Today, Alpha Rev announces a massive tour with Nashville singer-songwriter Ben Rector; a sure-to-be stunning American music caravan that winds through 30 cities in southern, east coast and Midwest U.S. states. The tour begins March 20th, just one day after Alpha Rev releases their third album, Bloom (March 19, 2013 / Kirtland Records).

Afrobeat gets a new twist on February 26, 2013 when genre veteran Chicago Afrobeat Project releases its fourth studio effort Nyash UP! on its own label, CAbP Music.Nyash UP!

After a Grammy nomination and a Latin Grammy Award for best Alternative Album, Los Amigos Invisibles are ready to take back the Latin music market by storm with their seventh studio album titled Repeat After Me, to be released by Nacional Records on April 2^nd 2013.

Burlington, Vt.

Dave Grohl's SOUND CITY PLAYERS' February 13 extravaganza at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom has sold out.

David Gans, host of KPFA's Dead to the World, presents a 16-hour Grateful Dead Marathon fundraiser for KPFA.

Austin's jazz-grass band MilkDrive features award-winning instrumentalists Brian Beken on fiddle and lead vocals, Noah Jeffries on guitar and harmony vocals, Dennis Ludiker on mandolin and harmony vocals, and Matt Mefford on double bass. Fueled by equal parts tradition and innovation, MilkDrive delivers a distinctive acoustic experience marked by sophisticated arrangements and fierce musicianship.

Stony Plain Records announces an April 9 release date for Independently Blue, the exciting new CD from multi Blues Music Award winner and Grammy nominee Duke Robillard. The dozen tracks contained on Independently Blue showcase the guitarist at the peak of his six-string powers and feature a dynamic tandem throughout with Duke joined by guitarist “Monster” Mike Welch as special guest.

For a music critic, four months after an album release isn’t a third of a year, it’s an epoch. The rule has always been to review the album as soon as it’s released, or at least in the first week or two after release if you cannot acquire a prerelease copy. Anything after that is a nostalgic trip down memory lane. But here we are. Tame Impala’s Lonerism was released on October 9th, 2012. This review is going up in February. But the album is too good to ignore.

Music festival season is just around the corner. As the big ones begin to announce their lineups, turn your phone off for a night or two and head out for a warm up: San Francisco’s Bluegrass & Old-Time Festival kicks off on February 7. In its 13th year, the non-profit SFBOT (I wish I could take credit for that acronym) boasts a handful of shows at 18 different venues over the course of 10 days.