Windy City Smokeout

Hootie & the Blowfish is an American rock band formed in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1986. The band's lineup for most of its existence has been the quartet of Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, and Jim Sonefeld. The band went on hiatus in 2008 until they announced plans for a full reunion tour in 2019 and released their first new studio album in fourteen years, Imperfect Circle.

Sep 29, 2023 edit: The 1st submission reads as a review, so I'm adding band info: Ghost Hounds is a blues tinged rock band out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Billionaire entrepreneur, guitarist, and songwriter Thomas Tull formed Ghost Hounds in the 2000's while he was living in Los Angeles. Due to other commitments, he put the band on the back burner temporarily. Down the road, Tull revived the Ghost Hounds, bringing in David Grissom, (John Mellencamp, The Allman Brothers Band), and Kevin Bowe (Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Lynyrd Skynyrd). David and Kevin helped compose the songs for an album titled Roses are Black. Tull then set out to assemble a band, and included keyboardist Joe Munroe, guitarist Johnny Baab, bassist Bennett Miller, drummer Blaise Lanzetta, and vocalist Tre' Nation. Roses are Black was released on Tuesday, November 5, 2019. Ghost Hounds went on to support the album's release with opening gigs for ZZ Top, Bob Seger, and The Rolling Stones. Original submission: All I could find out on the internet about this band was a comment made about their CD at Amazon.com. Click here: http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Hounds/dp/B002MPQJBU or see below. I came to find out about this band while playing Rockband 2. Their song, Ashes to Fire, was made available as part of a free 20 track download. I forget the reasoning behind the free download, but that's beside the point. While "Playing" the song, from the very beginning, I was instantly hooked. The song has a great rock n' blues sound, with a little gospel mixed into it, which made it easy for me to get into. I always say that it's hard to go wrong with the blues, and for the most part I believe this to be true. The song has some great riffs, catchy lyrics, although, my only complaint would be that the song is too short, but still a great song nonetheless. After hearing the song, I was immediately interested in hearing more from this band, though at the time there were only a few songs that I could find, but still, it was something. A few months went by, and eventually the rest of the album was made available on [...], a site of which I am a member. I was happy to say the least after seeing all the new tracks. I then listened to the album, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I would have liked to have listened to it again, but lala only allows you to listen to a song or an album once, although, after a month or so, you can listen to it again. It's been a while since I was able to do that, so it's possible that they may have fixed that little loophole. Moving forward, I was able to listen to the album a couple of times, and eventually they added a couple more songs to the "Deluxe" edition. The songs, just like the others, were great. After a couple months went by, I noticed that I was never able to listen for free again, so this made me want the album even more. The only problem with this scenario, is that the album isn't available in stores, it's only available as a digital download, made available through either lala or iTunes. Or so I thought! I figured, what the hell, and decided to check Amazon. Upon doing so, I saw that I could buy a physical copy, and I put my order in. The package arrived a few days later, nothing out of the ordinary. I was very pleased with my order, very pleased with the band, as well as the album, overall, just very pleased. I would highly recommend this album to anyone who likes Rock and Blues. My only complaint with this album, and trust me this is not a big problem, is that the songs, while good, are short considering the style of music. I just feel like when it comes to the Blues, in any form, you can play longer, even if you've run out of lyrics, just let the guitar do the rest!

From bittersweet ballad to gritty barn burner, Alberta's Noeline Hofmann brings the glowing expanse of the Plains to the stage- a voice with the golden charm of a meadowlark and lyricism with the strike of a rattlesnake. Between a history of working in honky-tonks and punching cattle across the Canadian Prairies, Noeline's sage songwriting and live show bleed a head-turning authenticity through her sterling brand of 'wild rose' country music. Best described by a curator of the Tongue on the Post Folk Music Festival as “a peach with pistol attitude,” the 20-year-old has been taking North America's roots music community by storm since emerging onto the scene in the beginning of 2023 - sharing the stage with an array of revered road warriors, earning nods of recognition from leading independent country music media groups, fellow artists, and music appreciators alike, becoming a winner of the Northern Lights Bluegrass & Old Time Festival, Calgary Songsmiths Acoustic Sessions, and Waynestock songwriting and performance contests, being sought after for songwriting work by leading artists of Alberta’s country music industry, cutting her teeth in countless venues across the continent from dive bars to soft-seat concert halls, embarking on a solo road trip from Alberta to Kentucky and Tennessee after becoming a Top 5 Finalist of the Master Musicians Festival : Take The Stage Contest, and being dubbed "an impressive new singer-songwriter to the scene" by tastemaking independent country music podcast Hippies & Cowboys - firmly establishing herself as an emerging artist to watch. An interview on the radio-style podcast The Thicket with Mike & Josh in Iowa and the release of field recordings of her cover of The Bullfighter by Luke Bell captured by both Hippies & Cowboys at Laurel Cove Festival in Kentucky and Powell River Sessions in Tennessee added significant momentum to her career this summer, spurring collaborations that will reveal themselves in the coming year. This October, a video of her song Purple Gas picked up traction on TikTok garnering the attention of songwriting superstar, Zach Bryan, who shared it with his fans resulting in a viral success of the video leaving her with listeners around the world awaiting a debut release to streaming platforms with bated breath. The trajectory of Noeline’s snowballing notoriety straight out of the gate points towards a road ahead that is chock-full of stage lights and marquee signs; the making of a prominent new voice in the alternative country music soundscape.