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Americana rock

A&R Factory Interview: Unveiling the Soul of Lori & the Darlings

Posted on 3 August 2024

Lori & the Darlings have etched their legacy into the annals of Michigan’s music scene, setting their own standards of artistic authenticity. As we await the release of their EP ‘Side Streets’, the ensemble continues to sketch new musical contours distinct from their previous works. In this exclusive A&R Factory interview, we join them on their explorative journey, where creativity springs from the familiar locales of Main Street. As revealed, the band’s lyrical and melodic evolution resonates through this project, offering a reflective glimpse into their dynamic craft. With a blend of Americana roots and bold experimentation, Lori & the Darlings stand poised at an intersection of past influences and forward-thinking musicality

Lori & the Darlings, welcome to A&R Factory! It’s a pleasure to sit down with you as you gear up for the release of your upcoming EP, Side Streets. Can you walk us through your creative process and how the B-side project thematically connects with and diverges from your last project, Main Street?

We are just starting to work on this new project: Side Streets and I am excited to get back into the studio soon! So far we have had a very successful process when it comes to crafting songs…I write the songs and put them on a scratch track, usually just me and a guitar, and then let the band take some time seperately to get used to the melody and changes and if there is a feel or I have any specific ideas I let them know right away although usually I hand the song right over to them and trust them to find their parts… and they always do! I have a huge collection of songs I have been writing for years…and I still write so there is a never-ending supply to pass on to them.

Our last album Main Street (released in Jan) contains a song Main Street 54. That song got its name because I usually use my voice memo on my phone to record the scratch tracks on…and my phone labels recordings by location so that song was the 54th recording on Main Street (my address at the time) and we ended up liking that title and kept it.. actually all but 1 song on that EP were written in about 2 months on Main Street which is why I decided to name the album such…side streets is a collection of songs that were written around the same time but not at home. And I like the idea of tying them both together like I did with our first two EPs Gratitude side A and side B.

Are there any new sounds or techniques you’re experimenting with this time around?

This last time in the studio we played around with background vocals and added a lot more keys and even had a wonderful violinist come in and play.. and I would definitely like to build on that and keep making our music bigger.

How have your Michigan roots influenced the sound and storytelling of Lori & the Darlings?

I consider myself so very lucky to have been raised by a father who found music to be of upmost importance…he too was a writer and musician…and I grew up watching him write so many songs…good songs…and record them using this four track he had bought. He was so very picky about lyrics…he didn’t like easy or lazy lyrics. And he beat that into me. Because of his love of music, he seemed to have hundreds of records I was allowed to listen to – artists like Jim Croce, Bob Dylan, and Donovan; artists who had mastered telling stories thru music…I think that had a lot to do with how I write. He was in bands starting in the 60’s in Detroit..doesn’t get a lot cooler than that…he was an amazing influence and reference for me growing up.

How do these elements resonate within your latest tracks?

So that being said, I always am very careful with the words…I might revise a song 20 times until the lyrics are just right…after that though, I rely heavily on the band to mold the song into whatever it feels it should become. There is this very cool organic thing that happens once we sit down and start playing a song for the first time….after a couple of run-throughs…things just crazy fall into place…and we all come from such different music backgrounds that there is a little bit of everything coming into each song…I love that…we are generally considered Americana but we have songs that are way more blues and songs that sound almost jazzy…I like not being able to be nailed down tight to one genre

What has your experience of the Michigan music scene been?

I wouldn’t want to be in any other state doing this right now! Michigan is amazing for music – whether you love listening to it or playing it! Lori & the Darlings began a little over three years ago getting our first gig in Saginaw Michigan at this great little venue White’s Bar – they are a real deal venue that has a long legacy, history and a reputation for being huge music supporters and have had nothing but the most positive interactions on every level ever since. The other bands (Amazing bands!) we have networked with doing the same thing, the venues we have played at…and the many radio stations that make a place for indie music on their programs…so much love and support for the music community here! We love it!

Over the course of your musical career, how have you seen your artistic identity evolve?

