Press — M Lockwood Porter

M. Lockwood Porter – How To Dream Again After a snippet of “The Preacher and the Slave” and the sound of amps warming up M. Lockwood Porter and band kick into a rocking rumination on the current state of the American Dream. “American Dream Denied” is a bold choice for an opener for an artist whose considerable strength lies mostly in his well constructed lyrics and mastery of delicate melodies.  It’s a fitting intro to an album that might be a bit more angry than the previous album, 27, and it shows that Porter is as comfortable with loud guitars...

M. Lockwood Porter - "Sad/Satisfied" M. Lockwood Porter wears his heart on his sleeve. His 2014 release, 27, offered a brilliant, cerebral narrative on heartbreak and existential crises. However, after two years of touring and reading progressive writers like Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Thomas Piketty, the Yale University English and American-history graduate has returned with a penchant for the political and an unabashed desire to bring activism and themes of social justice back to the forefront of contemporary music. His latest offering, How to Dream Again, was just released Sept. 15 via Black Mesa Records. and is courageous and moving while eloquently capturing the...

M LOCKWOOD PORTER: HOW TO DREAM AGAIN Based in Berkeley, California, Oklahoma-born M. Lockwood Porter fits comfortably into the tradition of American folk troubadour protest singers while also mining the more musically aggressive territory of punk-country and roots-rock. His latest, How to Dream Again, offers strong examples of both as well as a lyrical focus on social injustice and activism that blends the personal and the political.As the title hints the ambiguity and ambivalence of the American dream casts a large shadow over the songs, kicking off (after a revival tent intro) with guitars ringing and drums pounding on American...

M Lockwood Porter Masters the Political Album It's an election year, so it should come as no surprise that there's going to be a lot of political music floating around out there this year. You can have your opinions about that, but I'm always down for a good protest song. M. Lockwood Porter, recently emancipated from his classroom duties, has armed us with a some truly great ones. For me, the political songs that resonate the most are the ones that strike that perfect balance between immediacy and timelessness. (For example, I'm not such a huge fan of Two Cow...