Seventy years since kicking off his music career in his hometown of Nashville, Charles “Wigg” Walker is still madly in love with music. This Love is Gonna Last is the soul singer’s first album in more than a decade, and a testament to surviving all that life throws at you. Dedicated to his late-wife, who passed in 2024, the album is a joyful celebration of life from an artist who has performed with the a Mt. Rushmore of musicians, including James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Etta James, Otis, Redding and Sam Cooke. While his own work never released the heights of popularity experienced by those singers, Walker carries the flame of soul music’s heights, as a legend in his own right. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After 35 years, Tsunami returned with a bang. The Virginia-based band capped off 2024 by reuniting to deliver a massive, career-spanning boxset, Loud As. During their time away from the band, however, Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thomson were never too far apart. The roommates, turned bandmates, turned cofounders of indie label, Simple Machines never started too far from activistic – and musical -- roots. In 2000, the pair formed the Future of Music Coalition, a non-profit focused on music education and advocacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“I am edging away from apathy,” Chuck Ragan bellows, “I am drifting away from the dark. The rain has got my mind in motion.” The stanzas that open Love & Lore, the latest from the Hot Water Music frontman, feel strangely appropriate as we speak. Ragan is a few days out from dealing with a flooded basement, courtesy of torrential rains. It’s a consequence, perhaps, of living in a land of rivers near the California/Nevada border. There is, however, no place he’d rather be. When he’s not touring, the musician works as an in-demand river guide, spending days off nearby, fly fishing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Music is, at once, a vector for connection and escape. Chuck Prophet found both, as at a bar in San Francisco’s Mission District. Cumbia, a popular dance genre born in Columbia, pulsates through Wake the Dead. Forty years into his professional and on the other side of a battle with stage four lymphoma, the album finds the Bay Area musician with a new musical lease on life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following the release of Tank and the Bangas' Grammy nominated The Heart, The Mind, The Soul, singer Tarriona “Tank” Ball returns to the show. The three-part collection presents a new side of Ball for those only familiar with the Bangas' joyful New Orleans funk. Prior to her time as a music star, Ball sharpened her lyrics as a rising star in the world of poetry. The album follows the 2021 release of her first poetry collection, Vulnerable AF. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fe finds Rafael Cohen returning to his roots on multiple fronts. The latest from the !!! multi-instrumentalist's Las Palabras finds the musician returning to his native Spanish, while pulling the thread of his family's Jewish faith. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does “maturity” mean for a rock band? The answer is, perhaps, a bit easier to answer when you’ve been together since age 18. For Naked Giants, it means grown up things – getting jobs, starting families. It’s not necessarily fodder for a band’s young punk days, depth of subject is in an important part of growing up as a band – and having a fanbase that grows along with you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last month, Mileage scored Sun Records’ first-ever Grammy nomination. It’s hard to believe for a 72-year-old label that was once home to Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash. The album, Ruthie Foster’s latest, finds the musician reflecting on the ups and downs of a long career. It’s a journey that found Foster serving in the Navy, moving to New York and getting signed by a major label in the 90s, only to quit music to care for her mother back in Texas. It’s been a long road, but the singer won’t be slowing down any time soon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mighty Vertebrate hits different. In a world of sound a likes and slow burns, Anna Butterss' latest solo record makes itself known from immediately out of the gate. The album is as eclectic as it is fresh -- unsurprising, given the musician varied career, performing as the bassist for Jason Isbell's group, performing along side Phoebe Bridgers and Jenny Lewis, and serving as one fifth of improvisational group, SML. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During our conversation, FIDLAR frontman Zac Carper reminds me of band’s acronym, Fuck It Dawg, Life's a Risk. Spontaneity has been a driving force throughout the band’s 15-year existence, but time comes experience and – hopefully – a bit of reflection. Surviving The Dream -- the band’s first record in five years – offers up that introspection, into work. Life and Carper’s recent bipolar diagnosis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.