The Real Deal Music Review: Jill Cohn – Heartstrings Touching The Ground

By Brian Rill

Jill Cohn’s eleventh album, Heartstrings Touching The Ground, is only three years old, and is already out of print. However, there are some hard copies on line and it is also available digitally via www.jillcohn.com, along with her other ten albums, more info and downloads. The album was recorded in New York by Grammy Award winning producer Malcolm Burn, who has worked with some huge names. He also is credited with backing vocals, guitars, piano and bass. His resume includes credits with Iggy Pop, John Mellencamp, Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris just to name a few. Burn captured Jill’s sound respectfully keeping the organic style that most fans of Cohn’s have come to love. Jill has a very soft succulent voice that drips into the microphone with aplomb. Her breathy vocals are layered over a minimalist arrangement of acoustic instruments and sparsely played snare drums that lend the prefect balance for her delicate style.

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Mark Rostenko: An American Songwriter

Photo by Paige Madden

By Joe Stone

At first glance, Mark Rostenko may seem like one of the least likely people to win a nationwide songwriting contest. While he’s been involved with music for a long time and has been playing for fun with a local jam group for a number of years, he only started taking his music seriously thee to four years ago. Even then, it took encouragement from a friend before he “got more serious” and began creating his own songs. Now, a little over a year later, American Songwriter has awarded the Cotopaxi, Colorado, resident grand prize in the magazine’s 2016 Lyric Contest for his song “Billy (Off the Line).” First glances can be deceiving, and for this writer, it only took one conversation and a listen to Rostenko’s lone demo to realize he’s the real deal. He is a man fulfilling his destiny to write and perform music that can make a difference, music that can change people’s lives.

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