Listening to Shotgun Driver’s new EP, “Jester Privileges”, is like finding a glitter bomb in a padded cell. The four songs present a disorienting, strangely compelling contradiction. On the surface, the alt-pop framework pulses with an upbeat, almost defiant energy; this is the slick, rock-tinged anxiety of a Machine Gun Kelly track built for open-road brooding. But beneath it, the narrative, carried by those...

Bruce Sudano, a native son with big dreams, an American music legend, he has written songs recorded by the likes of Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, and his late, Grammy-winning wife, Donna Summer. Sudano not only writes songs but also runs the record label Purple Heart Recording Company. Sudano's first band was founded when he was just 13 years old, marking the beginning of his...