There has historically been much talk, in Texas anyway, about what it means to be a Texan, what defines Texan-ness, what tie could possibly bind the scattered peoples within those far-flung borders. The answer is this: That which defines Texanity […]
The first thing you notice at a Domino Kings show is the mile-deep fullness of their honky-tonk sound. Their music is as real and natural as breathing. Between songs, you suddenly notice they could not only travel comfortably in a […]
“Some gotta wiiiiiin, some gotta loooooose…” When Danny O’Keefe stretches out those words in the classic chorus to his 1972 hit “Goodtime Charlie’s Got The Blues”, it can settle a chattery barroom to a reverent hush, his soaring tenor floating […]
Despite coming of age in the late-’60s/early-’70s — when seemingly every other lead guitar player with a few months of spotlighted solos under his belt would split off to front his own band — exemplary guitarist and first-rate songwriter Danny […]
On those days when it is possible to believe that art matters, it is also necessary to remember what it costs: Everything. Every last damn thing. Yes, it is possible to win big, to become an international sensation, to have […]
You don’t want to go down that old dirt road. That hundred yards of 45-degree incline pocked and puddled by yesterday’s monsoon wants something more agile than a nine-year-old Ford. A mule maybe. At the foot of it, though, is […]
1 Emmylou Harris, Red Dirt Girl (Nonesuch) 2 John Hiatt, Crossing Muddy Waters (Vanguard) 3 Johnny Cash, American III: Solitary Man (American) 4 Ryan Adams, Heartbreaker (Bloodshot) 5 Willie Nelson, Milk Cow Blues (Island) 6 Merle Haggard, If I Could […]
Carter Family Fold: The place to be After reading about the Carter Family Fold (ND #13, Jan.-Feb. 1998), my girl and I decided to take a trip down there and check it out for ourselves. We camped nearby the night […]
Our most recently concluded presidential lottery is the first for which I might Constitutionally have been eligible. It is, remember, no longer required that one be a landed white male to stand for that office, but one must still have […]
No one who has seen Ray Price & the Cherokee Cowboys in the past three decades will forget the band’s pianist, Blondie Calderon. Besides serving as leader and arranger for one of the most respected bands in American popular music, […]
