DEL MCCOURY AND FRIENDS PAY TRIBUTE TO THE STRUGGLES OF RURAL AMERICA Del McCoury has put out a compilation project that sings about the plight of rural America. The album enlists a stellar group of artists to tell this story. Moneyland, which is also the name of the title cut, invokes the spirit of FDR […]
Infamous Stringdusters
The Infamous Stringdusters released there self-titled sophomore album on Sugar Hill this week. In a stroke of genius, they brought is Tim O’brien as producer. The Stringdusters like O’brien have a fairly uncommon ability to stand simultaneously in both the Traditional and New Grass camps with no apparent contradiction. Their previous release Fork in the […]
Abigail Washburn & Ben Sollee
When you talk about the artists taking Bluegrass in new directions you think about musical directions not the directions on a compass. Yes many artists have followings in Europe and the Kreuger Brothers are from Norway, but China is not a country I think of as craving a good banjo tune. Besides can you imagine […]
Band of Heathens Giveaway Contest!!!
The Band of Heathens has been gracious enough to provide Twangville with a couple of copies of their soon to be released album to give away. Just leave a comment to this post about the Heathens. Refer to my previous post in which I reviewed the album. Then check back on 6-8 when we will […]
Wes Charlton – World on Fire
Every so often I encounter a new artist that really gets me fired up. Since I entered the blogosphere a little over a year ago, my opportunity to discover these upstart talents has been an unexpected benefit. Nashville’s Wes Charlton is one of those artists. All I can say is watch out. This kid is […]
Hayes Carll the Heir Apparent
There have been a lot of reviews written already about the new Hayes Carll album, Trouble in Mind. It is no doubt an album that fully establishes him as an artist. Exactly what it establishes him as is what I would like to address. A lot of the Texas Troubadours are getting older. Some like […]
Jeb Loy Nichols – Days are Mighty
Jeb Loy Nichols occupies a territory somewhere between the Soul influenced folk of Martin Sexton and a more acoustic singer-songwriter sound. The album starts out with the more soul/R&B leanings of “My Kind” and the title track “Days are Mighty.” The title track is a comforting hopeful song. The message seems to be that, even […]
South Austin Jug Band – Strange Invitation
South Austin Jug Band has found itself. They have always been talented and creative song-writers. However, they were stuck somewhere between traditional and contemporary acoustic music. They were too much on the fence. With Strange Invitation they have created self-described “progressive – acoustic” music. Maybe this clear break was due to the fact that the […]
Jim Lauderdale – Honey Songs
Jim Lauderdale has been alternating between Country and Bluegrass projects for the last several years. As far as Jim Lauderdale’s country albums go, my favorite is The Other Sessions from 2001. The song “What’s on My Mind†is in fact one of my favorite country songs period. His new project Honey Songs is on par […]
George Strait – Troubador
I have to admit a prejudice against mainstream Country. I tend to dismiss anything on a major country label. In the 80’s country was awful until the rise of the neo-traditionalists, such as Dwight Yoakam, in the the late 80’s and early 90’s. Then along came Garth and Faith, and in came soccer mom easy […]