Live albums are such a touch-an-go proposition. For some (see: James Brown, Live at the Apollo; The Who, Live at Leeds; Kiss, Alive!), a live album can serve as a definitive statement that highlights an artist’s essence. Others (see: every […]
Celtgrass. If you Google the word, it takes nearly four search pages to find the term used for something other than We Banjo 3. The Galway, Ireland-based quartet coined the term for its blend of traditional Irish and American roots […]
When Hot Buttered Rum released “Country Tunes and Love Songs,” the lead single off the new album Lonesome Panoramic, vocalist/guitarist Nat Keefe said the band had “the memory of Tom Petty whispering in our ears.” The statement was certainly true […]
The concept of an artist with a multidecade career releasing re-recorded or “unplugged” versions of material originally performed to great success decades prior is too-trodden ground. It’s become a trope, an easy way for a legacy artist to cash in […]
Unless you’re the type of person walking around sporting a Make America Great Again hat, you probably don’t feel particularly enthusiastic about the current state of affairs. And if you’re young (for the sake of this review and my own […]
In his essential book on the American musical tradition, Mystery Train, Greil Marcus wrote of iconic bluesman Robert Johnson: To be an American is to feel the promise as a birthright, and to feel alone and haunted when the promise […]
