“I came up with the concept after a wine night I had with some girlfriends,” Valentine says in a Zoom call, with no trace of a British accent despite growing up in the UK. “It was just sort of thinking about what had been spoken about throughout the night when the topic of men came up, and I thought it was interesting that everyone sort of had a similar story with a similar through line or commonality. It wasn’t all the same, but it rhymed a little bit.”

She wrote in her iPhone Notes app: “Same font different man” and she texted her lifelong friend, her fellow songwriter Isabella Kensington: “I just thought for whatever reason she would like the concept.”

Valentine enlisted the producer Chedda, whom she had worked with a few times before, because “I think we just had a gut feeling he was the right guy for it. And I came in with a couple references. I had been listening to a lot of hyperpop this past spring, and he sort of started fleshing out the production while Isabella and I wrote the song. He was working on one side of the room in the studio, and we were just writing based off what he was creating.”

In the accompanying music video, the New York-based artist is seen pecking away at a typewriter, wearing a camisole nightgown, sipping wine and watching an old-school TV.

“I love going on Pinterest,” she explains, “and I had seen an old photo of this woman in the 1950s with a typewriter and I loved it. I think a lot of my visuals tend to have a slight retro tinge. I love the ‘90s, and obviously this one leans a little bit more ‘50s, but I love kind of having a nod to the past and something a little bit nostalgic. So even though it was a hyperpop-leaning production, I kind of wanted to still have it, at least visually, to have this nostalgic tinge to it. I also just really liked the idea of juxtaposing this really modern glitchy production with a more nostalgic visual.”

Valentine wasn’t around professional musicians at home as a child, but she was surrounded by music.

“Without putting my parents on blast, I wouldn’t say either of them are particularly musically inclined. Both of them have said to me, ‘We don’t really know where you got your singing voice from.’ But my dad loves to play the guitar, and my mom is from Puerto Rico, so I grew up with some influences from there. And I feel like they both have really good taste in music and I think tried to immerse us in it.”

Early favorite artists included “the divas,” she says: “I loved Madonna. I remember I got an iPod Touch and my mom downloaded a bunch of Madonna songs and I was obsessed with her. She’s iconic. I loved Lady Gaga. Beyonce was a really big one for me, too. I remember I would organize talent shows at my school just so I could sing Beyonce. I’m trying to think who else? A lot of Coldplay. I mean, I remember listening to a lot of Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, my both my parents really liked jazz. And then there’s this artist from Latin America called Juanes, which I remember listening to a lot as a kid too. So it was maybe a little bit of an eclectic mix.”

She says she believes Lana del Rey has been her “biggest inspiration.” “I think she was really the reason why I wanted to become a songwriter, when I discovered her music and her art.” She also cites the Spanish singer Rosalía, Latin Mafia and The Marias, the LA band who sing in both English and Spanish.

Valentine moved to New York to attend NYU’s Clive Davis Institute, where she graduated with a degree in recorded music and a minor in Spanish.

“For whatever reason, I was always really set on going to NYU,” Valentine says. “I think I saw ‘Gossip Girl’ when I was 13, and Blair Waldorf, even though she didn’t like NYU, went to NYU. Through that I discovered that Tisch existed. That was a very monumental moment for me, even though Blair Waldorf rejected Tisch.”

She released her first EP, “Ouch!,” just two years ago, then “Little Miss Optimist” in 2026. She says the deluxe edition, to be released later this year, “sort of feels like the conclusion of the Little Miss Optimist era.” It will include two new songs.

“It’s a different sound from [‘Same Font Different Man’]. I think one of them leans a little bit more psychedelic and the other one’s definitely more indie pop. I think one is more of an extension of the world of Lady Karma, without giving too much away, but I think it sonically and thematically feels like it’s digging further into that world. The other one’s more indie pop, but also I think touches on themes of girlhood and friendship and whatnot.”

She’s performed at noted rooms in NYC such as Baby’s All Right and Bowery Palace, formerly Bowery Electric, and Pete’s Candy Store. On Oct. 2 she’ll play at Purgatory in Brooklyn.

More songs are on the way, possibly as standalone singles.

“My next goal is to hopefully create an album, my debut album. Touring and creating an album are the next two big goals that I have on the docket.”

