Popcorn Zombies

  By Michael Momper In the early morning hours of August 13, 2018, Colorado resident Chris Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann, drove her body to his work site in an oil field, and murdered his four-year old daughter Bella and three-year old daughter Celeste subsequently. These grisly murders were immediately the subject of national attention, as the case was one of the few family annihilation cases in the era of social media where the victims' lives were so publicly documented for the world to see. It is a harrowing story, one that garners even more emotional attachment than most simply because there are so many pictures and videos available of the victims via social media- for two years people have dug into their past with sadness and curiosity, often feeling like they personally know the victims because of the available footage. In Jenny Popplewell's latest documentary, American Murder: The Family Next Door , we get an incredibly detailed, almost privacy-free look into ...

  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,...

Graham Craycraft Steve Earle’s 2020 album, Ghosts of West Virginia , is largely based around the mining communities of West Virginia and the conditions and lives of the miners there-of. Steve Earle has often been extremely political during his concerts including the sporting of the Soviet Union hammer and sickle emblem on apparel and equipment. Despite the brash political commentary during his shows, his albums have almost always been tasteful and subtle. This album is no different. It traverses subjects such as lost time, death, struggles of the miners, and learning to get by. It is thought provoking without being preachy or pedantic. It tells the stories for how they are without overarching bias. Songs in this album are more connected than other albums because of the consistent subject matter. Lines like “it can only get better/ it’s just a matter of time,” in one song plays, tragically, well with lines like “time is never on our side.” A sense of consistent hope that will n...

By Michael Momper If you are in need of some fulfilling reflection and honest soul-searching to listen to during quarantine, look no further than American Aquarium's latest album, Lamentations. This is a band whose upward trajectory is one unlike any I've seen in a long time. Singer and songwriter BJ Barham has long shown extraordinary potential as an honest craftsman of rootsy country-rock, but not until 2018's Things Change did this band deliver an almost seamlessly excellent album top-to-bottom. Don't get me wrong, there have been plenty of other great bright spots on past albums; Wolves and Burn, Flicker, Die are what really pulled me in years ago, with wonderfully honest storytelling and reflections on the white-knuckle struggles of rural America. But with Things Change I really began to see the maturity of BJ's craft. It is an album full of empathy but also urgency, and contains very thought-provoking reflections on hard work and the American drea...