Rockabilly revivalism, a tribute to a vogue and a dinner theater of the damned, has not produced much compelling music. Among the herd of amiable necrophiliacs attracted to the subculture, there is little fresh thinking, and few good players. But […]
Forget country, alternative, hot, young or old. Set aside generation, class or education. For that matter, forget music. Johnny Cash was a seminal figure of 20th-century American culture. Like Hemingway or Sandburg, Bogart or Warhol, he was one of those […]
“Joan Baez could have been in this song,” Steve Earle says as he picks the gentle arpeggios of “Christmas In Washington” on his new live double-disc release. He goes on to explain that she is a hero to him because […]
Perhaps the only thing as bad as being underappreciated is being appreciated for the wrong reasons. Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot may well have the unique distinction of being both at once. Despite an enviable degree of commercial success and a […]
“It’s the little things,” Robert Earl Keen once sang with switchblade humor, “that piss me off.” Here, it’s the little things that elevate a typically solid selection of material from the veteran troubadour into the most musically compelling album of […]
This year marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of the blues, or at least of the epiphany typically associated with it: W.C. Handy’s chance hearing, at a railroad crossing in Tutwiler, Mississippi, of an itinerant singer moaning a line, […]
During “No Show Jones”, a staple of his 1980s concerts, George Jones would gleefully throw himself into the line, “And Dolly’s got two big reasons that she’s well-known.” Though not the reasons Jones meant, the chief causes of Dolly Parton’s […]
Every roadhouse musician knows that a groove is better than a rut. This two-disc set by Texas veteran Delbert McClinton offers ample opportunity to distinguish between the two. Against numbing expectation, McClinton and his six-man band of road warriors tear […]
Ten minutes into this live album, a voice rises from the audience to make a tentative request: “‘Cobwebs?’” “‘Cobwebs?!’” Wainwright hollers back in mock horror. “That’s impossible!” And then he goes ahead and plays it anyway, even though he can’t […]
Tommy Womack and his band probably don’t often take the stage in snazzy, color-coordinated outfits. They likely don’t smash many drum kits or bash many guitars. It’s doubtful they spend a lot of time trying to cultivate a buzz in […]
