History hasn’t truly recognized the Browns (Jim Ed, Bonnie and Maxine), the trio of Arkansas siblings whose 1959 single “The Three Bells” became one of the Nashville Sound era’s biggest crossover success stories. Their hit streak wasn’t lengthy, lasting roughly […]
I’m writing you from the foot heels of a destructive woman named Katrina. The relationship with any woman comes with the excitement of the initial experience and goes with the repercussions of the convergence of forces. Whether or not the […]
We all know well the trials that have beset New Orleans over these past few months. Most of us appreciate the immeasurable contributions that the city has made to America’s music. We’ve also tracked the survival of the city’s most […]
I was in Hawaii when my sister called in a panic to tell me that it looked like a hurricane was going to hit the Louisiana Gulf Coast in the next 36 hours, and we had to figure out what […]
Today, in Nashville, I have met up with musician friends of mine from the band Beatin Path who had been displaced from their homes in New Orleans. We are having rice and beans at Mike’s apartment, cooked by his wife, […]
It is impossible to have any sustained interest in the music of North America without constantly tripping over seminal figures who came from, settled in, or drifted through the venerable port city of New Orleans. It has been as impossible […]
Every day after hurricanes Katrina and Rita brings another hint that nothing will be the same in New Orleans. President George W. Bush said, “We’ll not just rebuild, we’ll build higher and better.” Experts talk about bringing the Orleans Parish […]
In the dog days of January 2004, Tift Merritt’s backup band was at loose ends — hanging around Raleigh, North Carolina, while Merritt was out in Los Angeles making her Tambourine album with George Drakoulias. But before they’d become Merritt’s […]
The way Susan Cowsill tells it, she spent much of her life running — from her past, from her personal relationships, from finding her own voice. She remembers life in Los Angeles when Peter Holsapple, later her husband, asked her […]
On consecutive August nights at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Neil Young performed the entirety of his new Prairie Wind with close to three dozen musicians coming and going to fulfill the roles they played on the original recordings. Then, after a […]
