Multimedia, Mississippi: It doesn’t take much of a metaphorical mind to conceive of Mississippi River geography in terms of the development of American music. In 1919, a seventeen-year-old German-American boy got onto the deck of the Sidney, a Mississippi riverboat […]
It was billed as a “Songwriter’s Night”, not “Lilith Fair, Jr.”, but one wouldn’t know it from the heavy turnout of the female gender on this particular evening. One reason for the hormonally imbalanced crowd could have been the presence […]
The Delmore Brothers and the Louvin Brothers have long since passed into history as performing duos. But while Don & Phil Everly will always be seen as newcomers compared to these earlier brother harmony groups, they honored the past with […]
Friday the 13th didn’t toss any black cat voodoo at the bubbling cluster of four-wheel-drive yuppies stuffed into St. John’s Pub for a rare appearance by “Snockgrass” troubadour Michael Hurley. Backed on bass by former Holy Modal Rounder — a […]
Eric Andersen entered the public eye over 30 years ago as one of the leading lights of the Greenwich Village folk scene. Generally less political and certainly less prolific than Dylan (my god, who wasn’t?), Andersen nevertheless made a huge […]
This evening was a homecoming of sorts for “Whisperin’” Bill Anderson, who grew up in nearby Columbia, South Carolina. A regular on the Grand Ole Opry since his debut in 1961, Anderson brought the Opry to the Opera on this […]
Freedy Johnston, Peter Case, and Alejandro Escovedo — “a three-headed folk monster,” to use Johnston’s phrase — concluded their cross-country tour with a loose but sharp performance in the intimate backroom of McCabe’s Guitar Shop that underscored their significant yet […]
St. Ann’s Church on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights was an appropriately hallowed setting for this tribute to the late British folk-rock icon Sandy Denny. The church is a national historic landmark that houses the first figural stained glass windows […]
Singer and mandolin player John Duffey had the voice of an angel trapped inside the body of a professional bowler. A large man with a perpetual crewcut and a penchant for loud shirts and polyester, Duffey cut an imposing figure […]
1 Lyle Lovett, Step Inside This House (Curb/MCA) 2 Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road (Mercury) 3 Son Volt, Wide Swing Tremolo (Warner Bros.) 4 Bob Dylan, Live 1966: The Royal Albert Hall Concert (Columbia/Legacy) 5 Billy Bragg […]
