For as long as she can remember, Ashley Rivera wanted to be a singer. When she was in pre-school, she recalls her teacher, Miss Angela, asking what she wanted to be and she said “a singer” and Miss Angela and the kids clapped for her and she knew it was possible.

Ashley looks like a rock star – dark hair, slight figure, mesmerizing eyes. The first time I saw Ashley sing, she was the front for a cover band and was all of 23 years old; her soulful and yet rocking voice and stage presence went far beyond her years. She has spent a number of years singing with cover bands and doing studio work in Nashville and Atlanta, but her heart is for her original music.

Most musical performers believe that before playing out that some practice is time well spent – Chuck Berry excepted. If you are a performer and want a break from playing among the lawnmowers, tools, and boxes of your garage, or maybe you just want to play through some cool equipment in a space designed for music, you should check out Atlanta Rockstar Rehearsals [ARR].

Katie Martin released a new album Hope this past Valentine’s Day and you should listen to it.  For anyone who has followed her, the record is all you could hope for (no pun intended): the melodies, the lyrics, the vocal delivery, the production are all a linear step forward from her previous releases, but the unique core of her initial ear-grabbing artistry, the voice that can convey a wide range of emotions, are all still there.

Hey! Welcome to Atlanta Music Grapevine. I am glad that you found us.

I truly enjoy and am often amazed by the creative, talented people in music – artists of all genres for sure, but also the talent in music services whether the sound engineer who knows microphone placement, or the builder of custom amplifiers, or the band manager who foresees the next raw talent, or the venue owner who creates a unique vibe that attracts both fans and musicians. All of these can be found in abundance in Atlanta and out mission at Atlanta Music Grapevine is to tell the stories about all of them, and to connect them with each other.

In the past 20 years, our city, Atlanta, has almost doubled in population and there is no end in sight to that growth. The result is more home-grown talent, more talent moving here, and more places to hear live music. Any style of music you want is here. Finding it, on the other hand, is not always so easy. We are spread out and the various metro area neighborhoods can sometimes feel insular and disconnected, we want to make sure that you, our reader, begins to feel more connected with the Atlanta music scene by providing in-depth stories about the people and places in Atlanta that come together to create a vibrant music scene. In this world of Tweets and rapid-fire news updates, Atlanta Music Grapevine wants to properly tell a few stories at a time and commit the appropriate depth and focus to do so.

We are working on many cool stories, this site will be a work in progress and there will be some adjustments along the way, but we wanted to get started with some stories that will whet your appetite for more.

Your input matters, so please write to us with any suggestions for artists, venues, service providers that you would like to see covered. If you have a story idea and you want to write it and take the photographs yourself, reach out, we will make it happen.

Music is meaningful. It can be many things to many people. One thing that it is is joyful. Another is it is fun. Atlanta Music Grapevine looks forward to being part of your music consciousness and spurring a lot of fun as we grow together.

Here’s to our cool town and cool tunes.

Jeff Siewert

Chief Music Fan