By Matt Shedd In 1997 Bob Dylan brought his career back to life with Time out of Mind, an album devoted to mortality and regret and other dark musings. But Dylan states that the album should be about the listener’s […]
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Scattered thoughts on Elvis, Jazz, and The Wild One: John Lennon famously said, “Before Elvis, there was nothing.” In terms of dominant cultural conceptions of cool, I almost entirely agree. But before Elvis, there was Marlon Brando. It’s hard for […]
by Matt Shedd If you have not seen Gimme Shelter (1970), the documentary of The Rolling Stones 1969 tour culminating in the Altamont Free Concert catastrophe, I’d recommend it. If you need to be convinced: it’s a Criterion Collection […]
Review by Matt Shedd Nonfiction Life by Keith Richards, James Fox. With an icon like Keith Richards, who has not only lived up to the rock and roll ethos of rebellion, unbridled sexuality, and hard-living–but was so wild he was […]
One Man’s Opinion on the Rock & Roll Canon: Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Albums-#1 In 1967, through Sgt. Pepper’s and The Basement Tapes, we see popular music going two distinct directions. The Beatles explored the unknown and Dylan and the […]
Bill Monroe wrote “Blue Moon of Kentucky” and recorded it with his Bluegrass Boys in 1946, and Columbia released it the next year. This little waltz became a hit. Then producer Sam Phillips, bassist Bill Black, guitarist Scotty […]
I was recently asked to write the liner notes for T.W. Hill’s debut solo album, SINS & HYMNS. Well, there’s a lot to say about these songs, so I tried to get it all down in these few words, which […]
I was listening to a Gene Autry record yesterday–by the way, if you don’t own any Autry recordings you should get your hands on some. I know I had heard him sing “South of the Border” (recorded in 1939) at […]
I recently read Nick Tosches’s Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock ‘n’ Roll (New York: Da Capo, 1984), and his great work inspired me to revisit the recordings of Jimmie Rodgers. I was intrigued with the mysteries I found buried […]
An alcoholic and a heroin addict throughout his adult life, James Booker died when he was 43 years old in a wheelchair inside a New Orleans hospital. Blues historian Keith Shadwick states he was still a prominent local figure […]
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