In all the hoopla surrounding the dedication of the new home of Chicago’s legendary Old Town School of Folk Music, no tribute will be more personal, nor more illuminating, than this fourth release by one of the school’s veteran guitar […]
Contributor and Contributing Editor to <i>No Depression Magazine</i>, 1996 - 2008, and author of the second longest article ever published there, Peter's Alejandro Escovedo "Artist of the Year" story having edged out my Dolly Parton cover by a hair. (Imagine smiley face, here.) A likely contentious discussion over beers might be whether I'm ahead, now, with the Gelb piece clocking in at more than 9,000 words. That discussion would not be had with me. Congratulations all on the anniversaries and revivals! And good luck with all your future endeavors. Note that despite what this system says, I am in Tucson, AZ, and not Phoenix, which I fled right after high school.
In all the hoopla surrounding the dedication of the new home of Chicago’s legendary Old Town School of Folk Music, no tribute will be more personal, nor more illuminating, than this fourth release by one of the school’s veteran guitar […]
After Steve Earle opened with “Christmas In Washington”, we could just about have gone home. “Come back, Woody Guthrie,” he sang, invoking the spirit and purpose formerly associated with American folk music that has since seemed to dissipate into introspection […]
The rock club buzz falters as jaws drop and eyes fix on the set’s foreplay. A golden-haired Amazon coaxes feedback moans from her upright bass, undulating in her deeply slit evening gown and stiletto heels. The guitarist vamps the microphone […]
“Oh my God” and an urge to move stageside are common reactions among those seeing Mary Cutrufello for the first time. Already a popular performer at clubs throughout her Texas home, Cutrufello first became known to a wide audience when […]
Hazeldine’s covers reveal wide-ranging taste unfettered by tiresome concern with hipness. It’s as if they heard others’ songs differently in the first place. For example, How Bees Fly, the group’s 1997 release on German label Glitterhouse, included Grant Lee Buffalo’s […]
Chicago boasts a thriving indie-rock subscene involving bands that refract jazz and pop forms into mostly midtempo improvisations. Cash Money turns that conceit inside out by using Southern boogie as a reference point. The result is a peculiar audience. Improv […]
Another big little idea from Bloodshot, the folks whove criss-crossed the nations byways seeking evidence of country music insurgencies, this split single straddles contrasting anecdotes in the epic love affair between North Americans and their cars. Whiskeytowns Highway 145 is […]
Guitarist Gary Louris and keyboardist Karen Grotberg took the stage alone for the opening song of the encore of this rare small-venue appearance by Minneapolis band the Jayhawks. After the first chords, Louris stopped with a laugh. He’d forgotten the […]
“Well, it’s not like I’ve got the last couple of fragments. It’s not like I’ve got the last half-dozen tunes. There’s so much stuff here, I mean, I could make a record and then if that’s no good then you […]
It’s a mood missed almost since Give It Up-era Bonnie Raitt. The lady drinks Jim Beam, laughs a bit too loudly and sinks into a borrowed bed to toss some time. Is it a yellow brick road she’ll hit tomorrow […]