JPR Music

A burgeoning star, Amy LaVere is becoming renowned worldwide for her songwriting, bass playing, and vocals. She sings with a sweet, haunting voice that can turn on a dime from innocent to lusty (“Norah Jones with an added Cyndi Lauper element” — Mojo Magazine; “Spookiness suits her” — New York Times).

Michael Rault’s second full-length, It’s A New Day Tonight, has its home in the darkness, like much rock and roll—many of its songs look at nocturnal activities, particularly sleep. “Sleeping and dreaming were attractive concepts,” says Rault. “I was looking for an escape from a lot of frustrating and dissatisfying conditions in my day-to-day life.”

KT Tunstall thought she was done with music. Not done as in she’d never again play guitar or sing, but done playing professionally, at least for the foreseeable future. “As an artist I feel like I died,” she says. “I didn’t want to do it anymore.”

Intuitive Compass is the diverse talents of song writer and guitar pioneer, Jason Dea West taken together with old time circus freak and accordionist Aurelia Anne Cohen. Purveyors of “Original Western Folk Music” they offer a timeless sound, invoking a musical America of the past with out ever sounding dated. Their provocative lines and dynamic arrangements include elements of country blues, old-time, vintage swing, jazz, frontier balladry, instrumentals and the perpetuation of traditional folk songs.

Laura Veirs grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she often spent summers camping with her family, which gave her much of her songwriting inspiration. Veirs has said that she didn’t seriously listen to music until she was in her 20s; instead, she just heard what was in her environment. She listened to folk, country, classical and pop music around the house and on the radio during her youth.

When Jonathon Robert Linaberry needs a break from New York city life, he goes upstate, near the Catskills, to renovate a little farmhouse he purchased a couple of years back. As he pours himself into his work, J.R. doesn’t think about texts, email, or even his music, which he performs solo under the moniker The Bones Of J.R. Jones. His only focus is the house.

Cold wars come in a few sizes, but the warm wars -- the ones that burn and give off a fair amount of long stares and result in exasperation and quivering faces — are the ones that Christopher Porterfield of Field Report worries about on the Milwaukee, Wisconsin band’s third album, Summertime Songs. They’re suntanned and wind-swept. They’ve been crying and they’ve been drinking. These warm wars are the result of chaffing, of friction and boredom. They’re caused by everything and nothing at all, just guys deciding to act on a foggy and cowardly, oftentimes mistaken heart’s behalf. Some people give up and some people are given up on.

Adrian Legg has forged a path unique among guitarists. His quest to blend the tonality of an acoustic with the amplified power of the electric guitar continued today. “I wanted something that had the harmonic content roughly like an acoustic, and that had the flexibility in terms of stringing and volume levels, whatever you wanted to do, of an electric,” he explains.

Realism and storytelling are qualities that are prominent on I Am Nice, the 17-year-old Utah singer-songwriter's New West debut. The 12-song album—produced by Ben Tanner of Alabama Shakes and John Paul White of the Civil Wars—shows the young troubadour to be a timeless talent whose catchy compositions embody the sort of wisdom, empathy and insight that's usually associated with more experienced songwriters.

On the farm in rural Australia where Sophie Payten – AKA Gordi – grew up, there’s a paddock that leads down to a river. A few hundred metres away up the driveway of the property named “Alfalfa” sits another house, which belongs to her 93-year-old grandmother. The rest, she says, “is just beautiful space. And what else would you fill it with if not music?”

With a celestial voice and lyrics only an old soul can write, singer/songwriter Olivia Millerschin is racking up the accolades. Most recently, Olivia’s blend of vintage folk and modern pop earned her a second John Lennon Songwriting Award and the opportunity to showcase her music with a mainstage performance at NAMM 2018. She was a quarter finalist on America’s Got Talent, won the Great American Song Contest, is featured on Republic Records soundtrack to Mitch Albom’s latest novel alongside musical greats Ingrid Michaelson and Tony Bennett, and has music placed in national and international film and tv.

The Ballroom Thieves fought through a year of tribulations with their sophomore album, 2016's Deadeye, as their shield and sword. Only through continuing to write and perform together were guitarist Martin Earley, cellist Calin Peters, and drummer Devin Mauch able to fend off their darker days.

Drawing from diverse influences ranging from John Hartford, Joanna Newsom, Pete Seeger and Townes Van Zandt, Hollis Peach weaves evocative, mischievous and deeply personal stories in the American vernacular of song and story.