Suzy Bogguss makes it look easy. After 25 years in the business and more awards than you can shake a stick at, you’d expect that. But watching her on stage you get the feeling she was born for this and […]
Jim Simpson is an award-winning fiction writer and freelance music critic. A native of the wilds of Florida's Gulf Coast, he now resides on the scruffy fringes of Atlanta, Georgia.
He frequently writes about music, with his taste spanning all genres: bluegrass, Americana, classic country, alt-country, western swing, blues, classical, rock 'n' roll, punk, reggae, klezmer, and British isles folk (to name but a few).
He once sang "Happy Birthday" (with about 10,000 other people) to Joni Mitchell, and has seen such legends as Miles Davis, The Incredible Jimmy Smith, Rockpile, Blue Rodeo, King Sunny Ade, David Bowie, Joan Jett, Robyn Hitchcock, R.E.M., Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan live in concert. He has interviewed Those Darlins, John Linnell of They Might Be Giants, Marshall Chapman, Charlie Louvin, Derek Hoke, Jim Avett, the Secret Sisters, and Meghan McCormick.
Jim is a former editor for Awaiting the Flood and has written for The Atlanta Music Guide, Hellbomb, Earbuddy, The Weeklings, The Book Shopper, and The Nervous Breakdown. He recently finished his first novel, and if all goes well it should be in bookstores sometime before his death.
Suzy Bogguss makes it look easy. After 25 years in the business and more awards than you can shake a stick at, you’d expect that. But watching her on stage you get the feeling she was born for this and […]
For their first gig of 2015, The Secret Sisters (Lydia and Laura Rogers) showed just how far they’ve come since bursting onto the scene in 2010 with their self-titled debut, produced by T Bone Burnett. Back then they were admittedly […]
There are certain guarantees for every show at this unique listening room: The performers will praise the venue’s beauty, thank Eddie Owen and the staff for treating them so well, and at some point during the set, the building will […]
In a recent New York Times article, Amy Speace writes, “I am a musician. I do not have a ‘day job.’ This is my day job. And I make a living at my art, which is a dream fulfilled. But […]
At first glance, Matthew Perryman Jones looks like a serious and navel-gazingly sensitive singer/songwriter with a messenger bag full of wistful ballads. First impressions are often deceiving, because Jones has a bright and playful sense of humor (as evidenced by […]
Marc Ford’s one-minute acoustic opener, “If I’d Waited,” exudes the sparse atmosphere of poetry, reminiscent of both Wendell Berry and W.S. Merwin for the similarity of titles and images: Berry’s “To the Holy Spirit” (“Whose truth is light and dark, […]
The Gibson Brothers have won so many awards it would be ridiculous to name them all here. Suffice to say, if you had to choose to hear only one bluegrass band perform live in your entire life (and what a […]
Listening to genuine Southern musicians spin yarns and sing deeply emotional songs – some quite funny, too – is a treat on any evening. Add Lincoln’s birthday to the mix and the songs and stories take on a sharper resonance. […]
Looking like a buffed Zach Galifianakis, Clay Cook strode onstage to a musical “yard sale” of grand piano, amps, mics, electric and acoustic guitars. In two sets over the next hour and a half, the Atlanta native treated the sold-out […]
Artists: Phil Madeira, Amelia White, Tommy Womack Witnessing musicians perform in the round can be an unsettling experience, teetering between false starts and impending calamity or onstage magic. What if one artist is having an off night — it happens — […]