Originally written for Folk Alley Sarah Jarosz got started early, releasing stunning albums of imaginative acoustic music before she was so much as out of high school. Of course, it helped that the discs included support from some of the other […]
I’ve had the liner notes for Great Days, The John Prine Anthology, in my briefcase for a while, thinking that when I had the opportunity, I’d read them. I mean, I’m only 20 years late in doing so. The record […]
“Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow.” The image from 1985 shows John Mellencamp’s knack for literary horror, 15 years before he began writing a musical with iconic horror writer Stephen King. The song about a dying Heartland farm […]
Over the years, having covered the recent blues revival quite thoroughly, I have come across more than a few covers of old blues songs. Many of today’s bands have done this as a means of paying tribute to the bygone […]
Cincinnati bluegrass and folk-punk trio The Tillers are truly a shining beacon in an increasingly crowded roots scene, and as such they have lured their share of roots enthusiasts and would-be fans in with their music in recent years. What makes […]
**NOTE: This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Rusha Porscher Lee and Larry Slavens – our winners! And, thanks to everyone who entered. Van Morrison has been one of the most beloved singer-songwriters since he arrived on the scene with […]
“There’s always someone to take my hand,” Erik Grant Bennett sings on “He is the Answer,” his warm voice caressed by a blanket of soothing acoustic guitars. Obviously, Bulletproof is a different kind of contemporary country record, one that is […]
I wandered again through my home in the mountain Where in youth’s early dawn I was happy and free. I look for my friends, but I never could find ’em. I found they were all rank strangers to me. -“Rank […]
Last night, under a sky full of stars, I drove the gravel back roads that lead to my grandparents’ house. I followed a barbed wire fence that vanished and reappeared in the dark fields along the road. A rusted oil […]
