It took me a few days to notice the parallel, when I heard around mid-October that Butch Hancock was reviving his old self-run record label, Rainlight, to release his latest album. A little over a year ago, Butch left the […]
It took me a few days to notice the parallel, when I heard around mid-October that Butch Hancock was reviving his old self-run record label, Rainlight, to release his latest album. A little over a year ago, Butch left the […]
Right back at ya: Letter about a letter “I have to wonder if perhaps the alternative C&W and American roots music press has become infested with under-educated, under-experienced fans who fancy themselves to be writers, critics and chroniclers…” So reads […]
1 Steve Earle, El Corazon (E-Squared/Warner Bros.) 2 Bob Dylan, Time Out of Mind (Columbia) 3 Wayne Hancock, That’s What Daddy Wants (Ark 21) 4 The Blasters, American Music (HighTone) 5 Fred Eaglesmith, Lipstick, Lies & Gasoline (Razor & Tie) […]
“Mostly it’s the spaces between things where I feel comfortable. There are not usually crowded places.” With those words, Picking Up The Tempo: A Country Western Journal was launched more than two decades ago, its debut issue a mere eight […]
FAREWELL, ANASTASIA: It was an emotional evening at a packed Schubas Tavern on October 21 as Chicago’s alternative country community bid farewell to the club’s talent buyer, Anastasia Davies. During her five-year stint, Davies booked hundreds of great bands, including […]
“The seed is the word of God.” Luke 8:11 David Eugene Edwards composes alone, picking out brooding and intense melodies on his accordion, on his banjo. “I play until I find something that strikes me and then I bring it […]
“Oh man, it’s amazing, it’s opened up new neural pathways in my brain!” That’s what Willie P. Bennett had to say about Blackie & The Rodeo Kings, the tribute band that had just released a CD titled High Or Hurtin’, […]
“When death starts beating the door down, you need to be reaching for your shotgun,” Johnny Cash advises near the conclusion of Cash: The Autobiography. “And when you know he might be in your part of town, which is true […]
The Carter Family Fold lies tucked away within a rumple of the earth in the far southwestern tip of Virginia. Located in Scott County’s Poor Valley, a narrow crease of land that runs between the massive Clinch Mountain ridge to […]
This is how it happened: A stack of cassettes clattered onto whatever was between them and the floor, and so in the annoyance and the cleaning one finally slipped into the deck. Out of the speakers, then, came one of […]
FRESH TRACK: Lilly Hiatt – “Shouldn’t Be”Check it out
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