At the beginning of August, Maria Wilman released her debut LP, Dark Horse, which is chuck full of interesting melodic creations, that stray from modern music’s tried and true formulas. That is an excellent thing! Mastermind (seen/heard here) is one of the singles from the new LP. Maria has a beautiful alto voice that she uses at times with a Grace Slick or Chrissie Hynde sort of slide-in bent-note instrument. In fact, Maria Wilman has more in common with those…
Read MoreVodka has been to many house concerts this Summer even hosting one of them. That has made it a great Summer indeed. Sofia Talvik (with her husband, sound technician, and road engineer, Jonas Westin) was the latest artist. I think my wife said it best: “From the moment she opened her mouth and began singing, she had me.” She introduced us to new music from her as yet unreleased LP (due out August 14, 2023), Center…
Read MoreA few weeks ago, Vodka had the pleasure of hosting singer-songwriter-producer Mike Vitale for a house concert. The weather was blissfully moderate. Mike and the crowd were ready for what came next. It was a wonderful concert full of stories. Everyone enjoyed the food and the music. It ended all too soon. Mike started the show off with the only song that wasn’t an original, Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer, complete with extensive looping pedal work. It was a phenomenal opener, but…
Read MoreArielle Silver first crossed Vodka’s path in 2020, and I was impressed. She had been making music at that point since around 2004, so she wasn’t new to the business. The review for What Really Matters appeared in March 2020, followed by the review for Headlights in May. With the pandemic happening during that time, many musicians had to get creative to continue to make money in the many months that followed. She hasn’t had an LP since…
Read MoreYou should recognize the voice of Chris Brain. His music and voice distinctly resemble Nick Drake, as I noted a little over a year ago in the review for Bound To Rise found here. It’s eerie and magnificent too. It is almost like Nick Drake’s song One Of These Things First in action, except perhaps just reincarnated as Chris Brain! In that original review, I noted that the song was the title track to Brain’s debut LP, which was not only good but great….
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