By Jay Franze 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.…
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…
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,…
Opening a show is one of the toughest jobs in live music. You’re walking onto a stage where most of the audience bought tickets to see someone else. The room…
By Jay Franze Fans see the lights. They hear the songs. They cheer when the artist walks on stage. What they rarely see are the hundreds of decisions, and dozens…
Archers Gate, Saturday, June 27, 2026 , Annie’s Music Center, Cincinnati, Ohio Sometimes the concert experience begins long before the first note is played. Leaving the house Saturday evening, I immediately…
By Jay Franze Some guitar players spend their careers trying to be noticed. Paul Sidoti has spent his making sure the audience notices someone else. That may sound like an…
The Dreamboats , June 18, 2026 , Summer Arts Festival Veterans Park Amphitheater, Springfield, Ohio. Sometimes the best concert nights start with a little uncertainty. I left home around 5:00 PM on a…
By Jay Franze There’s an unwritten rule in live music: if your audience spends more time watching the show through their phone than actually reacting to it, you’ve probably lost…
The music business has a strange habit of making years of preparation look like a few minutes of opportunity. A three-minute audition. One song in a Nashville recording studio. A…