NPR Music Partner Station’s 2023 Artists to Watch

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From distinctive, R&B singer-songwriters to rising bands making fuzzed-out country rock, this year brings a new crop of artists set for a big break. Here, NPR Music’s partner stations select a new wave of artists poised for greatness in 2023. Baby Rose Atlanta based singer-songwriter Baby Rose has one of the most distinct voices in R&B right now and there’s …

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Seattle Jazz Outfit Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio Visits the Ritz Theatre on Saturday

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Cold As Weiss is the third studio album by the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, released last year. The group will be performing at The Ritz on February 4, a stacked evening for live music in Northeast Florida. Their first album, Close But No Cigar (2015), scored the #1 spot on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.  There are also two live …

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The Smile to Play St. Augustine Amphitheatre in June

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Riding the wave of their critically-acclaimed 2022 debut, A Light for Attracting Attention, The Smile, the trio comprised of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner have announced 14 North American dates with a stop at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre in June. On A Light for Attracting Attention, the trio unspools an eclectic suite …

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Parking Lot Palooza | Beloved Jax studio hosts 20 bands for free concert

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Warehouse Studios’s Parking Lot Palooza 6 is a showcase for some 20 of the city’s up and coming bands, as well as several veteran acts of local renown, trading off on two stages, inside and out. They include bands like Tonal (the latest project by Warehouse boss Ryan Turk, joined by Michael Lee Martin and Jessica Walton), Hang Eleven, Alexander …

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‘Dispatches from DaNang’ is the Latest Batch of Beats from Itinerant Jax Artist Batsauce

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Britt Traynham, aka Batsauce, is currently living in Hawaii with his wife, Daisey. The couple have spent most of the past 15 years living the itinerant lives of digital nomads, writing and recording their way around the world. The newest collection of Batsauce beats, Dispatches from DaNang, was inspired by the time he spent in Vietnam. Track 2, “Waking Up …

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Go | The Best Live Music in Jax this Week

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Susto, Bobby Weir, Parking Lot Palooza and more

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Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Americana  Shane Smith & The Saints – Tuesday, January 31 Underbelly | Downtown Jacksonville Austin, Texas Americana act Shane Smith & The Saints perform at Underbelly on Tuesday night.  Watch | Tickets | …

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Tom Verlaine, guitarist and singer of influential rock band Television, dies at 73

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Tom Verlaine, a founding father of American punk and a fixture of the 1970s New York rock scene, died Saturday in Manhattan as the result of a brief illness. He was 73. His death was confirmed to NPR in a press release from Jesse Paris Smith, the daughter of Verlaine collaborator Patti Smith, who also once dated the artist. “I …

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On ‘Time In The Sun,’ Susto’s Justin Osborne Explores the Circle of Life

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After nearly a decade of crafting introspective songs as Susto, Justin Osborne wrote his most personal record to date. On 2021’s Time in the Sun, the Charleston, South-Carolina-bred singer-songwriter and guitarist unpacks, at times, contradictory ideas of hope and despair. Time in the Sun was written during the early onset of what has become into an open-ended global pandemic. And …

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Playlist | January’s Best New Music

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Featuring a few dozen new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists, our Fresh Squeeze playlist features the best new music emenanating from Northeast Florida and beyond. Handpicked by our team of contributors, there are no rules or genre restrictions; just songs we thought were worth a share. Our latest Fresh Squeeze playlist includes the return of several prominent musical …

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Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker Collaborate on Three New boygenius Singles

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When Lucy Dacus sings about “gettin’ pissed about humidity” on the brand-new boygenius single “True Blue,” I can’t help but nod in agreement. Who among us here in Northeast Florida wouldn’t relate? It’s one of dozens of spot-on lines on Dacus’s latest release with collaborators Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers: the album, simply titled the record, will be released in …

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WJCT Public Media Presents 2023 TEACH Conference, Featuring Keynote Speakers Ralph Smith and Sonia Manzano

Media Contact: Neily Braren, Promotion & Marketing Associate904.318.2633 • nbraren@wjct.org Tickets available now for day-long conference that engages, empowers and inspires educators  January 24, 2022 — Jacksonville, Fla. — WJCT Public Media, in partnership with VyStar Credit Union, will present its 8th annual TEACH Conference on Saturday, February 25, 2023. This day-long conference for voluntary prekindergarten (VPK) through 5th grade …

