Rachel Cholst

Rachel Cholst

VIDEO: Samantha Crain — Killer

A few months ago I wrote about Samantha Crain’s moving, timely album Under Branch & Thorn Tree. Today I’d like to share the moving music video that accompanies Crain’s protest song, “Killer.” While the song itself addresses the deadly slow…

Corin Raymond — Hobo Jungle Fever Dream

Let’s cut to the chase: this album is astonishing. Corin Raymond is a truly masterful songwriter. I’m sorry that I haven’t heard of him sooner. Maybe it’s an unconscious association, but Raymond’s sharp intellect and a delivery that gives the…

Eric Peter Schwartz — Gloaming

Gloaming, from Old English, is another word for twilight. It also shares the same root as “glow.” I expected Schwartz’s fourth release, a five-song EP, to take us down the same, darker path that Casual Ghosts did. However, in spite…

The Haymarket Squares — Light It Up

They Haymarket Square have a certain rogue-ish charm that makes the harsh medicine of their lyrics — incisive, biting political commentary — go down easily. It was love at first sight with the band’s gospel take on “Heaven,” with an…