After two tribute albums, a TNN documentary, consistently great television appearances and recharged concert performances, the stage was set for Merle Haggard to deliver something as undeniably vital and eventful as Johnny Cash’s American Recordings. Haggard’s new album, 1996, isn’t […]
The seeds of alternative country, or country rock, or No Depression, or whatever you may choose to call it, were arguably sown in 1965 when Bob Dylan decided to use the Hawks as his backing band. Dylan, growing bored of […]
Nowadays, it seems almost every musician in the incestuous Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Triangle music scene moonlights in at least one country band. Two of the Triangle’s better side-project bands opened this show for Dallas’ Old 97’s, who were as charming as […]
Since Uncle Tupelo split and moved on, and The Bottle Rockets left town to tour about 366 days a year, the question has been nagging: Is the community that spawned these seminal bands still vital? By the end of the […]
For the second year in a row, winter was a little warmer in Seattle, thanks to this weekly series of midweek gigs by bandleader Ron Bailey and his cast of local yokels yodelin’ and pickin’ and moanin’ and grinnin’ through […]
For the last few years, Drivin’ ‘n’ Cryin’ frontman Kevn Kinney has come up to the Northwest during the holidays to visit his father and play a few shows with his old friend from Georgia, Peter Buck of R.E.M. Kinney’s […]
“Ladies and gentlemen…Jack Logan & Liquor Cabinet.” Doesn’t quite have the impact of “…The Rolling Stones,” but if the band continues to roll out the raging full-on show on display recently, it could. It was a revelatory live experiences, and […]
A throng of friends stood mid-floor in the barn-like structure that plays home to the Student Union at the University of Texas during SXSW last March, and watched Lucinda Williams tear up the place. Sure, the band had only rehearsed […]
Monday night. It’s cold. I have one operational windshield wiper, and one headlight. I’m very sick of seeing snow. In this case, it’s that dirty snow that builds up on the sidewalks after the plows have their way. It’s five […]
For two mild winter nights, S.P.I.T.T.L.E. Fest (that’s Southern Plunge Into Trailer Trash Leisure and Entertainment, folks) transformed Raleigh’s premier frills-free nightspot, the Brewery, into a dance held at the grange hall on the other side of Mayberry’s tracks. Loosely […]