Soccer Mommy | Tiny Desk Concert

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When Sophie Allison says to our friends and coworkers assembled around the desk, “We’re finally doin’ it,” she really means it. A little less than exactly three years ago, Allison had just released the wonderful Color Theory as Soccer Mommy; it’s an album that marked significant strides in her songwriting and production. A big year was doubtless in store for …

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Crosby, Stills & Nash co-founder David Crosby has died at 81

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David Crosby, a prominent figure of the free-spirited 1970s Laurel Canyon scene who helped bring folk-rock mainstream with both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, has died at 81. His publicist confirmed the artist’s death to NPR; no cause of death was given at the time of this report. Crosby had long dealt with serious health problems, including multiple …

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Go | The Best Live Music in Jax this Week

Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Garage Rock  The Schizophonics – Tuesday, January 24 Jack Rabbits | San Marco  San Diego garage rock band The Schizophonics bring their three-chord (or less) style pummel to Jack Rabbits on Tuesday.  Watch …

Dust Fuss’s Gear Essentials

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Dust Fuss’s first full-length album, Motorsigh, is just what we need for a stoic start to a new year. Vocalist and guitarist Taylor Olin describes the feeling of the record as “liberating, like crushing a can with your boots, paired with the goofiness of amateur baseball and the bad-kid energy of a cigarette in the locker room.” That mix of …

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Now Playing | Stella Kola, “Rosa”

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Stella Kola by Stella Kola The eponymous debut from Stella Kola is a curveball from an already-unpredictable roster of underground U.S. musicians who are as provincial — in this case, the weird grottos and orchards of Massachusetts — as they are inscrutable. Led by Robert Thomas (Sunburned Hand of the Man) and Beverly Ketch (Bunwinkies) the album opens with “Rosa,” …

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Go | Best Live Music in Jax this Week

A great week to see the city's best local acts

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Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Electronic Severed+Said, Creep City, ISYA, Golden Clouds – Thursday, January 19 The Walrus | Murray Hill A showcase of some of the city’s most enthralling experiments in electronica headlined by Severed+Said at The …

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Jake Blount | Tiny Desk Concert

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Jake Blount has an astonishing imagination. While a concert of folk tunes could simply be a singer and perhaps a fiddle or banjo, the young proponent of traditional music brought eight bandmates and told the NPR crowd that they were here to play “Black folk music from the future.” Most of the songs are from Jake Blount’s late-2022 release, The …

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Go | Best Live Music in Jax this Week

Jazz Discovery Series, Palomino Blond, The Grass Is Dead and more

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Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Bayou Soul  Marc Broussard – Tuesday, January 10 PV Concert Hall | Ponte Vedra  An adult-contemporary-radio mainstay, Marc Broussard mixes funk, R&B, rock and pop for a fusion that’s been referred to as …

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Jazz Discovery Series Presents Celebrated Bassist Michael Feinberg at the Jessie

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The proverbial overnight sensation — ten years in the making — upright-jazz-bass virtuoso Michael Feinberg continues to bridge the genre’s storied traditions with the open-minded skills and fearless approach of a contemporary player.  Feinberg is featured in a workshop followed by a performance with local musicians from JAMS (Jacksonville Arts & Music School) and the John Lumpkin Institute at the …

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Local Spotlight | Three New Tracks by Jax Artists Out Now

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New year. New local tunes. As we unearth new music from artists around the globe, we love to shine the high beams of our Local Spotlight series on the beautiful noise emerging from Northeast Florida. This week, we’ve got three great new tracks by Jacksonville artists. A reminder: You can hear the best new local tunes at 20 minutes after …

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The Smile | Tiny Desk Concert

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Surely my musical highlight for 2022 was this Tiny Desk concert from The Smile. Just how Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner were going to perform songs from their sonically adventurous album A Light for Attracting Attention was a puzzle not only to me but to the band. They arrived early, along with saxophonist …

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Playlist | Jax Music ’22 Year in Review

