LOUISE GERI
 

This has been a crazy season. I’ve committed to this blog (and journalism in general) big-time and have so many pieces I’m pushing out. Even with so much going on, one of the types of articles I do that I try not to take for granted is my seasonal roundup of music recommendations by women.   Admittedly, this winter was a little dry. Winters tend to be. Artists are wrapping up their projects and starting new ones as the new year begins. They’re not often rolling out an album i

When I approach Eloise Rixey at a Nashville coffee shop on an early March morning, the first thing I observe about the singer/songwriter is that she looks straight out of an indie-downtown-girl-cottagecore Pinterest board. This impression of her is quickly supported by the revelation that she’s a music business major with a legal studies emphasis and a philosophy minor. “I'm from St Augustine, Florida…. it's got one of the best music scenes, I would argue, in the world,” she

When Americana singer/songwriter Monica James picked up the phone on a spring break afternoon, the first question I asked her was not the typical “How are you?” but rather, “Where are you?” I could hear a soft, incessant noise in the background. As it turned out, she was on a Florida beach. “I figured if I’m going to be on the phone, I might as well be on the beach,” she laughed. This is Monica for you. Her primary goal as an artist, beyond wanting to make people feel seen by

Alina for the catching lightning  photoshoot, photo by Lucy Bates. Nearly a year after leaving Belmont University and signing a record deal with Columbia Records, Alina announced her first-ever official Nashville show at the Exit/In, promoting her latest EP, catching lightning . A couple hours prior to the show, I had the chance to chat with her over the phone. Right off the bat, I felt like I’d known the singer for years. Last year, I developed a deep attachment to her song

This autumn was one of my strangest ones yet. For the first time, I entered a season without a single person I’d known for more than two months, in a city that was completely new to me. It was a total clean slate, and the soundtrack music was bound to become formative. Here are the women who defined my first autumn as an adult!                   To pick up right where we left off on my summer music recap, Sabrina Carpenter was hands down the biggest artist on my mind. I won’t

I have been cooking a post like this up for years and I have finally gotten it out! Everyone cheer. I think it's Elle magazine that does these. In 2019, Taylor Swift put out a piece called "30 Things I Learned Before Turning 30", and I've been making similar lists for every birthday since I turned sixteen. What really got me to do it was Lily Kincade, an artist I interviewed a couple months ago for this blog. While deep in conversation about journaling, I mentioned wanting t

Since starting at Belmont University in August, I’ve kept my eyes peeled for ways women’s voices are being lifted. In December, my friends Emma Harger and Annie McNamara started River & Row Management, an independent DIY-management company run by women. Both Harger and McNamara are extremely driven. Harger has experience managing live music through working with community-oriented nonprofit music groups like Wisconsin’s Stevens Point City Band. McNamara, who, like me, has shif

What a time to be experiencing the Grammys this year! Last year, I watched with my mom in our living room while my sister hated on every artist as I actively defended them. This year, I’ll be watching from a dorm room in Nashville with a couple friends who share my music taste at a (mainly) music school. Here are the women (as a reminder, women are the focus of my blog) that I think will win each of the big four categories at the Grammys this year. Album of the Year Bad Bunny

One of the most interesting musical developments I’ve made over the last few months has been exploration of the bluegrass subgenre of country. A good friend of mine, Lilly Martin, is a bluegrass fiddler, and has opened my eyes to what I’ve found to be a satisfyingly formulaic type of music. While flying from my hometown back to Nashville after winter break, I listened to Sierra Hull’s latest album, A Tip Toe High Wire. Here are my thoughts! The album cover for A Tip Toe High

Running a blog oriented around women in music, I face an annual dilemma of how to contextualize my ranking of my top five albums of the year. If you recall, I labelled this circle “Relatives of Taylor Swift” last year. But this year’s ranking had a major unexpected caveat: there’s a brand-new Taylor Swift album that I had no desire to include – surprising because her last three albums all topped my rankings for their respective years. But with this in mind, the biggest common

