Slaid Cleaves lives in Wimberley now, tucked into the folds of the Texas Hill Country, playing closer to home, keeping the circle small. The road that once stretched from Maine to Cork to Austin has narrowed. The songs, though, are still wide open. There was a time when he measured success in dollars and survival. […]
Sequins, Scripture, and Grit: Leah Blevins Finds Her Power on All Dressed Up
Before she was making records in Nashville studios, before she stepped into the booth with producer Dan Auerbach, before the songs on All Dressed Up took shape, Leah Blevins was a little girl in Sandy Hook, Kentucky, pushing pause and play on a boom box and trying to understand how words fit together. “I think […]
Listening for the Vanishing Words: James McMurtry at Full Measure
James McMurtry does not talk much, and he does not volunteer myth. He answers questions carefully, sometimes obliquely, often economically, as if every word costs something. That reserve has become part of his public character, as recognizable as the stark clarity of his songs. McMurtry is a listener first, a keen observer of language and […]
Gurf Morlix: Crafting Songs That Outlast Time
Gurf Morlix has spent more than half a century shaping the sound of American songwriting, often from behind the scenes. At 74, he may have stepped back from touring, but his creative fire burns brighter than ever. Since the pandemic, Morlix has entered a prolific streak, writing and recording at a pace that would challenge […]
Rod Picott Has Left the Road—but Not the Work
For a quarter century, Rod Picott lived the life his songs describe. He drove the long miles, played the rooms that smelled of beer and dust, and wrote from the inside of working days that left their marks on the body. Now 61, Picott has stepped away from touring—not from music, and certainly not from […]