Randall Bramblett says his new album, Devil Music, is “a good bit nastier and edgier than my other records.” With such a title, that aim may be understandable for the veteran singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. The album and its title track […]
It’s something to admire when a listener familiar with a particular singer-songwriter can hear the development of that artist. Many performers try to change their signature sound, direction and image and fail, but Bow Thayer – who hasn’t really changed his signature […]
Link Wray died of heart failure at the age of 76 in his adopted city of Copenhagen, Denmark, on November 5, 2005, but the news didn’t break worldwide until weeks later. When that message did arrive, it might have seemed […]
One of the more unfortunate limitations of the word “Americana” is that it could give someone the impression that the genre’s music should be restricted to the Lower 48. That’s nonsense, of course. Artists like Kasey Chambers and Paul Kelly produce […]
David Bromberg knows what makes a great show. He once played solo and gave a stirring rendition of Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles” before 600,000 people at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival in Great Britain. He also recently teamed with […]
From the opening notes of “Valentina” and its easy-going swish of acoustic guitars and lap steel, North Carolina’s Tyler Nail’s warm vocals sound like they came from the same dirt that nourished The Band’s collective voice. There are generous helpings […]
“When I saw the UPS guy drive up to my house, I went to the door and waited for him to walk up,” wrote one buyer of this album, on Amazon’s website. “He smiled and said, ‘I hope you haven’t […]
The story of the Basement Tapes – those songs recorded in 1967 at a house known as Big Pink in West Saugerties, NY, by Bob Dylan and The Band – is a quintessential American-music story, with all the appropriate elements […]
The brief period that The Band and Bob Dylan spent in 1967 (in actuality only from June to October of that year) recording music in the basement of a pink house in West Saugerties, NY, was as remarkably brief as […]
In pre-release publicity, Robbie Robertson declared this set to be “the definitive musical history” of The Band. With 111 cuts (37 previously unreleased) and a 108-page hardbound book, plus a DVD, A Musical History could be considered the most comprehensive […]
