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Talkhouse

It’s a Beautiful Day and I Love You carries harmonic and emotional heft in the vein of Patty Griffin’s Flaming Red or Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark. There’s an open-heartedness in the Nashville-based Jillette Johnson’s songs, the kind of deeply experienced inner peace that results from a journey through vulnerability, pain, and struggle to gratitude, forgiveness, and, ultimately, acceptance. “I was in control,” Johnson sings on the album’s opening track, but “that was many moons ago.” Johnson’s a rare gem in Nashville, having written the entirety of It’s a Beautiful Day and I Love You alone, running contrary to the common Music City practice of co-writing. She did, however, find herself drawn to the city’s creative adage of “three chords and the truth” — though in Johnson’s case, it’s more like a dozen chords, especially on the harmonically elegant title track.
(Photo Credit: Betsy Johnson)

Jillette Johnson

Music

Three Great Things: Jillette Johnson

The Brooklyn-based, Baltimore-raised songwriter Aaron Frazer first came into the international spotlight as multi-instrumentalist and co-lead singer for <a href="https://deadoceans.com/artists/durand-jones-the-indications/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Durand Jones &amp; The Indications</a>. He penned some of the group’s most notable tracks, including &#8220;Morning In America,&#8221; and sang lead on &#8220;Is It Any Wonder?&#8221; – the latter an instant sweet soul classic anchored by Aaron’s falsetto, which caught the ear of producer and Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach. Frazer’s debut album, Introducing…, will be out Jan. 8.
(Photo Credit: Alysse Gafkjen)

Aaron Frazer

Three Great Things: Aaron Frazer

Hong Kong-born writer-director Wayne Wang’s latest film <a href="https://www.outsiderpictures.us/movie/coming-home-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coming Home Again</a>, an intimate family drama starring Justin Chon and Jackie Chung, is now in virtual cinemas through Outsider Pictures. Wang established himself as a Chinese-American storyteller with his first two films, the acclaimed indies Chan is Missing (1982) and Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (1985). Given his upbringing in Hong Kong by traditional Chinese parents, Wang is often identified with films about the Chinese Diaspora, including the film adaptation of Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989), and The Joy Luck Club (1993), the iconic Chinese-American film that crossed over to a mainstream American audience. However, Wang has also made such independent features as Smoke and Blue in the Face (both 1995), two collaborations with novelist Paul Auster starring Harvey Keitel and William Hurt. In 2002, Wang made the romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan, starring Ralph Fiennes and Jennifer Lopez, and also worked with Jeremy Irons in Chinese Box (1997), Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman in Anywhere But Here (1999), and Queen Latifah in Last Holiday (2006). In 2007, Wang returned to his Chinese roots with a double feature about two women from two different periods of New China, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and The Princess of Nebraska, and in 2011 directed Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, based on the bestselling novel by Lisa See.

Wayne Wang

Film

Three Great Things: Wayne Wang

Austin, Texas-based duo MISSIO entered the studio late last year to record  new album Can You Feel The Sun with longtime collaborator and producer Dwight A. Baker (Brandi Carlile, Bea Miller, Bob Schneider) feeling inspired to write new music after a sold out headline tour in the UK helped them realize the global impact of their music. Across the 10 tracks, MISSIO grapples with addiction (singer Matthew Brue is in recovery), anxiety and depression – topics that reverberate with their tightknit community of diehard fans (the band launched a <a href="https://www.missiomusic.com/mafia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">site</a> this month to provide a safe space for fans to support each other online). With guest appearances from hip hop icons Paul Wall and Esoteric of Czarface, Can You Feel The Sun focuses on the drive to heal after acknowledging and accepting your personal struggles.
(Photo Credit: Alexandra Thomas)

MISSIO

Three Great Things: MISSIO

Jocelyn Mackenzie is a Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter, percussionist, songwriting coach, artist, and stylist. She will be releasing her first full-length solo album PUSH on January 29 via Righteous Babe Records. The album was written for string quartet, voice, and synth percussion about healing through radical self-love and for this project she collaborated with Sam McCormally, Emily Hope Price, Franz Nicolay, Adam Schatz, Jo Lampert, Barrie Lobo McClain, and more.
(Photo Credit: Ester Segretto)

