French indie rocker and self-taught multi-instrumentalist Julie Peel writes smart, well-crafted folk rock with a pop sensibility reminiscent of Aimee Mann, Neil Young, Beth Orton and Feist. Julie’s debut album...

A dirty slide across acoustic guitar strings. The amplified harmonica and dancing piano keys. The jumping bassline and call-and-response solos. Loose, bluesy vocals. This all equals the infectious, highly replayable...

Derek Clegg, a one-man writing, recording, and producing machine out of Chicago, had sent me a message over at Last.FM the other night – something about a free album. Naturally I’m always curious when someone...

We had originally discovered the originality of the musical duo RUE ROYALE a few short years back via our Chicago show here at the network. Named after a road running through the Chicago suburbs, the duo of Ruth and...

From their 2008 album Folk Songs Today we bring you a song by Insomnia Radio: UK favourites Plunkett, the independent alternative folk rock duo formed in 2004 by singer-guitarist Ian Plunkett and ex A&R and...

[audio:https://insomniaradio.net/audio/irdetroit30.mp3] IR Detroit is finally back, and bringing you a great interview with an incredible singer/songwriter, Vince Smith! Subscribe here! Download MP3 Don’t forget to...

If you are familiar with Akron/Family, you will know they are a folk-influenced experimental rock band that formed in 2002, and its members currently live in New York City and Williamsport, Pennsylvania. All of the band...

Brilliant pop with tinges of soft rock, folk and lysergic jangle. From their recent EP The Soft Skin. The brown recluse spider or violin spider, Loxosceles reclusa, is a well-known member of the family Sicariidae (formerly...

From their limited-to-300 run colored vinyl 7″ and digital EP released on September 1st, 2009 Childhood and Chance brought them together. Through a series of fortunate accidents we formed Saintseneca, Columbus...

As its title would lead one to believe, the Black River Killer EP contains the disturbing and great song “Black River Killer” from Blitzen Trapper’s excellent Sept. ‘08 full-length album Furr. What is...

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros is a sizable indie folk-revival formed by Alex Ebert of Los Angeles electro-rock group ImaRobot, an endeavour that started to take shape after the musicians separated from Virgin...

Ryan Sollee: “I moved to Portland in the fall of 2003 from Alaska with my band at the time, The Born Losers, which played rockandroll/punk. After playing a ton of shows and a bit of touring with a lot of expectations, it...

Good Old War, an indie folk-rock band from Pennsylvania, is made up of Keith Goodwin, Daniel Schwartz, and Tim Arnold. The band was started after Days Away (former band of Keith and Tim) went on hiatus; Schwartz previously...

Today’s Double Shot pinpoints two sets of musical roots spread out over a few separate areas of Northern California, and is partially inspired by a creative commons poem by Mill Valley, CA resident Peter...

In honor of our fathers past and present today, we are providing a track by one of the friends to the network – Orlando band, The OaKs.  Here’s a bit of back story on their previous release, Our Fathers and...

[audio:https://insomniaradio.net/audio/dailydose/irdd-nelo-footsteps.mp3] For Matt Ragland, primary songwriter and acoustic guitarist, the release of their debut album, nelo, was a dream nearly 10 years in the making;...

Drew Danburry is a musician who has toured independently and released records independently for approximately five years or so. He can’t remember all the specifics of his wack life, otherwise we’d know all the...

Copenhagen artist Peter Broderick is like the Swiss Army Knife of musicians; compact, elegant, multipurpose. What sets him apart is his restraint. With an arsenal of talents at his disposal, he prefers to reveal only one...

After putting out two records under the name taught the rabbits – “one but just another” (2002) & “mallet and watch” (2005) – Adam...

Seattle, Washington’s Hey Marseilles plays simple folk songs, interweaving orchestral instrumentation with melodic musings on time and place. Having garnered favorable reviews since their formation in late 2006,...

Sgt Dunbar and the Hobo Banned is an indie-folk band and large part of Albany’s B3nson Recording Collective. The band has been in existence for a little more than 3 years and written and recorded over 100 songs and...

March 17th – St Patrick’s Day. Marc Gunn’s song will tell you something you might not know about “The Patron Saint of Beer” Irish and Scottish folk singer/songwriter with a strange...

Austin’s ‘The Lovely Sparrows’ blend lush, complex arrangements with sing-along choruses that bring to mind glorious folk-inflected pop and well-written novellas. They self-released a 7inch single in...

For one week only, Insomnia Radio: UK leaves its assumed Indie Roots, and takes on an Acoustic, Folk and Folk Rock mantle. Actually, I enjoyed putting this together, and might do another some time. Or another single genre...

An overdue Insomnia-laden journey has left us saddle-sore as we have traveled long and far these last few months in order to document a motley assortment of musicians.  We uncovered them amongst the wild trappers of...

From the small working class community of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Peasant is the pseudonym for Damien DeRose, a talented singer-songwriter specializing in his own beautifully haunting yet minimalistic style of indie...

Meredith Godreau of Gregory & The Hawk is a native New Yorker skilled in both piano and violin, and has independently released a CD selling over 15,000 copies, inspiring multiple several YouTube tribute videos along...

Brooklyn, NY based group Lowry just released their debut album Love is Dead on Engine Room Recordings, and its a devastatingly romantic glimpse inside the world of this indie folk quintet. Today’s feature, One Thing,...

The year is obviously 2008, not 2005 as the evil announcer at the show header describes. Yes, as you will quickly notice, there is some sort of robotic, computer, and videogame nerdery meshed together unseamlessly in this...

In 2004, Peter Acuni of Connecticut formed Birdmonster with three other San Francisco musicians.  They released an EP, debut full length, and are now back as of August 2008 with their second widely anticipated full length...

With vocals swimming into the mystic range of Van Morrison and even Vedder or Duritz, San Luis Obispo’s Still Time adeptly soaks up a variety of rock, folk, jazz and reggae influences and styles in the ever-widening...

Starting out with a few appearances at a local open-mic showcase, Bag of Toys has quickly risen up the San Francisco venue circuit by entertaining the masses at venues such as The Independent and Slim’s while sharing...