Songs You Should Have Heard

Lukas Nelson could have used his name and bypassed every small-town joint in the world.  Instead, he honed his skills in the places most of us haunt.  For that, he deserves our respect. photos by Joey Martin Terre Haute’s Verve Nightlclub sits along Wabash Avenue.  Two-and-a-half blocks to its north—in …

There’s something about the Hotel Tango stage at the Virginia Avenue Music Fest.  Two years ago, my finacée and I stumbled upon a young Dacota Muckey, cutting his musical teeth with band, The Trip.  Last year, on yet another warm and beautiful Saturday, lightning struck again. Well, it wasn’t literally …

I stumbled upon Dacota Muckey by accident.  Wendi*, some good friends, and I had just finished downing what seemed like a half-keg of Chilly Water’s blood orange IPA while Brother O’ Brother ripped open the Saturday leg of 2017’s Virginia Avenue Music Fest.  Warner Swopes had spent the last half hour …

I grew up in southeastern Indiana, baptized in a basketball hoop and spoon-fed Mellencamp tunes like it was gospel. It was the typical childhood of a Hoosier kid in the 80’s. As I got older, I listened carefully for anything that resembled those Mellencamp songs. You know, songs about growing up, …

By Cory Huffman Featured Image by Angie Lipscomp of Angie Lipscomp Photography I was a freshman at The University of Cincinnati when I met Dizzy in the spring of 2002, at a basement party off of Ohio Street. There was a band playing that night—Fate Hates Us—and I was unwillingly pressed …

The coffee I’m sipping is bitter and the mug is chipped close to the handle. Steam escapes the dark black surface like a halo of wispy morning fog, and I am alone with my thoughts. Nothing filters through my mind seems important. Just thoughts. Fragments of ideas. Every year when …

We are hauntingly morbid creatures, we humans.  We mask it well.  We’re particularly adept at convincing everyone around us that our inner Darth Vaders, those devilish souls lurking in the darkened crevasses of the mind don’t exist at all.  We shower our friends and neighbors with cheerful pomp, gregarious smiles, …

by Patrick Barcus featured image by Cheney Hagerup (Photos by Cheney) Recently, I had the honor of being offered a couple of seats at an intimate gathering, to have a fine holiday meal with a select group of friends. All of us shared one particular trait: our love of Gus …

A student of mine recently gave me an early Christmas gift—a cd he made. (There is still hope for today’s youth after all). He said, “Mr. Huffman, this is my cousin’s band. I think you will like it since you listen to some weird stuff.” By weird, I’m assuming that …

In the past, I have been both correctly and incorrectly labeled as a Country music snob. Yes, I will be the first to say that mainstream Pop Country is about as far from actual Country music as you can get without a drum machine and a disco sample. Taylor Swift …