I can’t speak for the band but personally I would have to say that I have finally grown into a comfortable place where I am not worried so much about performing or even putting songs I’ve written out there for anyone to listen to as I used to be. There was a time when I was so worried they weren’t good enough or didn’t say the right things the right way. These days I write how I feel or what I know with a new confidence. It’s refreshing to not worry about that.

What has been the most significant turning point for the band?

The band has done a lot of growth since it’s birth. If you listen to our first two albums and then Main Street you will notice a significant change in the production of the album. I think letting someone else in to help with that moved mountains when it came to a final product. I wish that would have been the case with the first two, but it’s a lesson learned. I was very stubborn and protective of the first two albums…I was worried about outside influences changing the songs too much…I’ve come to realize having help in that area is priceless and has taken our music to a new level.

How does the upcoming music video for I Want It So Bad bring the single to life?

Oh man!! I love this video so much! We hope to wrap up editing this week and have a final product in mid-August. This will be my very first attempt at video work! I was the director, videographer and editor all in one! Of course, our lead guitar player Roger Marchbanks is the star of the show. I took him all over Detroit and filmed him playing the song in front of historic and iconic locations. It’s turning out great so far and matches the song which is a playful fun fast rock n roll song! I can’t wait to release it!

Beyond the release of Side Streets, what are your future plans and ambitions?

We have some amazing festivals lined up at the end of this year and next year as well! A couple more music videos coming out from Main Street to wrap up that project and talk about adding a new member or two to the band…

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Stream Lori & the Darlings on Spotify now.

Follow the band on Facebook to stay up to date with news of future releases & tours.

Interview by Amelia Vandergast

Lori & the Darlings reached nirvana with the alt-90s nostalgia in their Americana rock single, high

Posted on 1 August 2024

Lori & the Darlings’ standout single, High, taken from their 2024 LP, Main Street, is a richly rendered addition to the Americana rock canon. Lori, whose voice is naturally poised for creating instant classics, shines iridescently bright in this emotion-driven vignette, exposing the capacity of connection to lead to transcendence. The instrumentals efficaciously visualise the inexplicably sweet sensation, with shimmering organ tones stretching to nirvana, giving High oceanic depth for listeners to plunge into and swim with the rhythmically resolving tides.

Lori’s vocals deliver the grit of Courtney Love, infused with the soul of Leigh Nash and Meredith Brooks, nestling into the scarcely-occupied middle ground where artists swathe their harmonies with seraphic sentimentality and project potency to amplify evocative intensity.

No review of High would be complete without pouring plaudits on the guitars that make the track such a sense-gratifying listen. The steady ring of the chords pulls you through the euphonically stripped production until they burst in momentum in the middle eight, proving that Lori & the Darlings have earned their place among their Americana rock icons.

With more releases in the pipeline from the Detroit-based four-piece which captures the highs and lows of big-city dreamers in small-town America, do we really need to tell you to give them a follow?

Stream the Main Street LP from Lori & the Darlings on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The sands of time slip away in Jeff Batson’s transmission of Americana-tinged college radio rock, End of the Grains

Posted on 12 May 2024

The feel-good fervour in Jeff Batson’s latest single, End of the Grains, allows you to imagine a parallel universe where Slash turns his iconic riffs to quintessentially uplifting college radio rock which effervesces with full-bodied and finessed to the nth-degree twangs of Americana.

The sentimentality within this sticky-sweet reminder of our mortality rings with immense sincerity, allowing the warmth-infused waves to crash over you as you catch the Nashville-based star’s indomitable lust for life. If you take each one of the mantras rhythmically laid out in the uplifting anthem, your life will start to feel like a utopia before the outro comes around and compels you to dive back into the melodically enriching tour de force.

Virtuoso may be a word that gets banded around a little too readily in the music industry, but Jeff Batson is a rare artist who warrants it with his mettle, which led to a Grammy nomination for writing the chart-topping single, The Rock, for fellow country star, Tracy Lawrence.

Batson’s career has been an endless series of triumphs, from sharing stages with Hank Williams Jr, Tracy Byrd, and Collin Raye to performing on TNN’s Prime Time Country show. With a presence that could light up any room, he deserves to be championed to the end of the earth.