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As we unearth new tunes from artists around the globe, we love to shine the high beams of our Local Spotlight series on the beautiful noise emerging from Northeast Florida. This year, our team reviewed more than five dozen releases from Jacksonville artists. (That’s more than one new song per week!) Before we close out 2022, we wanted to make …

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Winterland V Announces Full 2023 Lineup

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Jacksonville-based, independently run nonprofit music festival Winterland has announced its full festival lineup, adding an eclectic list of 21 local, regional and national artists to the two-day music event headlined by alt-grunge-psych-pop rock group The Dandy Warhols, legendary Brazilian rock outfit Os Mutantes, multi-instrumentalist and R&B/Soul singer and producer Sudan Archives, indie singer-songwriter Sasami, North Carolina psych sextet The Nude …

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Go | Best Live Music in Jax this Week

Corey Kilgannon album release, Copland's Rodeo and more

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Each week the JME team looks long and hard at the concert calendar to identify the best live music in Jacksonville. Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Americana Danny Attack – Thursday, January 5 Jack Rabbits | San Marco  …

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Go | Best Concerts of the week in Jax

Mary J. Blige at VyStar, Fistmas, LPT on NYE and more

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Each week the JME team looks long and hard at the concert calendar to identify the best live music in Jacksonville. Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Jazz Blue Jay Jazz Jam – Tuesday, December 27 Blue Jay Listening …

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Toni Smailagic’s Favorite Albums of 2022

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As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. Just when I thought I had my list of favorite albums set in stone, SZA dropped perhaps the best record of the year with the release of her sobering sophomore effort in December. Don’t get me wrong, RENAISSANCE is by far my …

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Rain Henderson’s Favorite Albums of 2022

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As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. My listening habits tend to be littered with repetition. I’ll find one song or one album and let that sucker play over and over (and over) for days, sometimes weeks. If a sound clicks with me in a moment of time, it …

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Daniel A. Brown’s Favorite Albums of 2022

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As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. In 2002, the music world, like the overall planet, continued to dust off the feared-eschatological wipeout of the Covid pandemic. For millions, collective trauma and survivors’ relief were parlayed into music consumption. Bandcamp Friday continued to make the rest of the week …

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Matthew Shaw’s Favorite Albums of 2022

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As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. My approach to music listening reminds me of the way former Daily Show host Jon Stewart used the action of a youth soccer match as an analogy for the short-attention span of cable news. In essence, the entire rosters of both teams …

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Watch Jax Multi-Instrumentalist & Songwriter Animal Clinic Perform at Blue Jay Listening Room

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While synthesizers have been commercially available for more than a half-century, a puritanical divide long existed between analog- and electronic-approaches to music. However, owing much to decades of experimentation by artists in a range of genres — from mainstream pop to hip-hop to rock and folk — as well as the genre-agnosticism of modern listeners, the bridge between man and …

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Terry Hall, singer with ska icons The Specials, dies at 63

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LONDON — Musician Terry Hall, who helped create one of the defining sounds of post-punk Britain as lead singer of The Specials, has died. He was 63. The band announced late Monday that Hall had died after a brief illness. It called him “our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has …

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Al Pete’s Favorite Albums of 2022

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As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. Let me begin with two recurring thoughts. 1) I kept saying to myself “A lot of albums came out this year,” and 2) R&B, or what some may classify as alternative R&B was a constant in my 2022 rotation. Music had special …

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Carissa Marques’ Favorite Albums of 2022

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As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. Each year feels like a marathon trying to keep up with the newest music and catching up with the hits I missed from the year prior. This year, I found myself listening to albums as a way to try and grow closer …

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The Best Roots Music of 2022

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In 2022, artists working within the orbit of the unstable category “roots music” got personal even as they explored complex cultural lineages and continued to challenge the rules of established scenes and forms. Before any tradition is solidified, it travels from hand to hand, heart to heart. Whether pushing the boundaries of mainstream country, demanding an expanded vision of traditional …

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Jax Singer-Songwriter rickoLus live from JME Studios

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In a now famous — and, thanks to YouTube, now widely available — 1965 press conference, a young and insouciant Bob Dylan was asked if he considers himself more of a singer or a poet, among other earnest questions by a fawning San Francisco press corps. “Oh, I consider myself a song and dance man, y’know?” Dylan answers without skipping …

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