On ‘Water Still Flows’, veteran of the Nashville indie rock scene Mike Ruth has built upon the sounds of his critically acclaimed 2020 release “I Survived, It’s Over” to deliver a brash, beautiful, and spiritual explosion of sound unlike anything you've heard this year. Ruth discusses the new album, thoughts on making art with the tools available, and more on this edition of Discologist.

For over a decade, singer/songwriter/Southerner Kim Ware has been crafting indie-folk songs full of heart and twang with her project Kim Ware and the Good Graces. On her latest album Ready, she’s digging deeper inside then ever before. The result is an album overflowing with brutal honesty, (often hilarious) youthful angst, and an emotional core that could melt even the most hardened of hearts. Join us as we sit down with Ware to discuss the new album, making music in isolation, teaming up with producer Jerry Lee, and much, much more.

PLUS! Music we love from Chicago’s Bitchin Bajas, some tasty guitar work from Jon Camp, and a whole lot more!

In layman’s terms, the Boltzmann Brain Theory imagines a universe where the only thing that matters is what we perceive. Are we beings flitting about in a universe of someone else’s design or are we simply “brains” floating briefly thru the void, imposing OUR universe on that emptiness and anyone who happens to cross our path?

That central idea was the spark that drove this piece for most of its development, but as it came in to sharper focus the question of “what?” or “why?” we exist and perceive became secondary to the act of perceiving itself.

We spend so much of our lives searching for answers — Why do I exist? Why would “God” allow so much suffering in a world of his own creation? Is Bigfoot real? — and rarely have the thought to simply let a moment be, let it go, and look forward to the next. And that’s where this piece landed.

Violinist Johanna Burnheart shines on her lush and challenging debut record Burnheart, and harpist Mary Lattimore returns with Silver Ladders, one of the strongest releases of her career. Join us as we dig into these stellar releases, talk ambient, and the future of music on an all new episode of Discologist.

Chris Rosenau (Collections of Colonies Of Bees, Volcano Choir) and Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso, Made Of Oak) have traveled in the same creative circles for years now, but it was an off-the-cuff improv set at the inaugural Eaux Claires fest that has led to one of the most powerful releases of 2019, Bluebird. The open window and doors of the small North Carolina studio that Bluebird was recorded in gives the EP a sense of place in the world, but it is the magic weaved between Rosenau’s guitar and Sanborn’s electronic wizardry that pulls the listener wholly out of time and space into a moment of creation that is unlike anything you’re likely to experience this year.