Heavy-hearted in the Midwest since 2011
awakened souls is the musical project of ambient musicians and husband and wife duo Cynthia and James Bernard. Cynthia records under the name Marine Eyes, while James has had his hand in many solo and collaborative projects. Cynthia and James have, to my ears, perfected the ambient music realm. Creating sound worlds vast and beautiful, […]
Read More awakened souls : unlikely placesToday my dad turns 77 years old. This past Monday he had a total hip replacement on his right hip, so he’s celebrating being on this earth 77 years by becoming part man/part machine. For the last couple of years my dad has been dealing with what he thought was back pain, but it turned […]
Read More Seventy-SevenI’d say it was spring of 1990. I was a full-fledged guitar dork by then – practicing in my basement space dad built for me – in lieu of underage drinking, toking, dating, athletics, or any of the other malarky teens in R-Rated comedies were doing in the 80s. It wasn’t that I was a […]
Read More The Strange Case Of Patrick Xavier, Stuart Hamm, And MeMy parents have been married for almost 56 years. My mom was 18 and my dad was 21. Was it what you’d call a shotgun wedding? Well, my older brother was born three months later, so you can do the math. But regardless of the circumstances they’ve remained married, and mostly happily, ever since. Little […]
Read More Hip Pop HoorayIt’s been an interesting couple weeks. Interesting as in sometimes not so great and sometimes just it is what it is. A couple weekends ago my good friend and nearly quarter century work pal had a get-together at his place. It was a celebration of the fact that he is officially cancer-free. He spent January […]
Read More Kids and Adults and Itchy Dogs, Oh My!There were a select group of artists that I grew up with. Not artists that I was a fan of and bought their albums necessarily, but more so were hoisted upon my ears via radio waves; Casey Kasem’s Top 40 Countdown, 80s FM chart toppers, school bus rides to middle school, and extended drives with […]
Read More “There Must Be Some Misunderstanding” : Growing Up With Phil And GenesisBlake Mills could have gone the route of a world famous pop producer. As a producer he’s worked with Alabama Shakes, Fiona Apple, Perfume Genius, Sky Ferreira, and Marcus Mumford. And as a session musician he’s played with Bob Dylan, Weezer, Conor Oberst, Pink, Dixie Chicks, and Lana Del Rey to name just a few. […]
Read More Blake Mills : Jelly RoadWhen you’re as tight, forward-thinking, and exploratory as London Odense Ensemble it’s hard not to keep striking while the iron’s hot. The five-piece fusion/cosmic jazz collective is made up of Danish musicians Jonas Munk(guitar), Martin Rude(bass), and Jakob Skøtt(drums); as well as London-based Tamar Osborn(saxophone, winds) and Al MacSween(keyboards). A fruitful recording session back in […]
Read More London Odense Ensemble : Live At Jaiyede Jazz FestivalThere’s a kind of musical alchemy when Zach Frizzell (zakè) and Damien Duque (City Of Dawn) come together. I first heard these two back in 2020 as Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea(along with Marc Ertel.) Their Azure Vista Records debut Liberamente was a breath of fresh air; blankets of sonic warmth and sublime tones […]
Read More zakè and City of Dawn : AshTom McDowell has kept himself pretty busy since the summer of 2020 with the launch of his label Library of the Occult. The first release for his synth-heavy record label was his own Dream Division’s The Devil Rides Out, a musical interpretation of Dennis Wheatley’s occult classic novel. That album opened the door to three […]
Read More Dream Division Returns With Cosmic New Album ‘Lumarian’, Out 8/4 ; Listen To “Odyssey ft Jorja Chalmers”