This is where we keep all our articles for artists, plus a few glimpses into how we think about music and making records.
The Musical Odyssey of Alex Carlin I met Alex Carlin at Schmidt’s Tobacco & Trading — the Pub, to its regulars — and for about ten minutes I was convinced he was drunk. He wasn’t. That’s just Alex. He’s got a lust for life that doesn’t seem to have an off switch, an energy that’s…
Eric Din in the Court of Doubt A few months back, Eric Roy Dinwiddie came by the studio to contribute a track to The Pub Album: A collaborative compilation. He didn’t bring a polished demo or a tight arrangement plan. He brought a quirky original song, four friends he’d recruited as backup singers, and an…
Arhoolie & Down Home Records The Field Holler that won’t quit: Chris Strachwitz, Arhoolie, Down Home Music, and a Building Worth Saving A five-minute walk from Panama Sound, on the seam where El Cerrito’s sidewalk meets Richmond’s street address, sits a building that has quietly done more for American vernacular music than almost anywhere else…
The Independent Artists Guide To Releasing Music —your step-by-step roadmap for navigating the modern music landscape on your own terms. Releasing music as an independent artist means wearing every hat, from sound engineer and visual director to distribution manager and marketing strategist. That is why this hub of articles keeps growing, so check back here…
Douglas Benson, The Desert Stranger I met Douglas Benson outside the Ivy Room in the Spring of 2026, before any of this started. He’d just finished opening for Mitch Polzak and the Royal Deuces, playing for maybe thirty people who weren’t paying much attention. It didn’t matter. He played that room like it was a…
How I learned to Listen Listen closely. You don’t choose your childhood soundtrack any more than you choose your childhood weather — you just end up permanently damp in some particular way, and later in life you call that damp thing your taste, your aesthetic, whatever. Mine started in a courtyard. The Courtyard I grew…
The Wire Between the Stacks For roughly forty years, from 1960 into the early 2000s the San Francisco Bay Area ran one of the most complete independent music ecosystems in the country. I recently wrote an article on Arhoolie, Downhome Records, Chris Strachwitz’s legacy and what that meant and was worth to the Bay Area…