of arrows that pointed in either direction towards New York City and San Francisco, and the former became the place Johnston put down new roots, believing so strongly in his path that he sold part of the family farm to finance his music career. Since then, Johnston has come light years beyond his mythic back-story. His second album, "Can You Fly," rightfully earned its way onto many of 1992's best-of lists and earned him accolades from Rolling Stone and Spin. A major label contract followed and subsequent albums were produced by the likes of Butch Vig and T-Bone Burnett. Johnston's compositions are filled with a keen eye for detail, assured melodies sung in his slightly raspy tenor and an elegant simplicity that is akin to John Prine's ability to

Pi Jacobs' confident but tasteful singing style is a breath of fresh air in an age of diva singers who have themselves convinced that they're getting paid by the note. She can torch it up with the best of them with blue note runs, a bit of grit and strategically placed vibrato, and her songs are custom fit to showcase a respect for musical integrity. This approach has served her well: her songs have been placed over 60 times in television, film and advertising spots. So odds are if you haven't heard of her you have heard her music. She has four albums under her belt and a new record on the way in early 2013 that pushes her music into some new territory thanks to collaboration with producer Eugene Toale, who marries his background in hip hop with Jacobs' accessible brand of smoldering new millennium rock.

The pedal steel guitar is usually an instrument reserved for country and western music. Its complicated, pitch-changing levers and pedals, volume swells and lack of frets gives the high and lonesome music of rural America its distinctive weepy sound. But some artists push the instrument into new territory, notably uber-producer Daniel Lanois, who creates lush soundscapes with his ethereal pedal steel playing. The Los Angeles based band, First Circuit, falls somewhere in between. At its heart, the band's sound is reminiscent of a lot of British bands in your record collection... maybe a less experimental Radiohead or more muscular Coldplay. But it is their use of pedal steel that sets them apart from other would-be British pop rock emulators. First Circuit's pedal steel guitarist, Kevin Milner, juxtaposes his fairly traditional steel playing with singer Adam Kurtz' adventurous songwriting and the result is a pleasing blend that just makes sense.

Pop music has changed a lot over the years. Charts that used to be full of artists like Bobby Vinton, The Beatles and eventually Madonna and Michael Jackson are now ruled by the likes of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. Dictionary.com defines pop music as "Music of general appeal to teenagers; a bland watered-down version of rock and roll with more rhythm and harmony and an emphasis on romantic love." Not exactly a glowing description. But at its heart pop music is music designed to be catchy and instantly memorable, and creating it is harder than it sounds. The new-ish Los Angeles based band, WALLA, unlike so many of their peers, eschew the trappings of the fertile local 'indie' scene and readily embrace the pop tradition the way it's served up in the new millennium. The synths are here, as are economical arrangements, danceable tempos, catchy, simple lyrics and bit of disco for good measure.

Although it can seem so by people who don't like it, country music is not a singular, boot-and-hat-wearing monolith. When viewed close up, there are as many variations and subgenres in the style as there are diverse artists are who invented them. And although Nashville is the undisputed epicenter for what is commonly known as 'country,' some of the more colorful, eccentric and original characters have always had a hard time fitting into Nashville's rigid confines. Enter Grant Langston. Langston grew up a mere 125 miles south of the Ryman Auditorium in the sleepy, rural, red dirt town of Hartselle, Alabama. But when it came time to move to a place big enough to hold his ambitious dreams in music, Nashville just didn't seem right for his hybridized brand of country that mixes healthy doses of rock, pop and bits of other styles into a cohesive and catchy blend. In Nashville, Langston might be a square peg, but in Los Angeles he fits right into the same diverse and healthy local twang scene where it is OK that Dw

Rock riffs, punk attitude and snappy arrangements are the stock and trade of Los Angeles' Henry Clay People. The band is led by brothers Joey and Andy Siara, and these guys know their way around a song, and they know their way around a van, as they've been burning up the miles and stages all across the country since 2005 playing at high profile gigs like Lollapalooza, SXSW, Austin City Limits Festival, Coachella and Sasquatch Music Festival. Along the way they've shared bills with Silversun Pickups and Drive-By Truckers.

