Popcorn Zombies

  By Michael Momper The mid-2000s saw an explosion of folk music that catapulted bands like the Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons into sudden stardom. Perhaps it was an act of rebellion against the increasingly polished and inhuman production of pop songs at the time (still a problem today, certainly) or perhaps it was the refreshing reintroduction of extremely honest and vulnerable songwriting to alternative radio. For me, it was a little bit of both factors. But certainly, a lot of the country was mesmerized by groups like this and their staying power has been impressive. At their best, the Avett Brothers' music is so earnest and pure that it is reminiscent of a high alpine meadow or a clear Colorado stream. These features in nature, through their beauty and innocence, can remind a person of the touch-points between man and the transcendent, ideas very overtly covered by the spiritual lyricism all throughout the Avett's catalog. I would contend that this is a group at their...

  Graham Craycraft      The fire crackles and the coyote howls. The men clutch their cigarettes close to them while one lays a rope around the camp to keep out rattlers he says. They pass a bottle of rotgut whiskey and wipe the stinging ash from their eyes. The rope has been laid and the man takes his place in time to wet his throat on the last drops of the bottle. He tosses it into the distance too far to even hear it shatter into stars on the rocks.      “Well boys how bout a story?” the other three men each tuck a cigarette under their lips and perk up a little to listen. The storyteller pulls out a guitar and begins to strum in a slow but punchy manner. He starts his tale in that parched and pitted voice they all came to know. The fire dances as the flames listen too. One would almost say they were dancin’ western swings and, hell, maybe even waltzes as Mr. Wall played to the men and the wide Saskatchewan skies. Colter Wall is a 25 year old Canad...

  Graham Craycraft Arlo McKinley, a Cincinnati, OH native was the last signee by the late John Prine. The release of his first major label album (Prine’s Oh Boy Records) is titled Die Midwestern . It discusses life as a Midwesterner, the struggles of the lower hard hit class, and love that seems destined to fail. McKinley is part of a growing singer-songwriter movement with peers such as Tyler Childers and Colter Wall. Pulling from influences such as these two and the late Prine, McKinley has begun to etch out his own voice. In the first single, “Die Midwestern,” McKinley strikes hard delivering the best song on the album. Mckinley describes the chapter of his life he is currently in. He must get out of the city and state he’s been in his whole life or else he’ll surely succumb to old bad habits. In another great track “Bag of Pills” Mckinley recollects his past addiction and the troubling lengths he went to survive. The song is a journey of bad to worse to complete crumbling like ...

By MichaelMomper Charley Crockett is a man who is no stranger to the pain and sorrow felt by so many in 2020, and on his new album Welcome to Hard Times the feelings of loneliness are perfectly captured in a unique Western motif. Crockett has been all over, and has seen much more than most 36-year-old men. A distant relative of Davy Crockett, Charley grew up in a trailer in Texas and spent most of his adolescence hitchhiking, sleeping in fields and in the street, and performing constantly with the hopes of making enough money for a meal or a bed. He is of black, Jewish, Creole and Cajun heritage, and his diverse background is shown all throughout his unique brand of high-and-lonesome Western tunes. He has released 6 albums in the past 4 years, and his passion for the songs has garnered him critical acclaim and, recently, his first Grand Ole Opry performance. Welcome to Hard Times  is both an ancient-sounding record, and yet simultaneously as fresh as can be. It was largely written,...