When Lily Kincade, a glamorous LA-based pop artist, approached me outside of a Nashville coffee shop on an early November evening, I had a gut feeling that the talented woman I was about to speak to was going to give me more than just background on her work. As Kincade and I sat down, I got a good look at her outfit. Kincade’s staple look is many a girls’ dream. It’s her reality both online and in-person. Her hair is dyed flaming red. She has perfectly styled fringe bangs, d

That time of year has finally come! On December 3, I woke up to the joyous news that Spotify Wrapped was out. I listened to 43,317 minutes of music this year, and here’s who took up the most of those minutes. The Speak Now (Taylor's Version) album cover My top artists This never comes as a shock – I have the same top artist every year: Taylor Swift. I spent 10,622 minutes – about a week, total – listening to her music. Like most years, I was in the top 0.05% of her listeners

Last Sunday, my low Belmont finals week spirits were revived when I opened Instagram and saw fellow Curb College student Lilly Martin doing a slide on the A-string in a “trap grass” fiddle lick and proceeding to do a complex improvised fiddle solo. I commented, “This scratched an itch in my brain” and opened my phone several hours later to hundreds of likes on the comment. The video  was blowing up. One week later, 1.1 million likes and nearly 6 million views have been amasse

I love Audrey Hobert's music largely because it feels like one of the more special pieces of media I indulge in. I’ve been aware of Hobert’s existence for years, as Gracie Abrams has been referencing her in her music since 2020 (see “21”, featuring the lyric, “Audrey said she saw you out past 12 o’clock”). Hobert has been posting bits of her own work for a while, and I’ve looked forward to her official releases, as have many other Abrams fans. Hobert's debut did not disappoin

I first got into Olivia Dean over the summer and was excited to see that she was releasing her sophomore album so soon after I joined her fandom. Opening for Sabrina Carpenter for the final leg of her massive Short n’ Sweet Tour  and recently nominated for the Grammy Best New Artist award, I was intrigued turning on the album this Saturday (I’m evidently not a committed fan quite yet – the album came out nearly two months ago). I rate The Art of Loving an 8/10.   The album c

Sabrina Carpenter is obtaining superstardom in a way that nobody should be shocked by. Man’s Best Friend came out this August, and I wanted to let it sit for a moment before reviewing it.          While I don’t think Sabrina Carpenter’s third studio album with UMG's Island Records is an impeccable album, I think it was a wise business move. Carpenter knows how to make a viral and enjoyable TikTok sound – integral for artists today. The album announcement also made her surpris

Political issues—specifically, misogyny—are all over music. Sofia Isella, a rising alternative-pop singer, cleverly accentuates a far-left standpoint through her lyrics and appearance.          I went to Isella’s Seattle show on the You’ll Understand, Dick Tour this April knowing nothing except the hooks of her three most popular songs – “The Doll People”, “Everybody Supports Women”, and “Hot Gum”. But it was easier to become obsessed with her when all I could do was perceive

I’ve been putting off my summer music recap. I recently moved to Nashville and up until two weeks ago, it felt like summer here. Now it feels like winter. Because of course. The album cover for Virgin by Lorde This summer kicked off splendidly, with the release of Lorde’s fourth studio album, Virgin. I got hooked on “Shapeshifter”, an avoidant attachment anthem. I also love “Broken Glass” and “David”. “Favorite Daughter” has a catchiness I haven’t heard since the 2010s. “Cu

Disappointment has flooded the Internet over the last two weeks. Upon the release of Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl , Swift has faced more backlash related to her songwriting than ever. Here are my die-hard Gen-Z swiftie takeaways. The Life of a Showgirl fits the album as a title. The record is not as much in the pop-rock area as I would’ve anticipated, and a few song topics lose the plot of the lifting-the-curtain theme, but it’s not an awful way to summarize this

Reneé Rapp has had me wrapped around her finger for the last two years. I was ecstatic when Bite Me (2025) was announced, and despite...