These are hard times for dreamers. As Tom says in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, “nowadays the world is lit by lightning.” And it’s hard to be a moony-eyed dreamer when storms are raging, when bombs are falling, when it […]
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Both his personality and the signature musical style of Allen Toussaint — the two are inseparable — reflect such refinement, grace and subtle whimsy that the soggy tale of his evacuation from his native New Orleans seems as incongruous as […]
“I think all the best records capture a mood rather than any sort of perfection. You know, none of us are virtuosos. You could replace all of us with Nashville cats. But this is us.” Dave Wilson Downtown Raleigh’s Lincoln […]
“Even though you might be singing about hard times, about the rough times in your life, it’s still spiritual.” The records that Candi Staton made with producer Rick Hall and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section are some of the most […]
From the train songs of Jimmie Rodgers to the coal mining laments of Merle Travis to the trucker anthems of Dave Dudley, country music has long championed the plight of the working class. The late Buzz Martin remains a unique […]
KING OF ROCK & SOUL GOES COUNTRY: After a couple of high-profile comeback albums in which he was paired with producers Joe Henry (2002’s Don’t Give Up On Me) and Don Was (2005’s Make Do With What You Got), legendary […]
Alejandro & Jon Dee: Catch the live shows I was lucky enough to see Alejandro Escovedo (with Jon Dee Graham opening) at the Palms Playhouse in northern California late last year. Apparently this was his first tour since his illness. […]
Apparently Dean Silverstone had sort of inherited the Seattle territory from his mentor, Harry Elliott, because that’s how we first met. His was a peculiar presence on Saturday afternoon TV, more middle school science teacher than carnival barker, an oddly […]
After frequent 1980s visits but before moving from my native Chicago to Austin, I wrote that the best Chicago blues bar was a thousand miles or so south of the city’s limits. It was amazing at Antone’s to see Chicago […]
Seasonal testosterone fixation disorder? Maybe not, but the summer of ’06 brings a slew of significant DVD releases, some much-anticipated, focusing on legendary guys with instantly recognizable first names — Gram, Neil, Sir Doug, Willie, Muddy, Chuck, and (for many […]
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