In the era of streaming and a trend towards EPs, why is making an album a priority?

“Maybe it’s just for me, growing up sort of still in the era where you downloaded a whole album — it wasn’t you’re listening to it on vinyl, but you’re downloading a whole album on your iPod or on iTunes or whatever — I just think it makes me feel maybe a little bit like a little kid, where you get to kind of sit and listen to this body of work and immerse yourself.”   

Photo by Steven Salgado

The Berzerkers were out in full force early in the day ready to rock at Montage mountain in Scranton on Aug. 28. Berzerkus Fest, founded by longtime Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde, was an all-day affair, with doors opening at 1 p.m. with performances on the side stage outside of the main venue consisting of tribute acts Use Your Illusion, Fan Halen and Bonfire. The last performer at the side stage was Zakk Sabbath, Wylde’s tribute to Black Sabbath, playing songs that included “Children of The Grave,” “Fairies Wear Boots” and “War Pigs.” The outside performance area also had food trucks, a car show and a hot- sauce-eating contest.

The acts in the main venue began with Dark Chapel delivering an exceptional set. Suicidal Tendencies took the stage at 6:05 p.m. with a wild performance that found the band members running from each side of the stage and jumping of the drum riser. This is when the crowd surfing began. The supergroup Down, led by Pantera singer Phil Anselmo of Pantera, was up next. During its last song “Bury Me in Smoke,” members of Suicidal Tendencies came on stage and played the outro. 

The curtain dropped for Black Label Society and the heaviness of Wylde’s guitar playing began with the opening song “Funeral Bell.” After “Heart of Darkness,” Wylde went into one of his most iconic solos from his time with Ozzy, “No More Tears,” then sang the final section of the song. Black Label Society’s set closed out with song “Stillborn,” which included photos of the late Osbourne on the screen behind the band. The main headliner was Lamb of God, the heaviest of all the bands, delivering a 14-song set.

Foster recently released a new LP, “Just Say Yes,” her first since 2024’s “Mileage” took home the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album. She again worked with the married-couple production team of Tyler Bryant of The Shakedown and Rebecca Lovell of Larkin Poe.

With a new album to promote and a tour about to start that will take her to Café Wha? on Oct. 5, I reached Foster at her home in Austin to chat. Here are some highlights of our conversation.

What does “Just Say Yes” mean to you?

“Just Say Yes” to me right now means saying yes to myself, to my peace, to my time, having time with my family. It started out as a mantra for me to get back into music because I’ve taken a few breaks from music to do other things, take care of life, take care of my mother. Really just to have something to write about, have something to say. Now it’s come to this place where I’ve lived a pretty eclectic life, and hopefully that continues.

But right now it’s about saying yes to things that matter to me, and I think this album really says a lot about that, from knowing when to take advantage of being still, because I had an injury that forced me to be still, and so there’s a song about that. And taking time to be with my family, because this particular lifestyle, being on the road, it can be strenuous. It can test your patience. Being on the road is very physical. You’re lifting equipment and suitcases in and out of cars, and it wore on me. I’m in my 60s now, early 60s, and it’s starting to show, I’ve been doing this since I was a kid. Music. So this album says a lot about that, about the process it takes to do what I do. It says a lot about what I’ve learned about myself and not necessarily where I want to go, but where I’ve been and where I don’t want to go again.

Tell me about the atmosphere around making the record with Tyler and Rebecca.

We recorded at their home. They have a studio on their property, and that was different because the first album, “Mileage,” that we did together was in their house in the basement, and I felt guilty because we were down there pretty late when Rebecca’s trying to sleep because she has tours. But this one, we got together during AmericanaFest, which happens in September of the year, and I recorded two songs that they had started and then I finished at that time, and then I went back in December, basically moved to Nashville for a couple of weeks. And we did the writing process there in their house with their little guy Jesse crawling. He’s walking now, just to give a sense of time. And we just sat around and they let me talk about my life and they were really great about just putting my life into words and into a lyrical form, and then I can basically go from there and just add on to it. It’s like having my own ChatGPT.

What did it feel like to win a Grammy 15 years after you were first nominated?

