Thrive Festival Hawaii sends a huge Mahalo to the Big Island and everyone in Pahoa for making the first annual Thrive Fest a total success in every way. Almost 1000 people came and went. The music flowed, the yogis stretched our spines and souls, valuable wholistic and agricultural information was shared, life long friends were made, lovers danced, children played and most importantly a community grew. Is that all? Nope!

“After two and a half years on the road, we needed to shut away the rest of the world,” recalls Sergio Rios, guitarist and engineer of Los Angeles-based band ORGŌNE. For their tenth* studio album, ORGŌNE retreated to the tranquil solitude of Joshua Tree in southern California. Ensconced in a ranch home with a recording studio for a week in November 2015, the band improvised late into the desert night, carving out tunes that would eventually become the bulk of the material on Reasons (self-released, due out January 18, 2019).

Luck Reunion, presented by Southwest®, will take place on March 19 in Luck, TX, less than thirty miles outside of Austin, and feature both artists who have defined American music and artists who are redefining it. Luck Reunion performers, or “Luck Family” as they’ve grown to be called, all take after the event’s gracious host, free-wheeling legend Willie Nelson, in that they bow to nothing but inspiration, refuse to play it safe, and are always open for collaboration. Below is a view of each branch of 2020’s “Luck Family” tree—a.k.a.

New York-based bandleader and genre-defying guitarist Wayne Krantz is keeping busier than ever entering the 2020s. Many are familiar with Krantz’s work as a powerhouse ace sideman for decades alongside legends such as Bill Frisell, Billy Cobham, Steely Dan, and Michael Brecker, but it’s as bandleader where Krantz’s inimitable approach is best felt. Known for his improvisational approach that feels like metal at times and Slowhand blues at others, Krantz released his very first non-improvisational work in January on Abstract Logix.

Certainly, one of the hottest tickets over this past weekend in Fort Collins was to the performance of the legendary revolutionary Ani DiFranco. Performing at the newly renovated and intimate setting of Washington’s in the Old Town District, DiFranco’s return was highly anticipated by her loyal following, reflected by the fact that her show sold-out the first day tickets went on sale.