It began a couple weeks back, when Eliza Gilkyson asked me, “Where does folk music fit within the Americana genre?” She asked it somewhat rhetorically, somewhat quizzically, since she has always regarded herself as a folksinger. I have ruminated on […]
Tom Russell is so prolific that it’s hard to keep up: I have about two dozen of his albums, and I’m still missing a few. This pair of 2014 releases almost slipped by me. Tonight We Ride, subtitled “The Tom […]
Yesterday was Pete Seeger’s birthday. He would have been 96 years old*. I don’t really need to tell you what Seeger did in his life. His accomplishments, as well as his setbacks, are well-documented – from his early days with […]
Tom Russell’s talent and penchant for experimentation have fueled some terrific projects over the course of his four-decade, 28-album career, but never more so than in recent years. In 2013, for example, he issued Aztec Jazz, a genre-bending classic that […]
Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark traces the life of music pioneer Guy Clark, who, with his wife Susanna, shaped the contemporary folk and American roots music scene much like F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald […]
I was excited when invited to see Arlo Guthrie at Walt Disney Hall, because though I’ve grown up on his songs, I’d never actually seen him play them live. The audience filing into the wonderful room was clearly a room of Guthrie’s […]
Tom’s ancestral and musical triptych finally reaches fruition – Tá sé iontach, tá sé go hálainn More decades ago than he’d probably care to be reminded, Thomas George Russell graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a […]
Those who have known Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s work over these past 50-odd years won’t be surprised by what he offers on I Stand Alone. A few guests show up, but their contributions are minimal: Lucinda Williams moans along on “Careless […]
As he’ll tell you at the drop of a hat, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott was friends with Woody Guthrie, who continues to strongly influence his career. On The Long Ride, Elliott introduces the traditional number “Picture From Life’s Other Side” with […]
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