Oh, I relive that often. It’s such a beautiful thing. It takes me back to being that 13-year-old sitting in my living room, fighting over the TV to make sure that we got the Grammys to watch on TV. My brother even called me, and he says, “Hey, sis, you did it. Remember we used to fight over the TV and when you wanted to watch the Grammys?” That’s where it takes me. That’s what it felt like. It took me back to sitting in the living room in the ‘70s and watching people like Janis Ian, when she won the Grammy for best song, and Roberta Flack, it took me to that.

It’s a beautiful feeling to be validated in that way. Because we are in this association where we all vote for each other. There’s no committee or team or anything. We’re voting for each other. And to be in the mix with a lot of my friends who were in this category, Best Blues Contemporary, that was great, and to hear from everybody. I heard from Shemekia [Copeland], she was up for the Grammy that year too. I heard from Joe Bonamassa. I heard from everybody and it was really great. You know, it’s not really a competition. We’re just out here putting our music out. We’re putting our best out there and then we vote on each other. So it’s really, really validating.

You were also the first Sun artist to win. It wasn’t Elvis or Johnny Cash.

Well, yeah, you just put it there. I don’t even know. I hadn’t even thought about that. Wow. Right. We got Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and the list goes on. It’s incredible. Yeah. That happened, that happened.

You’ve been a part of some great collaborations, like singing with the Allman Brothers at the Beacon, just to name one. Are there any that stand out to you, or interactions you’ve had with some of these folks over the years that are special   to you?

They all are. I run into Warren Haynes all the time. So in fact, he had a kid shortly after I had a kid, and we talk about that. That’s the thing we do when we see each other, we whip out pictures of our babies that aren’t babies anymore. That’s the connection you have after being with somebody and sleeping on the bus and those bunks for months at a time. It all means a lot to me. Running into my buddies Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. Whenever they’re in town here in Austin, I try to get some tickets and get backstage and get my hug and catch up, and all of it means a lot. Again, validating, knowing that we’ve come through this together all these years. I still remember going to see Susan when she didn’t know me and I didn’t know her, and before she even met Derek. And I’ve been a fan of both of them for many, many years. It’s so cool to run into each other and just be the moms and the aunties that we are. We talk about real life when we’re together. We don’t talk about music much. Derek, I do talk a lot about music with, though. He and I have that same, I don’t know, that same brain stem when it comes to being together. We end up talking about people like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and we talk about gospel music, because if you listen to the way he plays, he plays like someone would sing, right? He plays like a vocalist. And I think that’s my connection with Derek for sure.

The line between the two art forms is at play in both pieces that she has released today: the song started as a poem, and a poem in the book began its life as a song. The poet Maggie Smith, whom Speace calls her mentor, encouraged her to turn the poem called “Bluegrass Highway,” written as part of her MFA thesis, into what would become “Days of Letting Go.”

“I had written it with like a chorus, and she said, ‘Why isn’t this a song?'” Speace says in an interview. “And I said, ‘Because it didn’t come out with music.’ And she said, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ But then that night, I was like, let me see if there’s music. And that’s the single.”

The East Nashville-based artist is on the road sharing her poems and music via a tour called The Cardinals: Songs, Stories & Poetry. It will stop at the Loft at City Winery in New York on Sept. 23, Little City Books in Hoboken on Sept. 24 and The Town Crier in Beacon on Sept. 25.

The poetry book is billed as “a lyrical investigation of marriage, divorce, mothering and mysticism told through poems that read like intimate conversations but evoke the complexities of love and loss through the natural world.” Rivers, birds and the US North and South, weather and racism “all come together like birdsong” in “The Cardinals,” a press release declares.

Speace moved around as a child but says “we were always Maryland,” noting that her father is from Eastern Shore farmland, “like super evangelical, not even Baptist — like one-room schoolhouse, no drinking.” She lived in New York for about 20 years, and when she moved to Tennessee, she says, “It took a few years for my feet to settle in, and once it did, I was like, oh, I’ve always meant to live in the South. I’ve got a South thing about me.”

She adds: “I kind of develop an accent sometimes. It’s kind of like when Madonna moved to London and has a British accent. But I have an ear for it. I named my kid Huckleberry, so whatever.”

