Success in country music has a funny way of looking glamorous from a distance. Fans see sold-out shows, tour buses, backstage passes, and artists sharing the stage with country legends. What they don’t see are the lonely apartments. The long drives home. The family members living hundreds of miles away.
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With two stages, a sprawling dance floor, strong production, and enough room for everything from line dancing to nationally touring artists, Lori’s Roadhouse has become one of Greater Cincinnati’s most dependable destinations for live country music. Some venues earn your attention with one unforgettable concert. The best ones give you
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Spend enough time around the music industry, and you’ll eventually meet someone who insists they have all the answers. David Chatfield isn’t one of them. In fact, after more than four decades running record labels, developing artists, negotiating contracts, producing records, and watching the industry reinvent itself countless times, he’s
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Some concert nights begin with hours of anticipation. Others begin with a sprint through the rain carrying thousands of dollars’ worth of camera gear. Saturday night landed somewhere in the middle. With doors opening at 4 p.m. but music not kicking off until 8, I left home around 6:30 for
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Ask someone to describe Tropidelic, and you’ll probably hear the usual buzzwords. Reggae rock. Hip-hop. Funk. Beach vibes. Good times. They’re all accurate… but they don’t tell you why people keep coming back. After sitting down with drummer Rex Larkman, it became clear that Tropidelic isn’t just another band blending
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With its sunken concert floor, black cinderblock walls, riverside courtyard, and unmistakable old-school rock-club atmosphere, Annie’s Music Center offers a live music experience built on character rather than polish. Some venues announce themselves with architectural grandeur, glowing marquees, and carefully designed entrances. Annie’s Music Center reveals itself a little at
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Some nights start with chaos before you ever walk through the gate. I left the house later than planned after my wife got home from work, and my daughters Bella, Valen, and I took a friend’s visiting daughter out for dinner before heading to the show. By the time I
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Some collaborations begin in a writing room. Others begin backstage after a show. Kate Stanton’s latest creative partnership started nearly 4,000 miles away. One songwriter in Ohio. One producer in Germany. No shared spoken language. No recording studio together. No late-night writing sessions over coffee. Just email. Google Translate. And
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Sometimes the best nights aren’t the ones you’ve had circled on the calendar for months. Sometimes they’re the last-minute text, the quick decision from your living room couch, and the mad scramble to make sure you packed enough batteries. That was Thursday night. At around 7:00 p.m., I looked at
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Some bands rely on volume. Some rely on spectacle. The Electric Indigo relies on feel. As the direct support for The Summit Thursday night at Southgate House Revival in Newport, Kentucky, The Electric Indigo walked into one of music’s most unforgiving genres, blues-based rock, and made it look remarkably easy.
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