Stream End of the Grains on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Meet the mess of mortality in Chris Cummings and the Way’s tenaciously tongue-in-cheek Americana rock instant classic, I’m Still Alive

Posted on 19 January 2024

In an era when coming to grips with the meaning of life complicates your relationship with your mortality, Chris Cummings and the Way’s latest Americana-entwined 70s rock-tinged single, I’m Still Alive, has all the lyrical makings of a sanity-saving playlist staple.

Chris Cummings, an Easton native renowned for his collaborations with jazz legends and New York artists, embarked on a tenaciously tongue-in-cheek journey with his latest feat of roots-wrapped ingenuity. The prelude to his eponymous album resonates with the nostalgic glamour reminiscent of Father John Misty and Butch Walker while pontificating on the profound. The brash electric guitar chords, coupled with the shimmer of the organ and the subtle honkytonk nuances in the keys and guitar leads, create a soundscape that is both timeless and deeply evocative.

Even though the single touches on the notion that reasons for living and believing often lie beyond ourselves, Chris Cummings and the Way ensure the track never veers too far into the melancholic. It’s a gripping exposition of what it means to be human when we have no fucking idea what the meaning of life is. This existential contemplation is woven seamlessly into the fabric of the song, making it both a personal reflection and a universal query.

The upcoming album, accompanied by a documentary film, promises to be a convergence of Cummings’ Americana and rock n roll roots, offering relatable tunes for our twisted times. Featuring talents like Roger Girke and Shane Nicholas, it’s poised to be a significant addition to the Americana folk rock landscape.

I’m Still Alive is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Stone Senate delivered a spectral confession of aching emotion with their latest single, Ghost

Posted on 13 December 2023

Stone Senate’s new single Ghost resonates with a poignant blend of lyrical indie rock and Americana, capturing the essence of feeling invisible and failing to keep pace in an ever-changing world. It is a powerful testament to the band’s unique ability to evolve above their influences, transcending all expectations, on this occasion, in a spectrally scintillating style.

The essence of Ghost lies in its mellifluously captivating progressions, which will haunt you as you relate to them on an intrinsically deep level. Clint Woolsey’s smouldering, soulful vocals serve as the emotional core, delivering sonorously affecting lines that resonate with anyone grappling with feelings of obscurity and the fleeting nature of cherished memories.

The true magic of Ghost, however, is in how it balances emotional weight with a lack of self-pity. It’s a confession of aching emotion, offering comfort to those who see their own reflections in this superlative rock track. The soaring guitar solo, meticulously executed by James Beau Edwards and Ted Hennington, invites listeners into a moment of profound contemplation, seamlessly blending with the tight, bonded rhythm section of Paul Zettler on bass and David “DZ” Zettler on drums.

Stone Senate, having been compared to legends like Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers Band, is not content to rest on the laurels of their influences. Instead, they push boundaries, creating a sound that is distinctly and modernistically their own.

Ghost is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

What it means to be lost: Jamos Blood – Flesh and Back to Bone

Posted on 25 December 2022

Jamos Blood sludged up blues-rock in the standout single, Flesh and Back to Bone, from his debut EP, Blood Brothers, which delivers swampy riffs, train track rhythms and a sense of ennui that cries out to the disenfranchised by uncertain futures masses.

“Gonna walk my dog til he don’t walk no more” beautifully and sentimentally encompasses the notion that everything is fleeting in a cruel world which pulls away every anchor, eventually.

The EP was recorded with Blood’s late brother, Clayton, which puts even more context behind the titular disposition and the themes of love and loss that will wash with any Waits and Petty fans.

As someone who is no stranger to grief, it was all too easy to connect with Jamos Blood’s psyche in Flesh and Back to Bone. The sense of lost listlessness with splinters of optimism that can often feel naïve was captured with such finesse in the roots-driven rock hit it is easy to view Jamos Blood as one of the most important voices of our era.

