"The Lumberjack has arrived," says the band. "In 2021, Beau, along with illustrator Morgan Wagner, decided to turn our song 'The Lumberjack,' from our 2018 full-length Dreamers, into a children's book. To go along with the book, over the summer we headed back into Clarity Recordings with Sean Tolley to rerecord the song and do a new acoustic version. We wanted to give something fresh to go with the book. While the 24-page book is set to be released next month, the songs are here now." Anna Lee Fleming of local folk band Finnegan Blue provided harmonies on both versions of the song.

His new song "Back to Omaha" was mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London by 2022 Grammy Award nominee Miles Showell, who has mastered albums by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, The Rolling Stone, Coldplay, Sting, The Police, Abba, and Queen. "Miles really made the orchestra and strings come to life," says West.

"Remember last year when I wouldn’t stop talking about that album I made? We’ve rescheduled the album release backyard concert party on February 27, 1pm, in Encinitas. Ramona Ault and I and Barry Brown will put on a show and we’ll have us a time. Covid will have waned, we’ll share some food and catch up with each other. I’ve still got almost half a case of CDs. You can get one from me or behind the counter at Folk Arts Rare Records." See Moring's Facebook page for event locale and details.

A new video produced for "beloved," from their recent interrobang album, was directed by frequent Switchfoot collaborator Erick Frost. According to frontman Jon Foreman, "I wanted to set the tone for the album with this song: addressing the listener as you and seeing myself in the face staring back at me. Could it be that maybe we need each other? Maybe we need our differences? ‘beloved’ is a song that attempts to see ‘you’ as you are, rather than as an ‘it’ that can be commoditized or used. Love is only possible in this exchange. In this surrender, this humility, this intentionality." The track was co-written by Tim and Jon Foreman and the album’s producer Tony Berg. Other videos from the new album include “if I were you”, “i need you (to be wrong)”, “lost ‘cause”, “fluorescent,” and “the bones of us.”

"On tour again, risking life and limb just to be with you and play my sometimes-catchy, quite nostalgic, one-of-a-damn-kind songs," says Pinto of his upcoming "Everything I Got" Tour, which just kicked off. The trip includes dates in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, wrapping up March 20 in Virginia. "We'll be offering meet and greets on the bus for some of these dates," says Pinto. "Still deciding, but definitely for Texas and the Southwest."

A Day To Remember recruited Mark Hoppus to sing on a new version of the song "Re-Entry", from their 2021 studio album You're Welcome, which they just released as their latest single. "When this song originally took shape it was without a doubt massively influenced by Blink-182, so when the idea came up to do a remix of sorts for it, Mark was immediately who we pictured," says A Day To Remember frontman Jeremy McKinnon. "We sent him the track with no second verse and said to do whatever he was inspired to do and what he sent back genuinely makes the song for me. My younger self still can't believe it exists."

Frontman Bart Mendoza reports "Manual Scan is playing at the Mods Mayhem Festival taking place June 3-5 in Los Angeles. Other bands include The Untouchables, The Chords UK, The Odd Numbers etc. To coincide with the event there will be a 10-inch limited edition vinyl album of rarities from the bands performing. Manual Scan's contribution is an unreleased version of our song, 'Confidence and Love' recorded in 1985 at Circle Sound Studios."

The San Diego Blues Hall of Fame inductee has reportedly passed away.

"I just released a new album of original music for solo guitar called Mysterious Deep," says the classical jazz guitarist. "One piece, 'Surf Factory,' was written for a locally produced TV show that aired on COX Cable Channel 4 here in San Diego called The Good Food Factory. It's a healthy cooking show for kids and the surf piece I wrote was in the episode that won a regional Emmy award for me and three of my friends who helped produce the show. Several other pieces including the title piece 'Mysterious Deep' were written for a locally produced DVD for Next Generation Yoga that is now distributed by Gaiam."

"Paul Williams' papers, original manuscripts, books, Crawdaddy magazines, and overarching archive, including T-shirts, now has a home in the special collections at University of Massachusetts Amherst," says the wife of the late rock journalist. "This was in the works for the past six years, finding a home. It took a lot of time and sorting and wooing by the great rare bookman Henry Wessells of James Cummin's Books in New York. You can see quite a lot of Henry in the recent The Booksellers documentary. There were some almosts and some near misses, but at last PSW fans and family and friends can be gratified to know it will be cared for and loved under the helm of Aaron Rubinstein of special collections. As soon as Covid has subsided and the world is full of butterflies and sunshine again, Alexander and I will go visit Paul's papers. This is such an important moment for Paul's work. One of the great last things I needed to do for Paul was to find a place where his papers can be seen and referenced by anyone in the public. And cared for."

