With the stubborn integrity he brought to every aspect of his life, Mickey Newbury fashioned an uncategorizable song catalogue of abiding excellence and ensured that his commercial possibilities would always be limited. In Crystal & Stone, biographer Joe Ziemer shows […]
“Can you just hold on one second?” Kathleen Edwards asks. “I feel like there’s smoke coming from the side of the house. It’s blowing by the window, and I’m getting a little freaked out about what it is. I’m gonna […]
Nanci Griffith was sure she wouldn’t be around to see the domestic release of her new album, Hearts In Mind — around meaning on U.S. soil. A singer and songwriter who has long worn her lefty politics on her sleeve […]
The magical hour of 3 in the afternoon has rolled around, and now Precious Bryant is ready to do an interview, since she’s finished watching her soap operas, at least until 4 o’clock when “General Hospital” comes on. That she’s […]
The cover of Shooter Jennings’ debut album, Put The ‘O’ Back In Country (more on that title shortly), depicts a vinyl LP in a yellowed inner sleeve. To the left of the spindle hole is a stylized letter W, the […]
It came crackling through the radio speaker late at night from faraway places like Villa Acuna, Coahuila, “in sunny old Mexico.” The blowtorch signal faded in and out of the ether, making disjointed the voices of personalities too outrageous to […]
Fate has been good to me You may not understand how I can be thankful to be where I am To be where I am. — Vic Chesnutt, “Ignorant People” Vic Chesnutt wheels himself into the room, gliding over the […]
Her career began in prewar country and gospel, yet Martha Carson reached her peak with a style diametrically opposite to the primitive sounds of her early work — so much so that that Carson, who retired decades before she died […]
Frank “Son” Seals, who died on December 20 from complications due to diabetes, was one of the most significant blues artists to emerge from Chicago in the post-’60s era. Seals was born in Osceola, Arkansas, on August 14, 1942. His […]
Hank Garland deserved better than the incoherent, often incorrect Associated Press obit he received after dying from a staph infection on December 27 at age 74. The hyperbole overlooked the essence of his artistry: a unique confluence of technique, taste, […]
