Lucy Wainwright Roche normally travels alone. When reached by telephone in Minneapolis recently, she had already spent several weeks in a car with her dog, Maeby, and her mother, acclaimed singer-songwriter Suzzy Roche (The Roches), in tow. “We’ve been spending a […]
Tracy Webb often has to convince people that his band mate Frederick “Scotty Karate” Leeman exists. “Someone we just saw the other day was talking about drinking a Scotty Karate Scotch Ale, and I said, ‘You know that’s named after […]
It’s been five months since Denver-based Trout Steak Revival won the band competition at the 41st annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and the impact of that moment is just starting to set in. Winning the competition means Trout Steak Revival becomes […]
Ralston Bowles has made a few friends in music. A fixture in the West Michigan music scene, Bowles is often credited for making Grand Rapids a tour stop for national acts. The man called “Mr. Tuesday Night” since founding the […]
It could be easy to dismiss Colin O’Brien as just another John Hartford imitator. Like the legendary folk, country, and bluegrass composer, O’Brien also plays the banjo, fiddle, and guitar, wears a derby hat, and often covers Hartford material in […]
Ryan McKenna describes the music of his Steel City Rovers as a new stew made with an old recipe. The Hamilton, Ontario-based ensemble – which features McKenna on vocals, accordion, whistles and washboard; his brother Joel McKenna on guitar; Dave […]
There’s a line in the Crystal Bowersox song “How Long” that declares “I’m from Ohio / Not American Idol.” During her live show, it’s that lyric that elicits some of the loudest cheers from Bowersox’s faithful following, even those who […]
Chris Coole likes to quantify his musical partnership with Ivan Rosenberg as the only clawhammer banjo and dobro duo act in the known universe. Although Coole’s banjo and Rosenberg’s dobro often have homes in larger bluegrass ensembles, the unusually sparse […]
“Girls with Guitars” isn’t exactly what it seems. Yes, there are girls, and yes, they play guitars, but that’s just part of the story. There are also ukuleles, musical saws, accordions, and keyboards. For Katie Larson and Savannah Buist, the […]
Cruz Contreras was 12 when his family left Bridgman, Mich., for Franklin, Tenn., but he never stopped thinking of the Southwest Michigan town as home. The evidence can be found on The Black Lillies’ third album, last year’s Runaway Freeway […]
