Stephen Foster penned some of the best-known songs of all time, including standards like “Oh! Susanna,” “Camptown Races” and “Beautiful Dreamer,” but that success didn’t translate to particular fortune. Foster died alone in 1864 in near poverty at age 37, having estranged himself from his family through his alcoholism. Nonetheless, his songbook outlived him. It was passed down from g...

Compiling an annual list of the most noteworthy Milwaukee albums is always one of the most difficult assignments of the year, but this year it was easy in some respects. On one hand, there’s no way to do justice to the breadth

Juniper Tar released an early Milwaukee album of the year candidate this spring with Since Before, a beefy folk-rock (emphasis on the rock) record with a big-picture philosophical bent and a unique sense of scale. In short, the album was the work of a real band, one that has decisively distanced itself from the hordes of demure singer-songwriters who have turned contemporary indie-folk into an af...

In a city chock-full of outdoor festivals, the first one typically signals the unofficial start to summer and the official confirmation to commence the partying. Due to the cancellation of RiverSplash's weekend-long ruckus a few...

In this era of digital downloads, home recording programs and file-sharing options like SoundCloud...

Anthony Lopez and Jon Salimes founded High Frequency Media in 2009...

There’s no shortage of folk and roots bands paying tribute to a bygone era of American music; rarer are the groups that build on and truly advance America’s roots-music tradition. Among the handful doing so locally is Juniper Tar, a five-piece ensemble that drapes its songs in gorgeous three-part harmonies and...

The record number of Milwaukee bands that made the 1,200-mile trek to Austin, Texas, for this year’s South by Southwest Music and Media Conference & Festival (SXSW) made our city proud with their enthusiasm and compelling performances. More than a dozen Milwaukee bands played in or around the Texas-sized festival that is one of the largest and most prestigious of its kind, with 1,900 official acts from 55...

Ah, the fabled cabin up north. It’s rivaled only by the bedroom and Folsom Prison in the pantheon of romanticized places to record an album, conjuring restorative images of nature and solitude, as well as a whiff of man-versus-wilderness excitement. Countless musicians have made the trek up to the woods hoping for inspiration to strike, and as recording technology grows cheaper and more...