by Jane Lambert

The Free States Let the Songs Do the Talking on “Love & Death”

There is something to be said for music that doesn’t immediately tell you what it is. In a world of genre tags, carefully curated aesthetics and songs apparently designed to make perfect sense within the first fifteen seconds, it is rather nice to encounter an album that seems perfectly happy to wander off and see what happens. No map or flashing neon sign saying this is the important bit, just a collection of ideas allowed to develop at their own pace. And that, in a nutshell, is rather what The Free States are doing on Love & Death.

The project of American songwriter Shaun Lyons, now based in Athens, Greece, The Free States has always been difficult to squeeze into one particular musical box, and frankly, why would you want to? There are traces of rock, soul, alternative music, experimental rhythms and a healthy appreciation of melody, but attempting to reduce all of that to a convenient label would miss the point. Lyons is interested in songs first.

“Definite” is a particularly good example. Built around the wonderfully human problem of being indecisive at a crucial moment in a relationship, it moves in 7/4, which is not generally the time signature one reaches for when trying to make uncertainty sound comfortable. But it works. There is an ease here that makes the unusual rhythm feel natural, while the song itself manages to be thoughtful.

Then there is the opening track “Most of All,” apparently born at three in the morning while Lyons’s electric guitar was lying beside him with the amplifier still switched on. Which is probably proof that sometimes the best songwriting advice is simply to leave the equipment where it is and see what happens. The song has a lovely sense of longing running through it, while strings, a refrain and a guitar solo give it a little more space and help distinguish Love & Death from the more guitar driven album that came before it.

Elsewhere, “Man the Baddies” brings considerably more muscle to the proceedings. What began around thoughts of war, friends being conscripted and the complicated question of what it actually means to move forward. It is energetic, rhythmically unusual and probably the heaviest thing The Free States have recorded, but there is no neatly packaged political statement waiting at the end of it. Lyons is more interested in the uncomfortable business of making decisions, which is rather more interesting than having the songwriter hand you a conclusion and ask you to tick a box.

Lyons has talked about songwriting as something that needs to happen before consciousness starts getting in the way, and there is freedom in that approach.

There is a similar freedom in the way the album was made. Recorded largely in Athens, with drums captured in several different rooms and vocals recorded together in another, Love & Death is clearly more interested in capturing a good performance than in constructing some immaculate sonic monument. Lyons makes much of the music himself, working with trusted collaborators when required, and there is something appealingly old fashioned about that. You have an idea, you make the record, you listen to it and you decide whether it works. Revolutionary stuff apparently.

Love & Death is an album that can groove, can rock and it can become rhythmically peculiar, it can pull back and allow a melody to carry the weight and it can occassionally make you wonder where on earth Lyons is taking you before realising that you rather like the journey. The Free States have remembered that the scenic route is where the interesting stuff happens.

Listen here:

09.02.26

by Jane Lambert

VIDEO VOYAGEUR: 3 Q’s WITH WINCHESTER 7 & THE RUNNERS

There is a particular kind of magic in music that sounds familiar as well as entirely its own. Winchester 7 & The Runners understands that balance instinctively, drawing on the energy of garage rock, the melodic instincts of classic songwriting and the sun soaked spirit of surf music, while placing the unlikely sound of an electric tenor ukulele right at the centre of it all.

This is a project that is playful without being lightweight, carefully crafted without losing its sense of spontaneity and firmly rooted in the belief that a great song should still be able to cut through the noise.

We caught up with Winchester 7 & The Runners for this exclusive interview to talk about the creative thinking behind the project, the making of the music video and the inspiration behind “The World From My Bed”, and what lies ahead for the band.

Watch the Official Music Video here:

1. Tell us the story of this track. Why did you choose to visualize it specifically in this way?

The song started innocently enough. My family was talking about how much of current events my teen daughter learns about on Tiktok and its often dubious accuracy. I thought how much of a change that represents to our communications and how, generally, weak people’s innate critical reasoning can be. So, I started writing from a perspective of a “it was this, now it’s that” sort of thing.

But, that sort of song starts to sound like cranky old man shouting at clouds pretty quickly whereas I was more interested in the contrast than suggesting that one was better than another. I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but older news media has made its share mistakes of too – like how Dungeons & Dragons is deadly or that time when Martians invaded.

Anyway, with all of that in mind, I latched onto the idea that rotting in bed is also, these days, not the same isolated thing it once was. And there I had the title with a bridge written from an imagined perspective of my daughter’s.

So, we set out to shoot a video that borrowed some of those themes in a time travelly sort of way.

