After more than a decade apart, these three founding Byrds reconvened at the end of the ’70s. Rather than echoing the classic early Byrds, their collaboration resembled the bands of diminishing potency who had followed in their wake — Poco, […]
Many artists on this disc deserve respect for music made in their careers — Marty Stuart, Vince Gill, Dwight Yoakam, Johnny Cash, and Sting among them. The art of making fine recorded music, however, is not the sum of the […]
Originally from Ohio and now based in New York, The National has created nearly a dozen picture-perfect Americana bar-soaked gems with its debut album. From the opening notes of “Beautiful Head”, the delicate line between polished roots-oriented pop and alt-country […]
When Julie Elkins took the stage in her home state of Montana, audience members could be heard exclaiming, “That girl sings like Alison Krauss and plays the banjo like Ron Block.” It’s true that Elkins, still in her 20s, plays […]
I got be a fly on the wall last summer when Robert Randolph, the secret weapon of this would-be supergroup, sat in with a half-dozen country and sacred steel guitarists at an impromptu jam session held in a Nashville warehouse. […]
It seemed like a fine idea on paper: Apply the considerable vocal abilities of Carol Van Dyk, frontwoman for melodic Dutch rockers Bettie Serveert, to a rootsy country-folk setting. The self-titled disc from Chitlin’ Fooks teams her with Pascal Deweze […]
Minnesota native Stuart Davis has thus far shrugged off major-label overtures, selling nearly 30,000 copies of his eight discs almost entirely from the stage and online. The last two, Bright Apocalypse and this eponymous effort, have been released on Post […]
What does Ol Yeller frontman Rich Mattson know about hard-hitting country rock? Well, a lot. For over a decade, Mattson fronted the Glenrustles one of the toughest roots-rock bands in the Twin Cities. With Ol Yeller, though Mattson tends to […]
Like a Texas version of Holden Caulfield hanging out at The Last Picture Show, Darden Smith has always been a dependably weary, yet persistent, chronicler of regret, melancholy and the knowing inevitability of the next day’s burdens. This sublimely gifted, […]
Reading the liner notes for Luceros self-titled debut album, its no surprise to see that brothers Cody and Luther Dickinson (of the Grammy-nominated North Mississippi Allstars) had a hand in making this record. Like N.M.A., Memphis-based Lucero successfully combines punk-rock […]
