Oklahoma may be known as the birthplace of Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire and Vince Gill, but the Red Dirt Rangers lay claim to being the state’s real music ambassadors. Throughout the ’90s, this engaging bunch of alternative-country misfits has crisscrossed […]
If you want to find Kim Docter and Mike Luke’s Wicker Park residence on the near north side of Chicago, do what I did. Look for the Winnebago parked out front and find the apartment with their bloodhound Baloo, standing […]
“[We don’t want to] wear touring as a badge,” Honeydogs’ guitarist Tommy Borscheid clarifies during a recent discussion on the benefits of touring for a young band. “It’s just something that people do.” And although Tommy’s right that most bar […]
It’s Monday. I’m sitting home alone, watching “Melrose Place”, and I’m not happy about it. But I tell myself it’s for a good cause; I’m waiting to catch the Go To Blazes song hidden somewhere in tonight’s episode. It’s an […]
I can still hear them blaring in the back of my mind, those gleaming brass trumpets and trombones, thrusting right and left, toward one end zone and then the other, as the University of Texas marching band zipped through “The […]
The roots-rock tag sometimes can be a kiss of death, implying a backwards-looking, almost academic rehashing of sounds that once were. But the Derailers look backward with vigor. A museum piece they ain’t. “My grandpa worked on the railroads,” says […]
There’s a fine line between intimate expression and melodrama, and Richard Buckner toes that line. His songs gracefully walk the tightrope between beauty and tragedy, leaving a lot up to the imagination. They’re full of personal references and insider information, […]
The Buckets know all about the road well traveled. Actually, they were founded on the concept of the wide open road. “The band is really based on the American ideal of truck driving,” says Earl Butter, the Buckets’ songwriter and […]
In the shadow of the new metroplex behemoth (what one distinguished local has dubbed “Y’all Hall”) emerging from a block-wide hole lies a serious strip of American music history. Known as Lower Broad, this is where giants once walked among […]
“It’s whiskey-swilling, chainsaw-swinging, psycho-killing, gospel singing rock and roll,” Angry Johnny explains to me about his band’s music. “I guess.” Poor guy. He’s been dumped, screwed over, abandoned by managers, dumped, promised, pushed around, and dumped again. You’d think that’s […]