Asked about the history that informed the Southern tradition of songwriting and prose writing, she says: “There is blood in the dirt here that is barely on the surface. It’s not buried. These trees are marked from lynching and we know it. I mean, I’m saying it metaphorically. This is not that far behind us. My grandmother was alive. My mother was alive when they were lynching people in the South. So that’s just there. And as a white person in the South, you have to grapple with the fact that you’re looking at your neighbors and you’re like, holy shit, not even a hundred years ago we would not be able to live side by side. I mean, we’ve got a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest in town, and he he’s the guy who started the KKK.”

About 20 years ago, Speace was discovered by Judy Collins, who signed her to her label, Wildflower Records. Speace was drinking tequila shots and was joined by Katherine de Paul, a longtime associate of Collins who manages Wildflower, but didn’t tell Speace who she was. Speace’s friend handed her Speace’s demo recording.

Collins and Katherine De Paul, a long-time associate of Collins who manages Wildflower, saw her set at South by Southwest.

Later, “Judy and Katherine showed up at my show in New York,” Speace recalls. “Judy was there and she’s like, I want to sign you and take you on the road with me. And now Katherine de Paul and I have just locked it in that she’s going to manage me.”

In October, “right prior to midterms,” she says, Speace will release a cover of Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” with Garrison Starr, John Fullbright and Beth Nielsen Chapman. She also has a duo with Kenny Foster called The Salt and the Wound. “We call ourselves The Civil Wars without the weird sexual tension. We have the songs and we’re pitching for a producer, so that’s the next music project.”

Photo credit Neilson Hubbard

For Late Again, the nom de plume of Brazilian-born, Brooklyn-based artist Rafael Melo, it’s all part of a collection of tunes he calls “optimistically cynical.”

“I try to explore several topics, from the lack of belonging and craving for human connection — the fact that I am a foreigner living in New York City and all that entails — to the shit show that is the political world right now. I tried to do it in a lighthearted way for many reasons. I think humor is a great mechanism for lowering people’s guards before you share a message with them.”

The lyrics are cloaked not only in humor, but also in hazy, dream-pop textures. He says the confidence he’s gained over the course of making previous EPs, as well as better connections and resources in the music community, have strengthened the foundation needed to make a song like “Every Time I Take Sudafed,” a spoken-word track.

“When you have a melody supporting you, it’s so much easier to say whatever you want,” Melo says. “You have a shield. When you’re just talking into the microphone, it’s like, ‘Oh, am I really gonna wake up in the morning, go to the subway, go to a studio, and turn on a mic to record me saying this specific sentence? Is it really worth it?’ It really makes you vulnerable.

“So I don’t think I would have been able to write a song like this and put it out on the first EP. The other thing I think changed a lot is the fact that, because the project grew so much, I was able to connect with a lot of talented people, like the band that is playing with me on this EP.”

He continues: “I think every time I release something new, it builds up my confidence a little bit. Especially for my first EP — I still am incredibly self-aware, but I guess it was even worse. I’ve been a musician ever since I was 15. I had this little band back in Brazil. We toured, and it was this whole thing. And like most musicians, I had this frustration arc where I realized, ‘OK, I don’t think I could have a comfortable life making the kind of music that I want to make in Brazil, where there’s not really an industry for that.’ So I remember that before I started Late Again, I kind of distanced myself from putting music out there for like five years or so. I had this moment a lot of artists do, but when I decided to move to New York City, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to take this seriously now. I’m gonna make this work.’

“For the first EP, there was a lot of overthinking. Those songs were sitting there for over two years. And after you start putting shit out there, it just gets easier. I’d say, especially if you pay attention to my lyrics, I have the feeling that I’ve been a lot more honest with myself. And in this EP specifically, I’m trying to experiment with being more bluntly descriptive.”

Melo says “my natural habit is definitely my acoustic guitar,” and during our video conversation he shows me his guitar made by the Brazilian company Giannini. “I’m immediately drawn to bossa nova chords when I pick it up. Whenever I’m sad, I just grab this nylon-string guitar and play, and maybe I’ll try to play myself to sleep or something. I’d say 80 percent of my songs start that way: I have a melody in my mind, and I try to figure out the chords with my nylon-string guitar.”

However, for his last few releases, he pivoted: “I was like, ‘OK, what if I start with a synthesizer this time?’”

“For songs like ‘If You Have a Bridge (I’m Buying),’ I had that sequencer melody in my mind. So I went straight to the synthesizer to record it. It’s one example.”

