Similar to the print magazine’s cover stories, this one is a digital-only release, but it should remain a thorough, in-depth profile of an artist or band, going into its history, its impact and what the group has coming up in the near-term future. These are usually reserved for big name artists (Jon Pardi, Zac Brown Band) and are used for the in between months between print covers, since the print magazine is put out every other month. Often, press representatives want their clients to be put on the cover, but when we can’t fit them into the print magazine, a digital cover is a good option to suggest.
When a band gets big—when the group earns No. 1 records, Grammy Awards, and a string of sold-out tour dates in stadiums (including a spot opening up for The Rolling Stones)—it’s easy to forget where they’ve come from. It may not even be intended. But sometimes the roots can be lost for the sake of […] More
Referencing the grade-school linguistics lesson of how the letter “y” is considered both a consonant and “sometimes” a vowel, Shooter Jennings and rapper Yelawolf gave themselves creative freedom to explore whatever genre possible with Sometimes Y. “When you’re a kid in school, they teach you all these rules about spelling, but then they tell you […] More
Country singer Jon Pardi doesn’t have a rocket ship. The Nashville-based songwriter and performer knows this to be true (both literally and metaphorically). But that doesn’t stop him from sonically taking flight. For Pardi, his proverbial flying machine is much more akin to a warplane, he says, one of those double-winged metallic creatures that soar […] More
Every day is an adventure, and Dustin Lynch is living his best life. Just back from Mexico, Lynch performed as part of Luke Bryan’s annual Crash My Playa event and debuted the new single “Party Mode,” off his fifth album Blue In The Sky (Broken Bow), out Feb. 11. “I got my tan on,” jokes […] More
“I’m a self-proclaimed Christmas fanatic,” Ingrid Michaelson tells American Songwriter. “I’m in love with the Christmas holiday season. I start watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music in September. It’s a whole thing.” Releasing her first Christmas album Songs For The Season in 2018, Michaelson already knew she would expand on her festive collection […] More
“Eventually, it got to a certain point where we were like, ‘How the hell do we be creative?’” Matthew Ramsey tells American Songwriter. That moment came last year as the initial daze of the world going into quarantine faded into a lingering sense of uncertainty. For most musicians, it was a surreal and difficult time—for […] More
By the time Imagine Dragons finished touring around their fourth album Origins, the band decided to take a much-needed breath, and break, in 2019 after a decade on the road to work through loss and grief, along with breakdowns and breakthroughs in relationships and other tribulations all summarized on Mercury – Act 1. Written over […] More
In the three years since releasing their debut Anthem of the Peaceful Army—headlining shows in five continents and selling a million tickets within a three-year span—the trajectory of Greta Van Fleet is just as meteoric as the arena-rock deliverances of the Michigan-bred Fleet, made up of the Kiszka brothers, twins Josh and guitarist Jake, and […] More
“I’m not sure if anyone writes songs with electric guitars anymore, but I certainly still do,” Jason Isbell tells American Songwriter from his home outside of Nashville. “Not because I think it’s better or anything, but just because that’s what I know.” A North Alabama native, Isbell was born to teenage parents within a broadly […] More
David Shaw is feeling good. Throughout the past two years, The Revivalists frontman has had time to set himself straight. Following The Revivalists’ tour around fourth album, 2018’s Take Good Care, Shaw found himself looking inward and revisiting songs he had brewing for years. Setting up a studio in the backyard of his New Orleans […] More
“It was a real smalltown,” Morgan Wallen told American Songwriter. “Everybody knew everybody, like, for real.” The town was Sneedville, the seat of Hancock County out in the hills of East Tennessee, and it’s where Wallen was born in 1993. With a population just under 1,400 and a median household income of $13,281, it might […] More