The entertainment business is full of family acts, from the legacy acts (Jacksons) to the married (Sonny and Cher, Ike and Tina Turner)... from the schmaltzy (The Osmonds) to the semi-fictionalized (The Von Trapp Family Singers). There is simply something special to the sound of a group of people who share family bloodlines or nuptial vows and musical kinship. The Ft. Collins, Colorado band SHEL is far from a novelty act. Sure, the band consists of a quartet of sisters - Sarah, Hannah, Eva and Liza Holbrook, but their claim to musical viability is bona fide. All four Holbrook sisters were homeschooled and classically trained in the ways of music and this exceedingly unique approach to life and art shows in both their songs and performances. The oldest of the sisters is only 24, but the musical maturity of SHEL is more akin to the sum of their ages, which is 86 in case you're keeping score. Their eponymous album is their first full-length release and it showcases their inventive songs and considerable talent a

Anyone who has ever tried to write a song or record an album knows the amount of work that goes into getting the seed of an idea from an artist's head, onto tape and into the ears of fans. But the best music happens when all this work sounds effortless and the finished product sounds at once fresh and familiar. Los Angeles' musical fixture Mark Lane's sophomore record, Something New, accomplishes that sonorous dichotomy in spades. Lane is a pop craftsman, and in his music his influences make their appearances known and then duck in and out of his deft arrangements as the whole thing pulls you forward. There may be hints of the Beach Boys, Elvis Costello and Elliott Smith in Lane's songs but the record is aptly named. Something New sounds the way it does because Mark Lane played nearly every instrument in its eleven tracks. Maybe Lane is overachieving, but the result is a slice of pure pop genius.

Musicians have been pairing up for centuries; Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were far from the first musicians to realize the utility of having another voice to complement their own. But writing and performing with another person adds more than just another voice to one's music - it provides another person to share the spoils and tribulations of being in a band. Despite all the glamorous music videos and pie in the sky dreams of limousines and guitar-shaped pools, a life in music can mean a lot of lonely stretches of highway and feast or famine periods of income.  But perhaps most importantly, having another voice adds a whole other dimension to a single melody, and that is the blessed element of harmony. Danny Byrne and Josh Misko comprise a Los Angeles-based duo called Everett Coast. Both musicians were independent acoustic guitarists, singers and songwriters when they were introduced to one another by a teacher at Musician’s Institute in Hollywood in 2011. Each decided they liked what they heard out of the o

The history of music is full of 'supergroups' - which is when a group of artists who already have established careers decide to band together and form a new group. Sometimes they work - Led Zeppelin was comprised of some of England's top studio musicians from the late 1960s. And sometimes they don't... like the Los Angeles Lakers' talent-overloaded 2003-2004 team that failed to deliver a championship. And then there is the newish folk group Brother Sun, and they qualify as a sort of folk music supergroup. Pat Wictor, Joe Jencks and Greg Greenway already had separate and successful careers in the folk genre. They each toured, recorded albums and made a living in the music business. All three artists knew each other from the folk music circuit, and before long they realized that perhaps they could garner more attention as a band than as solo artists. Doing so meant checking egos at the door and doing what bands do, which is sharing the spoils as well as the hard work of being in a band. By 2012 Brother Sun has

Topanga Canyon is a slice of rugged wildness carved out of the dry Santa Monica mountains just miles from Los Angeles' expansive sprawl. The canyon is one of the only undammed watersheds in the area and that sense of unchecked natural beauty has permeated the culture of the area and fostered an exceedingly rich musical tradition. Current Topanga resident Derek Thomas uses the moniker 'Skyline Drive' for his newest project, and the collection of dusty songs on the upcoming record "Topanga Ranch Motel" - due out in October 2012 - fits right in with the numerous musicians and creative types who have called Topanga home. And this puts Thomas and Skyline Drive in a hallowed category that also includes revered artists like Woody Guthrie, Neil Young, Gram Parsons, Jim Morrison, Little Feat, Van Morrison, Billy Preston, Stephen Stills, Joni Mitchell and actor Will Geer. Thomas is up to the task, and his songs amply hold the weight of such famous and talented predecessors. The songs on Topanga Ranch Motel reside in th

Being a musician means that you sometimes have to work another job to pay the bills. The history of rock music is replete with career balancing acts of one kind of another. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was a janitor. Van Halen's original front man David Lee Roth was a hospital orderly. Rap empress Queen Latifah worked at Burger King. And then there is Los Angeles' John Lafayette Ramey, a singer and songwriter with a pile of catchy, slightly countrified and self deprecating songs spread over a pair of records. His debut album arrived in 2006 and another is on the way, scheduled for a late summer 2012 release. But Ramey also spends some of his busy days as a sports broadcaster for UCLA baseball and UC Riverside basketball - the kind of jobs that a lot of kids who aren't dreaming about being rock stars dream of having. Sports and music have sometimes made strange bedfellows, but Ramey is equally adept at both disciplines. But who will call the games when Ramey hits it big with his music career?

