The cover of Fender Benders, the fourth novel by Bill Fitzhugh, shows a skeletal hand on an electric guitar, a visual reminder of the title’s double meaning. It’s a foreshadowing of what’s to come: murder, romantic betrayal, revenge, drug use, […]
Paul Brewster, tenor singer and guitar player with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, wants to be clear — very clear. “I haven’t got any plans to leave Ricky,” he says. “I don’t want people to get the idea I’m going […]
It’s possible you’ve been exposed to the Possibilities, or at least part of them, without realizing it. They were Jack Logan’s band when he toured in support of his 1999 release Buzz Me In, and they backed him on his […]
Aaron Riches looks out the window of a Toronto doughnut shop at the season’s first snowfall and smiles. In a few hours, his band, Royal City, is to play a CD release party for their second album, Alone At The […]
All it takes is one idiot to ruin a show. And on this particular Saturday at New York City’s Rodeo Bar, where the Star Room Boys are halfway through their set of raucous, crushing country music, the idiot in question, […]
A good case could be made for Stephen Bruton as the reigning “hardest-working man in showbiz.” Though Spirit World, released February 26 by New West Records, is just his fourth album since 1993, his overflowing workload with other artists borders […]
It is a summer day in 1975, and 76-year-old DeFord Bailey, the legendary harmonica pioneer of the Grand Ole Opry, is sitting on the porch outside his apartment entertaining visitors. Today he has decided not to play the harp, and […]
Legendary R&B vocalist Rufus Thomas, whose hits included “Walking The Dog” and “Do The Funky Chicken”, died in Memphis on December 15. The singer, along with his daughter Carla Thomas, are featured in D.A. Pennebaker’s upcoming documentary Only The Strong […]
Bluegrass may have been born on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, but it grew to adulthood in a complicated setting, sustained by audiences found in country music parks, urban hillbilly dives, and — especially after the mid-1960s — […]
“I’ve been around long enough, trying different things, and kind of hanging in the background, watching how things go, and now that I’m finally putting my chips on the table — it feels cool.” So says singer, songwriter and multi-threat […]
