If you’re a regular visitor to No Depression, chances are that Norman Blake needs no introduction. Even if his name is unfamiliar at first glance, you’ve almost certainly spent hours listening to him play without even realizing it. As one […]
Now that Nashville has a successful Americana radio station in WMOT, I’ve been listening to the station while poking around the website. I was intriguged by a weekend show hosted by a musicologist and performing musician named Greg Reish. Bill Frater: Where and when […]
Now that the holidays have come and gone, there’s a good chance you are thinking about what to purchase with those shiny new gift cards. Here are some of the best pop culture releases of the year, all of which […]
The horns, opening somewhere between a 21st century sonata and a street-side soul riff, raise the fine hairs at the back of your neck. When Joe Pernice’s voice eases in like the boy next door, it’s purer than you’ve ever […]
Like most guitar players, I’ve long known that having just one is simply not enough. I have my sweet-smelling mahogany Martin 000-15 that I keep inside the case next to my bed and only bring out on special days. There’s […]
The horses are in the barn, the chickens in the coop, the cat is laying on my toes, and the glow of the fireplace makes this room seem like an old time moving picture as the shadow of the flames […]
Once, hunters and their tribes and families roamed and thrived through the plains and deep woods of America. Then the white man came, and eventually, after many bloody physical and political battles, came what Johnny Cash called “bitter tears.” I […]
Norman Blake doesn’t make bad records, though if you’re not a connoisseur of the flatpicker’s art, you probably can’t tell them apart. With 1998’s Chattanooga Sugar Babe, however, Blake coupled historical mirth and arcane disasters via the central metaphors of […]