Melo released the first Late Again EP in 2024, a year before his life shifted with the release of 9 Kings, a video game he made with childhood buddy André Young. The success of the game has allowed him to put more time and resources into his music.

In October, he’ll launch his first European tour with dates in Germany, France, and the UK. On Oct. 28, he’ll play at Gold Diggers in LA before a hometown gig at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn on Nov. 28.

“I’m always trying to write the next special,” he says in advance of his Tall Tales tour that will bring him to the Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre on Sept. 17 and Town Hall on Sept. 19. “So while I’m doing the old stuff, I’m adding in new stuff and slowly replacing it. After a year or a year and a half, it’ll be a brand new plane.”

The current model is “Live on Short Street!”, the aptly titled special Williams, who was born with dwarfism, recorded at a theater on Short Street in Lexington, Kentucky. It’s the latest example of Williams leaning into his short stature since he got his start when Carlos Mencia, who was making jokes about dwarves at one of his own shows, brought him on stage and eventually invited him to be his touring opening act.

Williams, a WWE fan, recently served as one of the wrestler Danhausen’s “Minihausen” henchmen at SummerSlam, fulfilling a longtime dream. He’s also an accomplished actor, having appeared in shows including “Sam and Cat,” “Mind of Mencia” and “Deadbeat,” as well as movies such as “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” and the Christopher Guest mockumentary “Mascots,” where he shares a show-stealing scene with the late, great Fred Willard.

Williams has a podcast, “Heightened Babble,” with JB Ball, who will open the shows in Wilkes-Barre and New York.

“If you want to know what our vibe is, I’d say listen to a few episodes of the podcast, watch the podcast, and if you like it, great. Come on and see us do it live,” he says. “I love doing the podcast, but dude, I just love being a comedian. Nothing compares to it. If you make a TV show or a movie, you don’t have that instant feedback. Comedy, I tell a joke that I wrote that day and I’ll know if it’s funny right then and there. It’s not like, oh, I gotta wait for an editor and special effects and sound dubbing and all. No. Right there. Very simple transaction.”

The comic is also a regular on the roast circuit, including a notable face-off with Joe Eurell in the Belly Room at LA’s Comedy Store as part of the Roast Battle League.

“Here’s the thing about roasts: It’s a roast. So you can’t really be offended or sensitive or say you went too far because it’s like, well, yeah, that’s what the point of the roast is,” says Williams. “But at the same time, some of the old-timey, like the Dean Martin roasts I really like, and some of the other roasts that were on Comedy Central, where you could tell that all the comics are friends, those are the ones I really enjoy.

“There’s something about when you put two people that don’t know each other together and now they’re saying horrific things about each other, that to me is still funny. A good joke is a good joke, but there’s a little bit of the chemistry that is off when it’s people that don’t know each other, or if people are getting mad during the roast and they’re like, oh, he said racist stuff about me.”

Speaking about his roast battle with Eurell, he says: “For those who don’t know, Joe is in a wheelchair. Cerebral palsy. And man, did we go hard at each other. But Joe and I are friends, right? He’s a great guy. He’s a really funny comic. He knows me. I know him. So it was no big deal. He said some horrific shit about me, I didn’t care. And I’m like, oh man, that was a great, that was a great joke. And that’s what I want the roast to be more of, like be friendly with each other so that you can go further.”

To that end, he considers sense of humor to be a matter of taste, and if he doesn’t laugh, that doesn’t mean he dosen’t consider the bit funny.

“There are jokes that I don’t find funny that other people do. I don’t say that it’s not funny. I say, hey, that’s just not for me,” he says. “So a beautiful part about comedy is now there’s so many places, like there’s the world where Nate Bargatze can exist, who’s clean comedy. There’s Jim Gaffigan, there’s Jerry Seinfeld. These are mostly clean comics. And then you can to a Big Jay Oakerson or a Shane Gillis or a Tony Hinchcliffe [show]. There’s so many realms of this that you can go to.”

