Music
Ben Gage Shares a New Chapter with Soulful, Porchlight Reverie “Flyin'”
With his new single “Flyin,” Ben Gage invites listeners to relax, take a deep breath, and escape into a somber state of reflection. Apt to its title, this song does not walk but quarter-jog in an unstoppable clip swept along by a warm breeze of blue folk textures that sound like the sonic version of an old rocking chair on a serene porch.
“Flyin’” exists there, in the excellent space in between, where late-night soul searching and simple, heartfelt melodies find comfort with each other. From the first few strums, you feel as if you can see the stars emerge through your twilight curtain, the summer night air cooling your skin. Gage’s delivery is refreshingly honest. There is a lot of flashy overproduction or unnecessary layers here, a completely open heart, and what feels like a song written for the listener, rather than to them.
The laid-back groove of the beat also runs through the song like a steady heartbeat line, giving Gage’s voice and lyrics room to shine. His voice is filled with the wisdom of miles traveled, but the story never burdens it. Instead, it soars, spirals, and, appropriately, flies not trailing off so much as leaving the listener with a wistful longing for something hovering just beyond the horizon.
What makes “Flyin’” so special is its timeless and intimately personal nature. It’s not reinventing the wheel but leans hard into the authenticity of folk-blue traditions, making space for a very modern vulnerability. If there’s a verb for such songs, it’s “haunt.” This kind of song you find getting under your skin, a week and a half later, settling into your bones soon after the final chord dissipates.
Ben Gage created a mood, a space you can return to whenever life is a tad too fast or heavy. “Flyin’” is a call to stop, to breathe, and to allow yourself to float for a moment. It’s a small, defiant act against the sound of the world, couched in a melody that flows as easily as a conversation between old friends.
Artist Spotlight
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” finds a new direction through Ghost of Panama
Rearranging a song that carries six decades of cultural weight is a creative challenge, but Ghost of Panama approaches “Subterranean Homesick Blues” with clear purpose. The rock band radically reworks Bob Dylan’s counter-culture hit, reshaping its identity while keeping its rebellious spirit. It’s a tribute to musical heritage and a statement of artistic independence all in one.
This new interpretation is very much shaped by the production, made at Ghost of Panama’s home studio in West London. The setting allows an intimate approach to reinterpreting a familiar song and lets the group engage directly with the material, taking it in a new artistic direction.
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” centers on the tension between conservation and transformation. Ghost of Panama is true to the song’s rebellious spirit without adding to its legacy, and this approach gives the release an adventurous feel, grounded in countercultural energy but driven by a desire to see what the composition can become in a different musical context.
Their version of this 60-year-old classic shows that respecting a song’s history can also mean breaking the rules and finding new ways to express its spirit. Fundamentally, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” presents Ghost of Panama as artists who want to engage with the past without being tied to it. The release’s strongest identity is a familiar heritage reimagined through a singularly forward-looking creative vision.
Artist Spotlight
“NO MORE” by Amanda Holley connects healing, awakening, and survival
“NO MORE“ carries that kind of emotional weight, and some songs feel like they come from lived experience but reach for something bigger. Amanda Holley blends R&B and soul, turning a lifetime of survival into a vision of healing, awakening, and the determination to move beyond what caused the pain.
“NO MORE“ is a healing anthem for people who have gone through bad experiences and reached a place of higher awareness, but it’s also an emotionally charged protest. The duality is introspective and outward-looking at the same time, turning personal survival into a broader declaration that some experiences, conditions, or cycles should end.
Holley had a premonition of the song six months before the world went into global shutdown. In the vocal booth, working out melodies with her collaborators, she pictured people in the streets. Those images were hard to imagine at the time, but subsequent events would make them painfully familiar.
“NO MORE“ is given a particularly contemplative underpinning by the context. The identity of R&B and soul leaves room for emotion. The song’s themes link survival, awakening, resistance, and the need for change. Amanda Holley is an artist using music to process personal endurance and a broader sense of social awakening. It’s got a complicated significance, and its release feels like a glimpse of a moment when personal intuition and public reality collided in an unexpected way.
Photo Credit: Yulia Shusharina
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