Editor’s note: A few months back, I made my first visit to New York’s modest, humble, yet quickly-becoming-famous Lakeside Lounge, a bar co-owned by Eric Ambel, who’s profiled elsewhere in this package of articles about producers. Ambel was gone that […]
At the time I wrote it, the line was no more than a cursory guess on my part. In wrapping up a review of Neal Casal’s sublime Fade Away Diamond Time in the Winter ’95/’96 issue of this magazine, I […]
“It’s Just That Simple”, John Stirratt’s high lonesome moment on Wilco’s debut, suggested that singer-songwriter talent in the band ran deeper than frontman Jeff Tweedy. Further recorded proof was a different matter, at least until Stirratt and bandmates Jay Bennett […]
It’s not unusual for artists to feel the need to reinvent themselves. Throw in some personal hardships, and you have a story that has been told many times, but still rings true on occasion. For Portland singer-songwriter Fernando Viciconte, the […]
Molly Malone’s can be a brutal place to have a gig. Veterans of the tiny stage in this otherwise comfy neighborhood pub in L.A.’s Fairfax district are quick to recommend playing electric, and loud, because unless you’re playing Irish traditionals, […]
In the silence we heard only whispers. Not exactly the response I’d imagined when we chose to put a previously unpublished photograph of two blackface comedians and Hank Williams on the cover of our last issue. In the end, we […]
At first glance, the front cover of Ithica Gin’s Alembic — the best strum-and-twang/sturm-und-drang debut I’ve heard so far this year — is a mystery. There’s no album title, no band name; just a picture of some hard-to-identify object. “That’s […]
Strumming, banging on all manner of stuff — from organ keys to lacquer-thinner cans — blowing horns, and speak-singing colorful sound/word picture stories and moments in time, Lambchop is an informal Nashville ensemble of ten or so players. Their combination […]
The map of West Texas is dotted with towns bearing names such as Plainview, Levelland and Grassland. In this case, each word is worth a thousand pictures. Marking the southern boundary of the Great Plains, West Texas is big, and […]
The story of George Glenn Jones and his voice is the story of country music. In the rough Big Thicket of 1930s and ’40s East Texas, Jones grew up idolizing the country’s first national success stories — Roy Acuff, Bill […]