Gillis, with opening acts including Oakerson and a surprise guest slot by Dave Chappelle, in July hosted the biggest ticketed comedy show ever at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

“We are in a golden age of comedy right now,” Williams says. “And I think one of the reasons why is because there used to be gatekeepers, and Shane’s a perfect example on how there are no gatekeepers anymore, because Shane was going to be on SNL, right? And then he got fired before he even appeared on an episode. There was a time where if that had happened, your career is over. You’re screwed. No one’s ever going to talk to you again. You’re not going to get any more gigs. And Shane is just so funny. And we’re living in this time where all the gatekeepers are gone, so he was able to recover and now has the Guinness record for the largest comedy show ever, which is great.”

He notes that he’s cognizant of how difficult it is for some people to come to a show, which is a motivator for him to deliver the goods.

“For a lot of people, times are tough and they may be pinching pennies. I know how much it costs to go see a show. You gotta buy tickets. Oftentimes you got to get a babysitter, pay for parking, pay for dinner, drinks, whatever. I don’t take this for granted. So if someone is willing to pay money to see me perform, I’m going to do my absolute damnedest to make sure they have a good time and laugh their ass off.”

It’s only fitting, then, that when the seven-piece group creates a song, such as the 11 tracks on their new album “Justified,” it’s bit like making a film.

“It’s a script. It really is a script,” SAVNT surmises during a sit-down interview at the band’s hotel in Manhattan. Primary songwriter Thomas Tull, the singer says, “is just like, ‘I know what this guy had for dinner. I know where he goes to work.’ So it’s very much getting yourself in the mindset of this character. And a lot of times there’s real-life issues or topics that we all can relate to. So it’s easy for me to dive into that. And I think because of kind of my musical lexicon, I can kind of choose what I want to color each song with, and it just seems to work.”

The Pittsburgh-based rock band, which blends country, soul and blues in its eclectic but accessible sound, released the song “Pale Horse” and its cinematic music video simultaneously with the album debut on Aug. 21. In the run-up to the big day, the band released the “Justified” title track and “Sinner’s Prayer.”

Tull formed an early version of Ghost Hounds in the early 2000s, and they made a debut album with Nile Rodgers in 2009, before he shifted his focus to the movie industry, forming a production company that backed blockbusters like “The Dark Knight,” “Inception” and “The Hangover.” He rebooted a new version of Ghost Hounds in 2018 and SAVNT joined some years later.

“I started about two years ago, 2024,” he says. “So based on where I started to now, it just feels like … because when I started four months later, we were opening for the Stones, you know what I’m saying? So I was just like, these are the things that dreams are made of. But with that said, going from the Stones to doing this promo run and being able to really headline our own shows and masses of people are coming out, it just feels like we’re continuing to grow in the right direction.”

Joining SAVNT and Tull, who plays guitar, in the collective that crosses generational, racial and gender lines are guitarist Tyler Chiarelli, fiddle player Kristin Weber, keyboardist Joe Munroe, bassist Bennett Miller and drummer Sydney Driver.

SAVNT was born in Brooklyn and moved to Englewood, NJ, when he was 9. He still has family in Flatbush. I inquire about his earliest memory of wanting to be a singer.

“I love this question. First of all, I was singing Sam Cooke around the house when I was like 6,” he says with a smile. “‘Chain Gang’ is my favorite song, but I don’t believe that it was until maybe when I moved to New Jersey that I was singing at my table [in school], and this girl was like, ‘You should sing this song.’ I said, ‘All right, whatever.’ So I got up to the front, sang it. Mr. Brown was like, ‘I think you could really do this.’ Wow. And I never thought about it like that before because I was singing around the house with my mom, so I thought everybody could do it. So I think that was the first time that I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I do want to be a singer.'”

He had never taken vocal lessons until he joined the band, and now he works with one of the best: “Mama Jan” Smith, whose credits include Usher, Drake, Justin Bieber and Jill Scott.

“She’s really been helping me to get into my voice even more, because I think sometimes with a lot of singers, because the talent is already there, we don’t realize like, what’s the intervals? What’s the space between music, things like that,” says SAVNT. “So she’s really diving into that with me, and so within this blues music, this blues-rock music, I can find new notes and different places to take it.”

Ghost Hounds were featured at the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, with a Donation Corner exhibition that ran from Sept. 13 through Oct. 31 of 2025. It kicked off with a sold-out AmericanaFest event alongside Keb’ Mo’, where SAVNT presented several of the band’s artifacts to the museum, such as his jacket from the band’s “She Runs Hot” video.

