Spring is associated with new beginnings and for the year 2021, the wind of change is being widely embraced. From vaccinations to the shaking off of the long winter, people everywhere are actively looking forward to getting out, getting normal, and for music lovers, getting down.

During this age of COVID-19, touring musicians across the land have been creative with the process of bringing music to their fans while maintaining some ability to generate revenue. Live video streams have been a ubiquitous way to accomplish both, and more recently pod-separated, limited attendance performances have emerged.

I didn’t grow up in a small town. Los Angeles is quite the opposite in fact. I absolutely adore my city, but it’s hustle and bustle hardened me in many ways, especially thinking back to first meeting my significant love of almost twelve years. In comparison he was softer, innocent, and much more naïve than me due to his upbringing in the rural Midwest. Walmart was the hub of the community. Upon visits multiple excursions each day were made to the superstore since there wasn’t anything else to occupy our time. A few fast-food joints lined the main road.

Midnight North kicked off its 2021 live-stage endeavors on April 18, with a masked and physically distanced performance at their original home base, Terrapin Crossroads. The concert was the band’s first show back since the Covid-19 proliferation and leaned heavily on the band’s newly released album, “There’s Always a Story.”

On the edge of their new album release “Long Lost'' which will be available for streaming May 21, Lord Huron gave their fans a glimpse of what to expect with their new title track “Long Lost”.

“And that’s the last time we will mention the pandemic,” said Ryan Ogburn from Chicken Wire Empire at City Winery Chicago on Sunday 4/18/2021. The unspoken unspeakable and unmentioned unmentionable as a sleepy Sunday rolled out 2 shows in the city of Chicago as life slowly wakes up again. The small 50 person capacity shows were like the climb uphill on a rollercoaster.

On Saturday, April 17th Ziggy Marley played two exceptional concerts at Ventura fairgrounds in California. The shows were the first of the year in the Concerts In Your Car series that features live performances in front of a drive-in audience. It has been more than a year since live music fans have been able to see their favorite bands at venues across California, which have remained closed due to the Covid pandemic.

The Ladles, comprised of fiddle/singer Lucia Purpura-Pontoniere, guitarist/singer Katie Martucci, and banjoist/singer Caroline Kuhn met at the New England Conservatory of Music’s contemporary improvisational program. It turns out they were the only 3 females in that class. Before graduation, they had gotten to work on their original brand of music releasing a self-titled EP in 2016. In 2019, they released their first full-length debut album, The Line.

Last night, Jamgrass Billy Strings concluded his 2021 Spring Tour last night with the third and final show of a three-night run at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama. Enhancing the experience of the tour’s final leg for all was an announcement.

Writing is how I make sense of everything. This relatively simple act of expression is extraordinarily cathartic. Trauma and pain are immediately liberated. The truly bizarre and fabulous can shine while simultaneously providing a healthy, sometimes even hysterical release. Mary Gauthier writes in her memoir, Saved By A Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting, “Storytellers have power; they are not voiceless victims.