Spotting John Morthland’s recent Lester Bangs anthology by my side, my brother-in-law asked, disbelieving, “Is he an actual person?” Yet even after my usually purgative (and always regrettable) verbal smackdown detailing his myriad pop cult failings, the question nagged. Certainly […]
Floyd Tillman’s death on August 22 wasn’t exactly a shock. At 88, he’d already outlived his contemporaries who excelled in the fine low-high art known as honky-tonk. A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters […]
ESCOVEDO UPDATE: Support continues to flood in for ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO in his battle with complications from Hepatitis C. Upcoming benefit concerts include one featuring the reunited Backsliders in Raleigh, North Carolina, at Retail on November 23 as well as one […]
It would be hard to miss the much-touted national and even intercontinental “Year of the Blues” festivities that have been unfolding through 2003. The end of the year brings an armload of DVD releases related, officially or less so, to […]
“I am deeply saddened by the loss of my children’s grandfather and my very dear friend. I loved big John with all my heart. The citizens of the world have lost one of their most enduring guiding lights. As a […]
Shelby Lynne: A view from down under A few listens in to her new LP Identity Crisis and I was thinking, “This sure ain’t no I Am Shelby Lynne.” Then after reading Michael McCall’s smartly written, insightful portrait of the […]
1 Gillian Welch, Soul Journey (Acony) 2 Lucinda Williams, World Without Tears (Lost Highway) 3 Neil Young, Greendale (Reprise) 4 Warren Zevon, The Wind (Artemis) 5 Norah Jones, Come Away With Me (Blue Note) 6 Grandaddy, Sumday (V2) 7 Drive-By […]
When that scholarly malady known as writer’s block descends from the muses, it can be helpful to employ a simple little exercise. Particularly in cases where there is lots of ground to be covered and there are lots of stories […]
The first song on Don Rigsby’s new solo album, The Midnight Call, describes a man who goes looking for his girlfriend only to find her lying dead on a hospital table. In the second song, a man gets a phone […]
Among the disadvantages of being Bob Dylan, I imagine, is enduring the aftermath of being dubbed the voice of your generation. It’s one thing to switch from folk to rock just as millions of people were waiting, without realizing it, […]