“As somebody who’s a huge believer, you pray for these moments. You wish for these moments,” he shares. “But when God does what God does, it just feels like it’s completely mind-blowing. And to know that we are in a museum right now next to Leon Bridges and Lenny Kravitz and Prince, like, how did I get a seat at this table? But I’m thankful for it, you know what I mean? And the fact that they wanted to highlight us as trailblazers in this space, it really is a blessing.

“I think that as a musician who’s been told, in my solo career, who’s been told that you almost have to conform, as soon as people look at me, they’re just like ‘R&B,’ right?, and I’ve never been that. I love R&B music, but there’s so much more in me, and I never wanted to be boxed in. So I get to be a part of a band that doesn’t do that, and the great part about it is that I get recognized for that, you know what I mean?

“So it’s just a reminder to myself and to other people: Just stay authentic and true to yourself because you never know where it could take you.”

The mostly instrumental MTN Lion released its debut album, “Stealth,” in July. Porter says Herbie Hancock is probably the biggest influence on the quartet, and to that end one of the album’s tracks is a cover of Hancock’s “Doin It.” There’s also a take on the Marvin Gaye deep cut “You Can Leave But It’s Going to Cost You,” featuring guest vocalist Nigel Hall, also of Lettuce. Further tribute to some funk forefathers is paid on the original tune “Garibaldi,” named for the Tower of Power drummer David Garibaldi.

Deitch recently fielded some questions about the project via email.

What made you realize this group might be more than a fun musical hang and an album might be possible?

We inherently knew this quartet would be burnin in the studio. Everyone writes and we have chemistry so we did it!

You’ve played with a few of these guys for a really long time. Why is this situation different or special?

This is special cause Joey and Garrett welcomed me and Smirnoff to Denver years ago when we moved from NYC. We are homies and trust each other musically.

Tell me about the cover songs on the album and why you wanted to record them?

Joey picked those killer covers!

Funk is associated with disco and some jam bands and some other genres. What are some other types of music where funk shows up that people might not realize it’s even happening?

’90s hip-hop is extremely funky. So is gogo music from DC. We love all forms of funk.

Why did you name the group MTN Lion?

Mountain lions are in Colorado and they are majestic and wild. We felt it fit our vibe.

Will there be any live shows?

Yes! Stay tuned!

How long have you lived in Denver? How would you describe the music scene there?

Been here 10 years. Love it and dig the scene here.

What are some funk albums that our readers should check out? 

Herbie Hancock albums: “Secrets, “Man-Child,” and “Thrust.” The JB’s “Funky People” and any early Kool & the Gang record.

What’s next for Lettuce?

We are on tour currently! Check out Lettuce World on Volume.com

Are there any other projects you are working on?

I have a project called BTTRFLY thats up next for an album release!

It might seem like an overnight emergence, until you learn about the work Woods has put in. Yes, her first public performance was just last summer (opening for Yacht Rock Revue at her school), and the two grades she could enter in the fall are eighth or ninth. But do not mistake youth for inexperience: Woods has been writing one song a day for years, and the two that have been released in advance of the album – the title track and “Rowan Wait Up” – are sophisticated, layered bedroom pop with mature lyrics to match.

The album, which will be released January 15, was produced by Alex Casnoff (Dawes, Harriet) and features Gabe Goodman on guitar and bass (Maggie Rogers, Del Water Gap) and Sam Kauffman-Skloff on drums (Role Model, Ryan Beatty, Lizzy McAlpine).

On the occasion of her album announcement and the release of the video for “Rowan Wait Up,” we chatted with Woods via Zoom last week. Here are some highlights from our conversation.

What is going through your mind as you are announcing your debut album?

Well, I’m so shocked that this is even happening. I feel like it’s just been such a long road of working on this music, and I’m so excited to share it because it’s so special to me.

What inspired you to write “Rowan Wait Up?”

I had a sort of loss of connection, like a little bit of a rocky relationship and sort of friendship that kind of broke off, and it just made me realize that my music will always be there for me in times like that. I can always sit down and write about it. I’m really glad that it is resonating with people who have been through similar things. But losing somebody in any sense in like a relationship or friendship is very hard, and it was really, really useful for me to write it.

