Vodka 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 Of…
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 MoreMercy (seen/heard here) is from Alma Mater, a band made up of Dirk Sullivan and Andrew Paul Woodworth, and their upcoming long-player, The Beginning Of Everything (release date not set). It’s all about showing kindness, empathy, and compassion, to those around us that simply confound us. It is so easy to react with negativity to these sorts of people. We have seen that sort of negativity gather in the winds that have blown hate and division around the world…
Read MoreSteeped in historical rock, gently tossed with pop melody goodness, and carefully served with attention to detail, Steve Stoeckel’s debut LP, The Power Of And (February 2023), is a careful look at what rock music can be in the age of overproduction. From the lead-off track, Laura Lynn, to the finale, Whistling Past Graveyards, each song is crafted with a simple story, a good melody, Stoeckel’s imperfect but infectious vocals, and instrumentation that offers just enough, without being too much. From start to finish, The Power Of…
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