Video Feature & Web-Exclusive Interview Musician:  GRACE PETTIS Video Premiere:  “I TAKE CARE OF ME NOW”      DOWN TO THE LETTER WITH AMERICANA’S WORKING WOMAN GRACE PETTIS   by Rodeo Marie Hanson An American juvenile cinéma vérité, reminiscent of 1985’s The Breakfast Club, unfolds within every school’s granite and brick corridors, monochromatic carpeted classrooms and institutionalized cafeterias. In this microcosm,... 

  Musician: NOBODY’S GIRL Video: “Waterline”  NOBODY’S GIRL KICKS OFF BLUE ROCK’S COOL NIGHTS 21 THIS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21 Nobody’s Girl (Grace Pettis, Rebecca Loebe, BettySoo) will be featured at the Blue Rock aLive! Cool Nights 21 live streaming concert series—this Thursday, October 21. You can buy a Season Pass for only $105—and have a seat in the house by sending in your headshot. They will place the large headshot on a... 

Video Premiere & Web-Exclusive Interview Artist:  MANIKA KAUR Video:  “Liberate Me”  WORLD MUSIC SONGSTRESS MANIKA KAUR PREMIERES BEAUTIFULLY HAUNTING “LIBERATE ME” Manika Kaur is a leading contemporary performer of Sikh “Kirtan” music. As the very first person to place Kirtan in the World Music Charts Europe with views of her videos running in the millions, Manika’s music has received overwhelming praise from the global Sikh... 

GINNY BLACKMORE HOMETOWN: Auckland, New Zealand INFLUENCES: Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Lauryn Hill ALBUM: Due out late fall WEBSITE: ginnyblackmore.com New Zealand native Ginny Blackmore remembers precisely the moment she decided to be an entertainer: She was 9 and sitting in a movie theater captivated by Lauryn Hill’s performance in Sister Act 2. Blackmore was raised in a religious family and had little knowledge of secular music. “It... 

ROZZI CRANE HOMETOWN: San Francisco, Calif. INFLUENCES: Lauryn Hill, Outkast,Destiny’s Child ALBUM: Rozzi Crane EP, out now WEBSITE: rozzicrane.com Rozzi Crane began performing while she pursued her degree at University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music in L.A. “I’d play anywhere they’d let me,” she says. “Whether it was a dorm Christmas party or a formal USC event, I’d do it, because I love performing.” After earning... 

NAS   The enduring hip-hop storyteller’s latest title becomes his mantra    Several months after releasing his 10th studio album, Life Is Good, Nas is revisiting the title. “I was watching TV the other night and saw this woman had survived pancreatic cancer,” he says. “I was barely listening, because my mom passed from breast cancer, and sometimes it’s just too hard to watch. But I heard her say, ‘Life is good,’ and I thought, ‘If... 

SHANNON LABRIE HOMETOWN: Lincoln, Neb. INFLUENCES: Bob Dylan, Lauryn Hill, James Taylor ALBUM: Shannon Labrie EP, out now WEBSITE: shannonlabrie.com The daughter of an opera-singing mother and guitar-playing father, Shannon Labrie took to music early—she astounded her first vocal coach with her four-octave range, and began writing classical piano pieces as a child. She got her first guitar at around 10 and began learning chords from her dad, who...