What inspired you to write the song “Loser’s Guide to Life?”

“Loser’s Guide to Life” is inspired by feeling like such a loser and just feeling embarrassed, like normal teenager stuff. But the thing that’s so interesting about that song is I didn’t even realize that I needed it. It’s so weird to go from the studio and making music to a normal high school. I am also in and out of being homeschooled, so sometimes not always in high school, but when I am, it’s really funny because I am a huge, weird kid. I’m very much a loser.

You write a song a day. How do you sort through them and decide which ones to record?

I think, especially when you’re making a record, I feel like visually you can see what would fit. I feel like there are some songs that — I obviously love all of them because I feel like there’s this energy in all of them that is my emotions and I feel like choosing them is hard, It’s like having your favorite children. But I feel like the ones that I’ve picked are really a solid bunch of songs and I’ve like spent time perfecting them and I really feel good about them.

Did you grow up in a musical family?

I grew up around very creative people, like my entire family. They’re all in the creative world, like my brother is; he went to college for visual art, but he is a musician as well, and he showed me all that I really know about music and guitar. And I love him so much. And my mom also creates music for her job. She’s like a choreographer and she makes amazing videos with workouts and stuff like that [Editor’s note: Woods’ mother is Tracy Anderson, the fitness author and entrepreneur]. And my grandma also has owned a dance studio and a musical theater studio for my entire existence and my mom’s entire existence. So it’s just really special to like, hear the show tunes and then the classic rock and then the pop princesses, and I got all different genres.

What are your go-to albums for repeat listens?

I have like five albums that I listen to on repeat, and the first one is “Masterpiece” by Big Thief. It is a masterpiece, it is one of the most amazing albums. And then “Born to Die” by Lana Del Rey is also one of my favorites, and “Tapestry” by Carole King, of course. Somebody I’ve been listening to a lot recently is Blondshell, too, so I really like her album. And then I love Pat Benatar “In the Heat of the Night.” Honestly, I just love so much music, it’s so hard for me to choose, but, yeah, “Jagged Little Pill” [by Alanis Morissette].

Earlier you said “Loser’s Guide To Life” is a song you didn’t know you needed to write and you learned that your music will always be there for you. So is writing a song a day a therapeutic exercise?

It’s definitely very therapeutic. It’s like a ritual of mine every day. Sometimes when I feel stuck or I’m stressed out or whatever, my family’s like, “have you made art today?” And if I’m like, “no,” they’re like, “that’s why, you really like art.” When I was younger and I was throwing a tantrum, my mother would turn on “The Nutcracker” and just ask me to dance. And she’s like, “I don’t care if it looks bad. You just move like how you feel.” I was always raised like that.

What do you hope people feel when they hear your album early next year?

I just hope that they feel seen in a lot of ways, because I feel like “Loser’s Guide to Life” is very adolescence and coming-of-age and dealing with so many emotions and so many things that are complex, and I think that it’s so important for there to be an album out there that represents just confusing feelings.

We’re in the mixing process right now, so I’ve been getting sent all of these mixes of these songs, and honestly, I’m somebody who will get sick of my own voice. But with this album, something really special happened and the people I worked with. I get good vibes from all the songs and I want to listen to them a million times. There’s not like one song on this album that I’m like, “oh my God, I don’t like the way I sound here.” I’m really grateful to have made an album that has such good vibes to me and I really like it.

Photo by Ella Gillespie Bailey

Sandwiched between a highly anticipated opening set for Spoon at Central Park Summerstage and the Oct. 9 release of its fourth album, NYC quintet Bodega came to Elsewhere Rooftop last week for another hometown show.

For the first time in its 10-year career, the band recorded outside of New York and headed to Leeds, England, to make “All Inside Aquarium,” which will be released on Chrysalis, to track in a deconsecrated church.

Despite its reputation as a post-punk group, the goal for the LP, says Bodega’s Ben Hozie, was: “Let’s go back to melodic tunes, let’s be more of a proper rock band.” Sonically, the band aimed for “this late ‘80s/early ‘90s Stone Roses-meets-Jane’s Addiction thing, with more riffing and guitar solos.”

A first single, “Pick Up The Check,” was released in May, followed by the title track and video.