Flesh and Back to Bone is available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Swing back to the late 60s with Sarah Streitz’s dusky groove-led rock hit, Time Passes

Posted on 23 November 2022

Ahead of the release of her 2022 album, Different Space, we got stuck into the retro grooves of Santa Fe and Minneapolis singer-songwriter Sarah Streitz’s single Time Passes. While there’s no arguing with the titular statement, clearly, Streitz doesn’t conform to the linear passing of time if the tonal nostalgia that the dusky rock record spills is anything to go by. With just a few licks of the bass and her effortlessly cool vocal performance, you’re doused in late 60s synaesthesia.

After leaving Americana and country (mostly) behind her, Streitz teamed up with the Grammy-winning sound engineer Marc Whitmore to deliver soundscapes that would make Tarantino’s head spin. Evidently, Whitmore poured the same magic into Time Passes as he did with The Black Keys records – there’s something infinitely intoxicating about her demurely vintage vocal timbre colliding with the bass lines that roll around the shimmering organs and spacey sonic effects that bring a touch of modernism to the trippy swing of the single.

Time Passes is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Set yourself free with The Paul Clark Project’s sophomore Americana Folk LP, Sown from the Same Seed

Posted on 10 August 2022

Some say time is the greatest healer, but that empty idiom falls short of the mindful catharsis extended by artists, such as The Paul Clark Project.

The singer-songwriter’s sophomore album, Sown from the Same Seed, uses a timelessly transformative blend of folk, rock and Americana to remind us that even though there are billions of us spread across the globe, we all have the same unifying origin and intrinsic needs.

In a time where irrational tribalism splinters our society, artists and thinkers need to step up to the plate and act as the glue to bind us into peace, love and acceptance. No one could accuse Paul Clark of not pulling his mindfully resolving weight. The opening single, Consciousness, opens a can of candour, forcing into recollection our twisted reality where we shackle ourselves with anger and limitation.

Beyond the humbling textures and tones is an unreckonable intelligence; spurred by Clark’s experience as a clinical social worker and mental health advocate. For your sanity’s sake, take notes.

Sown from the Same Seed is now available to stream and purchase on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jo-Jo & The Teeth gave us the couture of glam rock n roll with their blisteringly hot pop-rock anthem, Don’t Get Too Heavy

Posted on 18 May 2022

‘Don’t Get Too Heavy’ from the London-based outfit, Jo-Jo & The Teeth is the only riff-slicked pop-hooked rock n’ roll debut you need to hear in 2022. A rebellious streak runs right through the glam rock earworm, but like every good hit, it does plenty more than just show its teeth.

If you amped up the visceral attitude in Stevie Nicks’ vocals to 11, they’d still pale in comparison to the hooky veracity of Jo-Jo O’Donoghue’s blisteringly hot pop-rock vocal lines. That’s probably blasphemy, but I’ll prepare to repent for it to do Jo-Jo & The Teeth justice. It’s the least I could do given that she has given rock n roll an Americana iteration of Peaches.

Don’t Get Too Heavy is the lead track from the forthcoming self-produced debut album, No More Good News; I already want it on my turntable.

The official music video for Don’t Get Too Heavy premiered on May 6th; watch it on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Alexander Craig makes blues-rock bop-worthy in Atmosphere We’re Under

Posted on 12 March 2022

The Minnesota-based producer, singer-songwriter and prodigal son of rock n roll, Alexander Craig, has teased what’s to come in his upcoming album by giving us a sneak peek of the standout single, Atmosphere We’re Under. You’d be hard-pressed to find a scuzzier bop-worthy feat of blues-rock.

Atmosphere We’re Under is wild with its cheeky, punch-drunk energy that contains the same bite as your average ego-fuelled track. Yet, after stepping out from behind his successful aural alter-ego, Crankshaft, Alexander Craig made a positive stylistic move that radiates through his up-beat lyrics and gasoline-soaked high-energy grooves. The standout track is every bit as hooky and infectious as any of Josh Homme’s many endeavours, but with Alexander Craig, there’s roots-deep respect for rock n roll.

Alexander Craig is going old-school with his debut blues-rock album; it will only be available via CD and Vinyl. After being teased by the roots-rich soul in Atmosphere We’re Under, he can definitely take my money.

Check out Alexander Craig via his official website, Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

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