A funky new single covering Albert Collins' 1980 track "If You Love Me Like You Say" comes from the band's upcoming full-length Let's Straighten It Out!. According to frontman Bob “Sully” Sullivan, "I've been a fan of the blues forever, artists like Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and John Lee Hooker, but Albert wasn’t really on my radar. Then, during the making of this album, we were looking for certain songs about love and found this Albert Collins gem and it was love at first listen. Since then, I’ve become a huge fan of The Iceman, and even though we put a bit of a New Orleans spice on our version, I still wanted to bring in a player really steeped in blues to handle the guitar lead, out of respect for Albert. Fortunately, I knew a young San Diego-based blues guitar phenom, Anthony Cullins, and he came into the studio and cut the track live with us, and absolutely killed it.” Due March 11 via Belly Up Records/Blue Élan Records. the album features ten ‘60s and ‘70s soul, blues, and R&B tunes, curated by Grammy-winning producer Chris Goldsmith (Blind Boys of Alabama, Ben Harper) and tracked at Henson Recording Studio in Hollywood (formerly A&M Studios).

The Woody Radio (Cult of Woody) blog feature Mike Lidskin's Artist of the Year named her as this year's top performer. A new single and video drops on February 24 for "Your Permission," from her upcoming album Start at the End.

On January 4, the Academy Award-nominated actress and singer took part in Eggs Over Easy, a Discovery+ streaming special that "investigates the often taboo subject of infertility in the black community and brings black women together for an enlightening and empowering dialogue about the sometimes unpredictable path to motherhood." Keshia Knight Pulliam narrates the program, which also features black women, doctors, and fertility advocates who share their personal experiences including miscarriage, IVF, ovarian cysts, uterine fibroids, and other reproductive issues.

The San Diego native, currently living in the rural Midwest, collects his books and audio recordings into a series titled We Live Nowhere and Know No One, which unfolds over a variety of novels, novellas, and writing released on vinyl and cassette. His new book After Tonight, Everything Will Be Different takes place in San Diego and features, according to its announcement, "taco shops and rundown beach apartments, on the amusement park boardwalk at 3am, and in cars bound for Tijuana and drunken glory...this is a book of deli sub sandwiches, endless burritos, eggplant parmesan, the magnificence of good sourdough bread, of box brownies and Nacho Cheese Doritos, rolled tacos and the perfect tortilla. After Tonight, Everything Will Be Different is a raging, ecstatic, troubled book that shows a world of food and a world of life, each inextricable from the other."

As Rob Shinno and company work on their upcoming Unity album with guests such as Rebecca Jade, Shinno reports that "The American Dreams album, got 400K+ views and streams, got on 55+ stations on NACC radio. [I] saw the ‘Home’ video hit 55K streams on YouTube today and we sold out our Humphreys show in October. In 2022, we have SXSW in Austin TX, the Unity release with Peter Sprague and Bernie Grundmann, a special original artist showcase, Dudes and Divas, hosted by Donna Larsen and I, and the Hemisphere Art+Dance live show. So great things in the works."

The Frequency Conspiracy features members of Raven, Last in Line, 24-7 Spyz. Members include Seventrain drummer Joel Maitoza, Craig Soderberg (guitars, vocals), and Jaimie Scott (bass). Their Quarantine Covers album contains covers such as "Sailing" (originally recorded by Christopher Cross), "Carry On Wayward Son" (Kansas), "Life in the Fast Lane" (Eagles), and "Hell Bent For Leather" (Judas Priest). Guest players include singer Andrew Freeman (Last in Line, Lynch Mob, Offspring), bassists John Gallagher (Raven) and David Pastorius (Pat Travers, Tech N9ne), guitarists Joshua Jones (Poster Child) and Christophe Godin (Morgibl, Metal Kartoon), and keyboardist Craig Soderberg (-itis, Shockhead). Maitoza's 24-7 Spyz bandmate Rick Skatore also appears. According to Maitoza, “I decided to contact some musicians I’ve always wanted to work with and record an album of cover tunes with a hard rock metal vibe. The songs are some hand-picked favorites of mine that I thought everyone involved could have some fun with and the fans would enjoy hearing. It all started releasing two videos in 2020 featuring Last in Line/Lynch Mob vocalist Andrew Freeman and it just took off from there. I recorded the drum tracks in the studio by myself without any music, just a click track and the arrangement in my head. Then I sent the tracks out to the individual musicians I wanted to have perform on the songs. The artists recorded their parts in their own home studios and sent them back to me. It was amazing to hear how each musician interpreted and performed their parts and the songs just evolved.”