Michael Kosser’s engaging and illuminating history of Music Row includes, immediately after the introduction, a cast of characters with a brief note about each. Explaining who Brenda Lee is seems unnecessary, but the list is a helpful guidepost in a […]
Blessed with hindsight, you could easily consider the music that Sally Spring was making in the ’70s to be what’s known these days as Americana. Her 1978 album Bird sported contributions from a guitarist and a bassist who were longtime […]
“This record isn’t like three years of therapy for me. I look back on Barricades and I can hear every moment in there of those three years prior to bringing that record out — that struggle of getting through that […]
THE PLAYER’S THE THING: The INTERNATIONAL BLUEGRASS MUSIC ASSOCIATION held its annual “World of Bluegrass” week September 25 through October 1 in Nashville, its second year in Music City after many years in Kentucky. The series of panel discussions, performances, […]
Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium is often called the Mother Church of Country Music. Tonight’s congregants include J.D. Crowe, Don Rigsby, Hazel Dickens, and Bryan Sutton, all gathering in late September to celebrate the release of Bradley Walker’s debut disc Highway Of […]
In my mind’s ear I am still drawn to Don Williams’ 1973 version of the Bob McDill song “Amanda”, though it was Waylon Jennings who had the #1 hit in 1979 and it took a trip to the back room […]
Before 2006, it was a stumper: What performer, raised hanging out in places such as Louis Armstrong’s house, has sung with Rosanne Cash, David Bowie, Al Green, Steely Dan and Dolly Parton? (You’ve got to love that resume.) New York […]
At the time of his greatest fame, between 1965 and 1968, Arthur Lee was perceived as the musical link between folk-rock and the more sinister stylizations of the Doors. This formulation makes less sense today; Lee was a black man, […]
Like certain standup comics, side groups don’t get no respect. Even stellar ones like the Traveling Wilburys, Latin Playboys and Wings (just kidding) tend to be treated lightly, as footnotes to the main text. It’s assumed the artists are not […]
I stumbled upon her one Saturday afternoon on the grounds of the state capitol in Raleigh: Etta Baker, in a cheery yellow sweater buttoned to the lace collar at her neck, flanked onstage by several of North Carolina’s most revered […]
