Picture the “epic handshake” meme, with death metal band Rivers of Nihil on one side, bicoastal folk trio The Faux Paws on the other, and smooth saxophone solos in the middle where Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers’ ham fists clasp […]
They say you’ve got to know the rules before you can break the rules, and bluegrass is the perfect proving ground for how far that mindset can go. AJ Lee and Blue Summit have been honing their bluegrass bona fides […]
In less than 30 minutes, Sturgill Simpson weaves an incredible tale of love, friendship, heartache, and death on his new album, The Ballad of Dood and Juanita. Though it’s broken into 10 individual tracks, the record stands as a singular experience, […]
With her latest album, Encore, “Queen of Rockabilly,” Grammy Award-nominee, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Wanda Jackson exits retirement — does an artist ever really retire? — adding another compelling project to her essential oeuvre, a succinct […]
From the opening note on Have a Seat, Maggie Rose’s third album, Rose finds herself mingling among the soul sisters who wring every drop of emotion from songs in their soaring, emotional, gut-wrenching vocals: Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Bramlett, Dusty Springfield. […]
The funny thing about singer-songwriter Malcolm Holcombe calling an album Tricks of the Trade is that there’s an implication that songwriting, Holcombe’s trade, lends itself to subterfuge, that one can fool a good song into existence the same way a […]
Consider the dilemma of the country-music legend who doesn’t want to rest on her laurels. Is it enough to show you’re still in the game by making a record that may be merely adequate? Is it better to modernize your […]
If your daddy’s first name is Rockin’, you don’t have much choice for a career path. Dwayne Dopsie’s dad was one of zydeco’s finest reps, with a worldwide following. Although Rockin’ Dopsie carved out a path for his youngest son […]
In 2020’s wake, it becomes easy to do less, to settle into the easy activism of occasionally attending protests or shouting on Twitter. To sit back and think, With Trump gone, the work is done. Joe Troop shows a different […]
Props to Anderson East. With his first two albums, Delilah and Encore, he carved out a niche for himself at the nexus point of late-’60s, Stax Records-indebted soul and introspective alt-country. Anchored by a malleable voice that can alternate between […]