Once upon a time, before the universe was digitized, people made and listened to music using analog technology. On one end, artists, producers and engineers recorded on analog tape and they incorporated the medium's limitations into their process. Tape is hissy, but it is forgiving - and it can make music sound dynamic and close to the listener. And on the other end, long before people could put their entire music collection on a device smaller than a pack of cigarettes, music fans listened to their favorite albums by placing black vinyl discs on a turntable and setting a needle in a groove. Vinyl is scratchy, but it is an experience. The vinyl devotees in Los Angeles' Whispering Pines know their way around this archaic but romantic analog technology and they aren't afraid to use it. Their eponymous sophomore record was recorded on glorious 2-inch analog tape and will be released in the autumn of 2012. The record is replete with carefully crafted songs that hearken back to the days of classic rock guitars, wh

It is said that you can take the measure of a person by the company they keep, and if this adage holds water then Laura Warshauer is an extremely talented young woman. Her list of cronies includes uber-drummer Kenny Aronoff and Roy Bittan of Bruce Springsteen's venerable East Street Band - as well as a cadre of other well-respected musicians and music producers. She can also list The Prince of Wales and his bride, Kate Middleton as friends from her college days at The University of St. Andrews in Scotland. And since those halcyon days, Warhsauer has been burning up stages around the world with her powerful voice that belies her diminutive stature. In 2010, BMI and the Songwriter?s Hall of Fame awarded her the inaugural Holly Prize. Her first album, "The Pink Chariot Mixtape," was released in 2011 and she spent part of 2012 touring with Austin's favorite acoustic and funky stalwart, Bob Schneider. Warshauer is most certainly on her way.

Every generation of young musicians builds upon the ones who came before them. In the case of bands like The Beatles or Led Zeppelin, today's young acts are standing on the shoulders of giants. But musicians find inspiration in nonlinear patterns. Front man Bobby Oliver of the Los Angeles-based band Cities cites singer and songwriter Chris Carrabba of the emo kingpins Dashboard Confessional as the reason he began playing guitar. Indeed, today's nascent songwriters have a much larger palette of artists from which to draw inspiration. We're living in a mash-up world, and this approach is evident in artists like Beck, who has incorporated wildly disparate influences into a cohesive whole. As for Cities, they're doing right by their predecessors by embracing the same things that made them great - namely, learning how to write well-crafted songs with catchy melodies.

An essential part of the human condition is the innate desire to distinguish oneself from one's parents. Doing so can be hard enough when your father works at a steel mill, but when your father is one of the most highly respected songwriters and musicians in the world, he can cast a long shadow on your own accomplishments. Adam Cohen, son of the legendary Leonard Cohen, learned this the hard way. The younger Cohen spent years and three albums running away from his father's legacy before he decided to not only accept, but to embrace his lineage and make an album that frees him to be what he is - the uniquely talented son of a master songsmith. Adam Cohen's new album, "Like a Man," is full of incisive songs that prove that the son of an original artist can be an original artist in his own right.

Twangy rock and roll is a good thing. Twangy rock and roll in ¾ time is a better thing. And Twangy rock and roll in ¾ time with accordions is even better still. Maybe even exquisite. Put all three together and add a bit of swagger and you have the music of Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls. But Heath and his band are not just another whiskey-soaked troupe of rock musicians with a jones for country music. They put their money where their mouth is by doing a lot more than merely singing about the downtrodden - they actually devote their personal time to furthering causes like Los Angeles' Midnight Mission and The Danny Fund - the latter of which was created to raise awareness in the fight against melanoma which took the life of band member Jason Federici's father Danny Federici, the longtime member of Bruce Springsteen's East Street Band, in 2008. With their hearts on their sleeves, their amps on eleven and an earnestness that can only come from genuine empathy, Jason Heath and his band are bona-fide.