I expected bluegrass. The instrumentation says bluegrass— guitars, violin, banjo, mandolin, accordion. The voices could easily handle bluegrass harmonies. But what we really have here is some topnotch Folk Pop more than anything. An harmonic choir steeped in Americana, if […]
My thesaurus is broken! “Hippie” is the only word I can come up with to describe what The Freeway Revival do (or would that be “does?”). Is this what everyone refers these days to as jam music? Here’s the deal. […]
Forgive me, Emily, but your song about the German impressionist painter Ernst Kirchner made me laugh. You see, there was this zine back in the day called Dopin’ Dan about this dude who gets drafted into the Army which pretty […]
Bluegrass is not always blue, my friends. Indeed, it comes in a variety of colors and shapes and sizes, all dependent on combinations of instruments, voices, and even individuals’ preferences. There is straight-on jig-and-reel, vocal bluegrass, newgrass and numerous other […]
Pickin’ and grinnin’. That’s the difference. While some artists are on the beaten path, Todd Adelman & The Country Mile are off to the side, pickin’ and grinnin’. Not like Buck and Roy and those guys in the corn patch […]
If Jared Tyler knew what was good for him, at least as regards myself, he would not have started his latest album, Dirt On Your Hands, with “Death of Me.” I have had an aversion to jug band/dixieland jazz/ragtime since […]
I read a review recently which claimed Carrie Shepard’s voice was smoky so I listened to it with that in mind. I found it more textured than smoky but I’m a picky sonofabitch. Just ask Axl Rose and Steven Tyler […]
[This was originally written for and posted on Bob Segarini’s site, Don’t Believe a Word I Say. The plan was to write a piece for DBAWIS and a later one for No Depression, but as I read the original I […]
I was heading out for a long drive and stopped by the mailbox on the way and found a package— a CD by one Emily Mure, whom I neither had never heard of nor heard. I already had two CDs […]
The Skyboys were about the best thing Seattle had going for it back in the late-seventies and early-eighties. I remember coming out of the record store I worked at on a rainy night and seeing lines around the block of […]