Jocelyn Mackenzie

Three Great Things: Jocelyn Mackenzie

Ariel Rechtshaid is Grammy Award-winning producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. He’s worked with a diverse roster of artists, including Adele, Haim, Sky Ferreira, Vampire Weekend, Charli XCX, Brandon Flowers, Madonna, Tobias Jesso Jr., Usher, Carly Rae Jepsen, Cass McCombs, and Justin Bieber among many others. Rechtshaid co-wrote and produced Usher’s 2012 single, &#8220;Climax,&#8221;, which won the 2013 Grammy Award for Best R&amp;B Performance. In 2014, he was nominated for a &#8220;Producer of the Year&#8221; Grammy and won for his production on Vampire Weekend&#8217;s Modern Vampires of the City, which was awarded &#8220;Best Alternative Music Album.&#8221; And in 2017 he won for his production work on Adele&#8217;s 25, which was awarded &#8220;Album of the Year.&#8221; More recently, Rechtshaid won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album for his production work on Vampire Weekend’s Father of the Bride and he produced Haim’s latest and critically lauded and career-defining new album Women In Music Part III.
(Photo Credit: Ashley Beliveau)

Ariel Rechtshaid

Three Great Things: Ariel Rechtshaid

Life On Planets is the solo project of singer/guitarist Phill Celeste. Melding soul, R&amp;B, and house in his original productions; the artist’s eclectic sound took him from the streets of Baltimore to cities the world over. Join Phill as he weaves live performance with electronics to spread messages of truth, love and consciousness across dance floors. Life On Planets’ latest release is a collaborative EP with Taylor Bense called Glowstick.

Life On Planets

Three Great Things: Life On Planets

Craig Roberts is a British actor, director, writer and producer. His second feature as writer-director, <a href="http://www.samuelgoldwynfilms.com/eternal-beauty/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eternal Beauty </a>starring Sally Hawkins, David Thewlis, Billie Piper, Alice Lowe and Penelope Wilton, is out now on digital and on demand through Samuel Goldwyn Films. Roberts’ directorial debut, Just Jim (2015), starred Emile Hirsh opposite Craig, who also wrote the film. As an actor, Roberts’ breakthrough role was playing the lead in Richard Ayoade’s 2010 coming-of-age drama Submarine, which won him rave reviews and awards such as the London Critics Circle Film Award for Young British Performer of the Year. Roberts starred as the lead in three seasons of the hit Amazon Prime series Red Oaks, produced by Steven Soderbergh and David Gordon Green, and starred in Rob Burnett’s The Fundamentals of Caring, opposite Paul Rudd and Selena Gomez. His other notable screen credits include: The Current War, Neighbors, Richard Ayoade’s The Double, 22 Jump Street and Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre.

Craig Roberts

Three Great Things: Craig Roberts

Bryan Devendorf, founding member and drummer for The National, recently released a self-titled album under the name Royal Green. Royal Green was co-produced with Nate Martinez and recorded in Brooklyn, NY. The eight-song album features original songs as well as some surprising covers. It includes the single “Breaking The River,” a breezy jam that features additional guitar from The National’s Aaron Dessner, and some groovy bass playing from Bob Weir Campfire Band bandmate, Josh Kaufman.

Bryan Devendorf

Three Great Things: Bryan Devendorf

Kodi Smit-McPhee currently stars in the sci-fi thriller 2067, which is available on digital and on demand through RLJE Films. Born in 1996 in Adelaide, Australia, Smit-McPhee started acting at the age of nine. He dropped out of high school in his first year to pursue acting and currently resides in Los Angeles as does his father Andy McPhee and sister Sianoa Smit-McPhee, who are also actors. Smit-McPhee is known for his roles in The Road, Let Me In, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, X-Men: Apocalypse, and the lead role in the prehistoric film Alpha. His upcoming revenge Western The Power of Dog will be directed by Jane Campion and costars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons. Smit-McPhee is a master of emotion and is deeply entrenched in philosophy, freemasonry and creative artistic expression.

Kodi Smit-McPhee

Three Great Things: Kodi Smit-McPhee

Paradise Lost is the latest release from Brooklyn-based, Ohio-hailing 30-year-old electronic pop musician John Jagos. A lush journey through oceanic textures and gorgeous, tactile synths, Paradise Lost charts Jagos’ perspective of optimistic existentialism, his lovely cloud of a singing voice hovering over the proceedings and radiating emotional honesty.
(Photo Credit: Alec Castillo)

Brothertiger

Three Great Things: Brothertiger

Aya Cash currently stars in Josh Ruben’s film Scare Me, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and is now streaming on Shudder. She can also be seen now in the second season of the Amazon original series The Boys,” and recently appeared as Joan Simon in Fosse/Verdon, the Emmy-nominated FX limited series starring Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams. Her additional TV credits include the critically acclaimed FX comedy series You’re the Worst, for which she was nominated for the Critics&#8217; Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series and the TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy, and Joe Swanberg’s Netflix anthology series Easy. She has also been seen in films such as The Wolf of Wall Street, Sleepwalk with Me, The Oranges and Game Over, Man! She splits her time between New York and Los Angeles.

Three Great Things