“Bean Blossom ain’t gone, is it?” Jimmy Martin bellowed from the stage. “It’s just now gettin’ started real good!” Five miles north of Nashville, Indiana, sequestered in the mild, lush hills near the Hoosier National Forest, the Bill Monroe Memorial […]
For some players, music is ultimately just a stop along the road. I’m reminded of many aspiring musicians I’ve known over the years who eventually gave up the ghost and moved on: the Doctors’ Mob guitarist who’s now a record-store […]
Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee. — St. Augustine How many times have you read a record review with the word “longing” in it? “The longing in her voice was palpable.” “Few write with such […]
On the fourth floor of a hundred-year-old white brick warehouse in downtown St. Louis, Nadine has a practice space, a 24-track recording studio, and a comfortable lounge area outfitted with early-’60s sofas, a console stereo of the same approximate vintage, […]
Ray Mason has spent his life pulling rock ‘n’ roll music out of his beat-up Silvertone guitar and Peavey Mace amplifier. Mason’s country-gentleman smile seems to dwarf the green Silvertone, making it seem like half a guitar. And the Mace […]
On either end of Rosavelt’s new record, Transistor Blues, you can almost hear the sound of a finger turning the page of an engaging book. Signaling the band’s gutsy rock intentions, “Channel One” ignites the record with feedback, distortion and […]
For their first Sunday show at the Little Red Hen, a classic country bar in Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood, the Souvenirs played to an audience of six — ten if you count the employees. But something happened on the way […]
Tom Piazza’s provocative portrait of bluegrass legend Jimmy Martin, originally written for the Oxford American, has been reissued in slightly amended book form by Vanderbilt Press/Country Music Foundation. True Adventures With The King Of Bluegrass has been expanded with additional […]
Reading this updated edition of Joe Klein’s assiduously researched, elegantly written bio, I can’t help but think there’s one flaw: He got the title wrong. First released in 1980 and now updated to include last year’s Billy Bragg/Wilco collaboration Mermaid […]
Though a seemingly endless line of talented Texans have helped Austin remain a roots-music mecca for decades, the city’s pool of talent has grown considerably deeper through the relocation of artists from other regions of the country. A good case […]
