The music world has been turned on its head in 2020 and that is no exception for great non-profit community organizations like Amplify My Community. But their cause has not gone away, and so they have had to be creative in finding new ways to raise money – hence, the twice-monthly streaming show supporting its mission to fight poverty in the community. Fortunately, Amplify has great friends in the Atlanta music scene including area favorites The Bitteroots who are debuting their new recording “Time To Spare” live on Thursday August 20 on Amplify’s Summer Streaming Series. The single is available on all major streaming platforms.

As a founding member of The Bitteroots, Mike Davis has been half the rhythm section of the band throughout its 12-year history, playing stages around the Southeast and performing on each of the group’s half-dozen recording projects. He has also drummed for other artists, including making regular onstage appearances behind Decatur-based singer-songwriter Mike Killeen.

This summer Mike has stepped out from behind the kit and released an entirely solo EP under the alias The Howling Tourists.

This year of 2020 has seen a stream of COVID-19 related memes and posts asking if the year can get any worse. In the middle of it all, Decatur-based singer-songwriter Mike Killeen offers up a positive answer, his recent single “Turn Out Fine.”

Mike Killeen’s latest album ‘Ghost’ is filled with nine fresh, heartfelt, instantly-likeable songs. There is no haunting specter lurking here. Mike says “The title is not directly linked to the songs, even though many of them are about memories. ‘Ghost’ just seemed like an interesting word. I certainly thought of it as looking forward, not backwards – like something that always will be, not simply something that used to be.”

DISCLAIMER: At AMGV we have not done any true record reviews. Good, objective record reviewing is a rare skill, not unlike that of a spirits reviewer who can tell me there are hints of crème brulee, bacon bits, and peach cobbler with a peppercorn finish when all I taste is bourbon that I either like or do not like so much.

However, we like to make readers aware of new art from the fine folks we have featured in the Grapevine, and if we cannot offer up donnish descriptors or grandiose expositions, we can at least give you some of our impressions.

In August, we profiled Papa Jack Couch as he was preparing a listening party for his new album Witness Tree (click here for story). The album is out now, and the record release party is October 12 at 8:30 P.M. at The Alamo, 19 W Court Square, in Newnan.