My end of the year extravaganza is called Favorites of 2015 because I just don’t listen to enough new music through the year to warrant calling it a Best Of ...

First, let me just say that I have never had so much fun putting together an issue of Modern Acoustic! I want to offer a huge thanks to everyone who particip...

When last we saw the boys of Barnstar!, they were dressed as a band of pirates riding the high seas of Boston Harbor and performing to a rowdy crowd aboard a...

FAVORITE ALBUMS “Numbered Doors,” by Lori McKenna and “Milltowns,” by Mark Erelli These two locally produced albums are as authentic and moving as any releas...

A recording session is stopped abruptly, and a new-to-town songwriter is introduced, brought in to “fix” the projected hit song for Miss Rayna James, Nashvil...

I have a plot idea for the TV show “Nashville” to save it from cancellation. But before we go there, I have admit something that may make you cringe … I am a...

I won’t listen to Spotify. In fact, I am personally boycotting it. I’m sure the music streaming executives are quaking in their collective boots over my deci...

Here in the New England, we have no Bonnaroo, no Coachella, no Lollapalooza, no New Orleans Jazz Festival: summer music extravaganzas with lineups filled wit...

If you live in the Boston area and like folk, blues and singer-songwriters – both current and classic – there’s a good chance you already listen to the radio...

A video was posted of Bobbie Gentry’s classic “Ode to Billie Joe” on June 3rd, the date prominently mentioned in the song. It got us thinking… How many more ...

Meet Parsonsfield (formerly Poor Old Shine) For Poor Old Shine, it started with a song… a traditional prison work song of the American South, called “Ain’t N...

When I started Modern Acoustic, way back in 2004, one of my main objectives was not to be like every other music magazine, which fills their pages with fluff...

It was one of those most magical of evenings. Outside, 70 or so degrees, beside the ocean, sun about to set, your favorite concert buddies sitting alongside ...

Hopefully, people will read this and won’t think, “wow, this guy is old and cranky.” That is not true – at least the second part. It just happens that in a f...

In praise of the underappreciated Joan Osborne I recently went to see a band called Trigger Hippy at a concert hall in Boston. As a band, they are not well k...

The Lone Bellow made quite an impression in 2013 – even winning over the guy with a bad case of Americana Exhaustion I complained a lot this year. I was hurt...

This year, Hanukkah came early. My musical inspiration came very late, but I’m very excited about this gift. All year, I had been looking for an artist that ...

Favorite Album: Patty Griffin, “American Kid’’ Anyone who follows Modern Acoustic knows just where I stand on Patty. Two words: voice crush. My god, listen t...

Returning to the scene of the Dead 30 years later I went back with some misgivings – no Jerry Garcia will do that to even the most ardent of Deadheads. I’d s...

“At the request of Matt and Zooey, we ask that people not use their cell phones to take pictures and video, but instead enjoy the show they have put together...