Baltimore Maryland’s June Star (Andrew Grimm and Dave Hadley), with aching vocals and plaintive folk arrangements, comes off like a Smog-era Bill Callahan if he had chosen to dive inward or The Jayhawks if they were more keen to stark emotional realism. Grimm’s rich baritone voice and Hadley’s atmospheric, elegiac pedal steel brings a time-honored aesthetic to their unique tales of fractious love, quixotic anxiety, and the looming shadow of death. June Star has performed throughout the south, east coast, and midwest. 

AMANDA ROGERS

It takes something wonderful, if not miraculous, to transform a room of conversation and doubt into a hush of attentive silence. It happened a few years ago at a show in Syracuse, NY. Droves of young concert-goers had waited in line to see New Found Glory, Saves The Day and Piebald. Opening this show was a young and breathtakingly beautiful girl with a piano. The girl and piano weren’t exactly identical fare to the guitar riff, great hair, pop/punk bands that would take the stage afterwards. By the end of her first song, however, a pin drop could be heard, until deafening applause and overwhelming surprise flooded the showplace.

Among her fans are Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba and Onelinedrawing singer/songwriter Jonah Matranga. Amanda and Jonah have performed together on several occasions on both the East and West Coasts, collaborating on crowd-thrilling renditions of The Beatles “In My Life” as well as songs by The Sugarcubes and Bob Dylan.

After playing clubs and indie venues and moving on to large scale college festivals, Amanda Rogers went out to California to record her second album with Grant Capes (30 seconds to Mars, Spark Lights The Friction, Explosions in The Sky, Long Since Forgotten). The Grant Sessions EP was followed up by three albums she released On Immigrant Sun Records: The Places You Dwell, Daily News and Something Borrowed, Something Blue EP. In 2004, the same year Amanda released Daily News, she joined the band Jupiter Sunrise, although the group disbanded in 2006. Now Amanda is back in the studio as a solo artist.

Regardless of whether you encounter her live in concert or catch one of her recorded songs, Amanda Rogers may just restore your faith in singer/songwriters