2. What was the inspiration behind this new video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?

Something you may not have picked up on is that the trunk on the album cover for our EP No Worse For Wear which is also shown in the video – as an aside, that’s the actual trunk that my great grandfather brought over with him from Northern Italy when he immigrated to the US – was previously seen in a video for our song “The Golden Age”. One in the back catalogue.

Anyway, in that one, Jack opened the trunk and got out a device that he used to time travel back to the ’50s to visit my grandparents on a vacation of theirs to what appears to be Atlantic City, in an effort to escape COVID lockdown. Hey, it was a nice thought!

In reality, we were all stuck together for the bulk of it as travel restrictions happened right after we all got together to record.
So, at the end of “Waitin’ Here For You”, Jack finds his time machine again, after rummaging his way through the thing, and we all get a bit of a surprise. The video for “The World From My Bed” picks up from there with me (Win) shown stuck on a bed in some sort of time pocket with some surreal stuff happening just outside the window that I mostly ignore.

3. What was the process of making the video?

I wanted to create a video that built upon the prior video release for our song, “Waitin’ Here For You”. We shot the album cover while filming that video in the same session. We sat on the couch for some stills and then started to do our thing as the song played in a continuous shot.

“The World From My Bed” was shot right after that to keep some continuity.

The World is literally seen from my bed outside that time window, as I rot away with my uke, phone, and a good book. We then added some footage of feature vocalist Airinna Namara, who sings the bridge, in said window and got our video!

Keep up with Winchester 7 & The Runners on the Website

08.19.26

by Jane Lambert

Remembering Blind Boone: Ken Lovern Turns History Into Music

There is something fitting about ending a story with a song called “Good Things.” After the hardship, uncertainty and extraordinary circumstances explored throughout Blind Boone the Musical, Ken Lovern’s fourth and final single arrives with a sense of warmth and forward motion. It settles into the groove and lets the music do what it does best – brings people together.

At the centre of the track is Lisa Henry, whose vocals give “Good Things” its human warmth. There is an easy to her performance that immediately draws you in. She is surrounded by the unmistakable sound of OJT (Organ Jazz Trio), the Kansas City organ-jazz outfit with whom Lovern spent more than thirteen years performing at the city’s Green Lady Lounge.

That history matters. Lovern isn’t approaching organ jazz as an aesthetic borrowed for the occasion; it is part of his musical vocabulary. The Hammond organ sits comfortably at the heart of the arrangement, giving the track its earthy character while the rhythm section keeps everything moving with the relaxed confidence of musicians who know exactly where the groove is. And then there is Robert Rebeck’s shaker.

It might sound like a small detail, but it is precisely those details that give “Good Things” its personality. The shaker adds another rhythmic layer to the arrangement, contributing to the sense that this is music made to be experienced physically. You can feel the pulse as much as hear it.

Listen here:

The emphasis on groove is central to Lovern’s wider approach. His work on Blind Boone the Musical has never been about creating a museum piece reconstruction of nineteenth-century music. Instead, he takes the history of Boone and filters it through the musical traditions that have shaped his own life: jazz, ragtime, blues, gospel, classical music and contemporary American sounds. “Good Things” perhaps captures that philosophy better than any of the previous singles.

The earlier releases have taken listeners through very different chapters of Boone’s story. “Quindaro” looked towards his family’s history and the search for freedom. “School for the Blind” explored the young Boone’s developing musical abilities. “Boone Plays It Back” introduced the virtuoso and the extraordinary talent that would eventually make him a celebrated performer. Here, the atmosphere is different.

That doesn’t mean the track ignores the complexity behind Boone’s story. Quite the opposite. The warmth of “Good Things” feels more meaningful because we know what has come before it. Boone’s achievements existed alongside blindness, racism, exploitation and the many barriers faced by Black performers in nineteenth and early twentieth-century America. To end the project’s sequence of singles with a song that embraces optimism feels less like glossing over those realities and more like acknowledging the resilience that allowed Boone to overcome them.

There is also a pleasing circularity to the release. Lovern began this project after discovering Boone’s story almost by accident, becoming fascinated by a musician who had once been famous enough for a Kansas City theatre to bear his name but had since slipped from popular memory. Now, through these songs, Boone’s story is being placed back into the musical conversation. “Good Things” works because Lisa Henry’s vocals, OJT’s organ driven groove and Rebeck’s percussion combine into something loose, soulful and unmistakably alive.

And perhaps that is exactly how this chapter should end. Not with a solemn farewell, but with real groove. Not with the past being put to bed, but with the feeling that there is more music still to discover. With “Good Things,” Ken Lovern closes the singles campaign for Blind Boone the Musical on an uplifting note.

