If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Ken Sears Like just about everyone, I absolutely adored "Foundations" when it came out in 2017. At that point, I was more of a casual Kate Nash fan, and she admittedly fell off my radar shortly after that. Earlier this year, it was announced that she had signed to Kill Rock Stars. Being a 90's indie rock snob, that got my attention and I checked out 9 Sad Symphonies . That was excellent enough to get me to dive deeper into her catalog, and became more of a fan. Seeing as she was playing Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theater, I knew I simply could not miss the show. Any expectations I had for Kate Nash's live show were blown away by actually seeing her perform. Nash attacked that stage with an energy usually reserved for hardcore bands. She barely stood still for the first five or six songs as she bounded across the stage. For "Misery," she hopped off the stage and into the crowd for basically the entire song. Her energy was matched by her band, who...

Nashville's Shelly Fairchild is an admirer and friend of the Lynn family, so she was deeply affected by Loretta Lynn's passing last year. She was on her way to Blackbird Studios when she received a text that Lynn passed away. As a tribute to the fallen legend, she asked Shamir to join her on a cover of "Fist City." The two recorded a perfect tribute, and it's a spot on cover with just a little bit of updating. If it was recorded to any other reason, it would be an absolute blast of a cover, which just shows that Fairchild and Shamir perfectly captured the spirit of the original. Shamir says of Loretta Lynn and the cover of "Fist City": "The music of Loretta Lynn has always been a source of comfort.  My love of country first began when I got my first radio when I was 9 years old. Every Sunday morning my local country station would play classic country and oldies, of course Loretta's music was frequently played. The cherry on top of it all was bei...