In his novel Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon writes about an author who is writing about writing, both Chabon and the fictional author ignoring the adage discouraging authors from writing about writing. That’s how I feel writing about Nick Hornby writing […]
Robbie Fulks is a decorated country star, admired bluegrass picker, international male model pictured in the pages of GQ, presiding officer of the Greater Chicagoland Michael Jackson Fan Club — and now, living proof that geezerhood happens to the best […]
The shows, exhibits, and Martin Scorsese-produced PBS documentaries set for autumn broadcast in this Congressionally-proclaimed “Year of the Blues” are intended to show blues as a varied, living form that continues to impact American and global music across a broad […]
On her last visit to the West Coast, in early 2002 and many months pregnant, Kasey Chambers had collapsed onstage in San Francisco, prompting the cancellation of the Seattle finale to a month-long U.S. tour. The Australian singer-songwriter made good […]
For years, it seems Minnesotans have waited for the Jayhawks to become rock stars. It started with the critical buzz surrounding 1992’s Hollywood Town Hall, picked up speed when “Blue” became a minor hit in 1995, and was fueled by […]
Iron And Wine’s 2002 debut album, The Creek Drank The Cradle, is no longer great. It used to be great, in a small, Southern-Gothic-meets-Nick Drake sort of way, but that is just not the case anymore. Very good? Indeed. Great? […]
The 15th annual conference of the North American Folk Music And Dance Alliance pledged allegiance to that most exemplary of folk singers, Woody Guthrie. Because the Folk Alliance gathered this year in Nashville, the meeting had the added benefit of […]
On my childhood Sundays, I’d join a couple of friends on seats’ edge, front pew at Bethel Baptist Church. As the piano and organ played the old familiar chords, we’d join our eager but errant voices with those of tolerant […]
Eleni Mandell was in high school when she discovered that country music and run-ins with the law sometimes go hand-in-hand. “I was a huge X fan,” Mandell begins. “So when the Knitters happened, I went and saw them.” Although her […]
With extended music videos culled from TV origins, we get mainly (even on DVD) concert films and maybe a little bio, or documentaries with “selected” cut-up performances. Results vary as the usual imitations are overcome. Ryan Adams Live in Jamaica […]