About Ken Lovern

Ken Lovern is a Kansas City based composer, jazz organist and storyteller whose work blends the influences of jazz, ragtime, blues, gospel, classical and American roots music. He is the creator, composer and lyricist behind Blind Boone the Musical, an original historical musical fantasy exploring the life of Missouri pianist and composer John William “Blind” Boone.

Lovern has spent more than three decades performing and composing across a wide range of musical styles. For more than thirteen years, he played Hammond organ with his group OJT (Organ Jazz Trio) at Kansas City’s legendary Green Lady Lounge, performing four or five nights a week and becoming a familiar presence in the city’s celebrated jazz scene. His jazz compositions can also be heard across numerous OJT releases, including the album Ground Level.

With Blind Boone the Musical, Lovern combines his experience as a live jazz musician with theatrical storytelling to bring the remarkable story of Blind Boone to contemporary audiences. The full project, including vinyl and CD editions and a companion graphic novel, is set for release September 2, 2026.

08.14.26

by Jane Lambert

VIDEO VOYAGEUR: 3 Q’s WITH KEN LOVERN

Some of the most important moments in a person’s life happen before anyone knows what they will become. A child displays an unusual gift, someone takes notice and a single act of encouragement can alter the course of a life. For John William “Blind” Boone, one of America’s great musical pioneers, that moment came when a former Confederate general recognised something extraordinary in a young boy and decided he deserved the opportunity to develop it.

“School for the Blind,” the third single from Kansas City composer and jazz organist Ken Lovern’s Blind Boone the Musical, tells that remarkable chapter in Boone’s story. Set in post Civil War Missouri, the song explores Francis Cockrell’s efforts to persuade the people of Warrensburg to help nine-year-old Boone travel to St. Louis to study music at the Missouri School for the Blind.

The accompanying video brings that history into the present, combining artwork from the project’s companion graphic novel with archival photographs, historical imagery and footage of the musicians recording the song.

We caught up with Ken to talk about the remarkable relationship between Cockrell and Boone, the importance of showing the community that helped nurture the young musician’s talent, and the creative process behind bringing this pivotal chapter of Blind Boone the Musical to life on screen.

Tell us the story of this track. Why did you choose to visualize it specifically in this way?

In the song “School for the Blind,” former Confederate General Francis Cockrell is convincing the town of Warrensburg, Missouri to help young John Boone attend the Missouri State School for the Blind in St. Louis.

After the Civil War, Blind Boone’s mother, Rachel Boone, finds employment in the home of Francis Cockrell. Cockrell is immediately taken with young John Boone. Boone is a cheerful, charming, and enchanting child, and he imitates bird calls and other sounds he hears. Boone plays the tin whistle and forms a musical group with the other neighborhood children. He is a very talented child with a lot of potential.

Cockrell becomes a champion for Boone, and arranges for Boone to attend the Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis where Boone can study music. Cockrell convinces the town elders to help him finance the education and the train fare to St. Louis. In the fall of 1872, nine-year-old Boone travels alone 225 miles to St. Louis. While Boone only attended this school for a few semesters, this time was instrumental in developing his ability to play piano. Francis Cockrell was correct when he realized that Boone had talents that deserved cultivating, and he convinced an entire town to help.

What was the inspiration behind this new video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?

I wanted to show the musicians creating the music for this track, and I also wanted to tell the story of the town of Warrensburg supporting young John Boone.

What was the process of making the video?

I used images from the Blind Boone the Musical comic book and historical images to help tell the story. I was particular interested in trying to explain Francis Cockrell’s motivation in helping this child of a former enslaved person.

I used video images captured during the recording of the track to show the musicians. My intent was to weave the musician images with the historical images and comic book art to convey the captivating story of Blind Boone.

Keep up with Ken Lovern and Blind Boone the Musical here.

08.14.26

by Jane Lambert

VIDEO VOYAGEUR – 3 Q’s WITH ZOEY MADISON

For Zoey Madison, music has never been confined to what we hear. The New York based R&B-pop artist approaches her work as a complete creative world, where sound, imagery, storytelling and personal experience all have a place. With her latest single, Love Like You, that vision becomes particularly vivid.

A beautifully arranged piano ballad that grows into a sweeping production of strings and layered vocals, the song traces the experience of finding yourself through relationships – and confronting just how much of yourself you can sometimes give away in the process. But the story doesn’t stop when the music ends. Madison has created an accompanying visual world drawing on her fascination with 1920s design, classic Hollywood and the surreal, otherworldly atmosphere of The Twilight Zone.

It’s an aesthetic that reflects an artist who has a clear idea of where she wants her music to take her. From the initial mood board to the finished video created with graphic artist Monique Mendoza, every frame has been considered as part of a larger artistic identity.

We caught up with Zoey to talk about the story behind love like you, the meaning of its pivotal bridge, her fascination with old Hollywood and why building a visual language around her music is just as important as the songs themselves.

Tell us the story of this track. Why did you choose to visualize it specifically in this way?

The song is a journey of finding yourself through new relationships culminating in my favorite part of the song, the bridge which demonstrates that sometimes we put ourselves through a lot to stay with people we love. I chose to visualize it through compilations of things I love like 1920’s type graphics, old Hollywood which I’m very passionate about and images reminiscent of the twilight zone to give it another worldly feeling.

What was the inspiration behind this new video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?

I have always had a very particular view of what I want my brand and artistry to look like concerning my music. Visuals are very important to me. The various frames of the video were put together intentionally in such a way as to capture not only the mood of the song but advance the image I am trying to achieve.

What was the process of making this video?

I put together a mood board reflecting the images I found to represent my brand and what images of my brand I wanted my song “Love Like You” to convey. Working with graphic artist Monique Mendoza, we were able to put together a video which felt authentic to me as an artist.

Keep up with everything Zoey Madison on her Website

07.16.26

by Jane Lambert

VIDEO VOYAGEUR: 3 Q’S WITH KEN LOVERN

When Ken Lovern set out to create Blind Boone the Musical, he wasn’t simply writing songs. He was uncovering an overlooked chapter of American history. Through an ambitious blend of jazz, theatrical storytelling and historical research, the Kansas City composer and jazz organist is bringing the remarkable life of Missouri pianist John William “Blind” Boone to a whole new generation.

The project’s latest single, “Quindaro,” shifts the focus from Boone himself to the courageous journey of his mother, Rachel, bringing together the story of the Underground Railroad, the historic free state town of Quindaro, and the events that ultimately shaped one of America’s most extraordinary musicians. Accompanied by a striking visual narrative that combines original comic book artwork, archival imagery and footage from the recording sessions, the release demonstrates the scale and vision behind Blind Boone the Musical.

We caught up with Ken to discuss the inspiration behind “Quindaro,” the symbolism woven into its music, the creative process behind the video and why preserving stories like Blind Boone’s has never been more important than now.

Tell us the story of this track. Why did you choose to visualize it specifically in this way?

Quindaro is part of the story of Rachel Boone as told in the musical historical fantasy, “Blind Boone the Musical.”

The song’s setting is just before sunset in late Summer 1863, near Miami, Missouri in north central Missouri. A group of escaped and freed former enslaved persons, called “contrabands” by the Union Army, are heading west to Kansas in search of freedom and a better life. Their immediate goal is to reach the river port town of Quindaro on the Kansas side of the Missouri river and a known stop on the Underground Railroad. They sing to tell their story and their reasons for heading to the Free State of Kansas.

At dawn, the freedom seekers continue walking west to Quindaro. Rachel twisted her ankle the previous day, and it has swollen through the night. She is unable to walk. She will remain in central Missouri and give birth to John William Boone, who will become the prodigy and performing legend “Blind Boone.”

The cowbell beat that begins Quindaro is a standard “bell pattern” that forms the basis for much of the music of sub-Saharan Africa. The migration of this cross-rhythmic figure into the Americas introduced new rhythms to American music that did not exist in Europe. Some musicologist trace the “swing” of American blues and jazz to this pattern.

In the song Quindaro, the bell pattern remains consistent while the underlying pulse of the shaker and the bass drum alternate from a 6/8 beat to a 4/4 beat. Shifting the underlying pulse from 6/8 to 4/4 symbolizes the forced migration of the Africans to the Americas.

What was the inspiration behind this new video (visuals , storyline, etc.)?

The video features art from the companion comic book, video from the recording sessions, photos, and historical maps and drawings. My goal was to tell the story of the freedom seekers along with the experience of the musicians. The viewer can see through the maps and drawings the perilous journey from the Missouri side of the river at Parkville to the Kansas side of the river at Quindaro.

What was the process of making the video?

To create the video, I drew on images from several sources. To present the story of Blind Boone the Musical in a clear and linear manner, I collaborated with Gutter Studios to develop a comic book adaptation.

While recording Quindaro, I filmed videos of the musicians performing. I interspersed those videos with the comic book images and vintage maps and drawings to visually tell the story.

The video represents the dramatic story of freedom seekers from one hundred and sixty-three years ago and the joy of musicians performing today.

Connect with Ken Lovern and Blind Boone the Musical HERE