NAKIA Austin’s Nakia was a favorite SXSW discovery from nearly 20 years ago. I caught two sets towards the close of SXSW – a fitting way to round out the week. The Wednesday afternoon set at C-Boys, in particular, brought me right back to that first encounter — the voice, the energy, the songs, all […]
SXSW 2026: The Sounds, Part 2
LOS LOBOS It doesn’t get much better than Los Lobos. Seriously. They’ve shared more than 50 years of great music and performances with the world, and they ain’t done yet. Their introduction at the NPR day stage spoke volumes: “Whoever your favorite band is, their favorite band is Los Lobos.” They were even brought back […]
SXSW 2026: The Sounds, Part 1
JON DEE GRAHAM AND WILLIAM HARRIES GRAHAM News broke last Friday night that Jon Dee Graham had passed away that morning. What was already a SXSW performance highlight suddenly felt like something more. Jon Dee had battled serious health issues for years, making his reflection on the experience and performance of “I Can See Clearly […]
SXSW 2026: The Scene
For me, the true harbinger of spring is the arrival of the SXSW Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas. Or rather, spring begins for me when I arrive in Austin for the annual event. With upwards of 1,000 artists and tens of thousands of attendees from around the world, SXSW is the world’s premiere music […]
Monday Morning Video – Jon Dee Graham (1959 – 2026)
Jon Dee Graham, who passed away last Friday, was a paradox — gruff exterior, heart of gold. I’m pretty sure he liked it that way. He sang about the broken and the struggling, but he always managed to find a glimmer of hope somewhere in the story. The gruffness of his voice and his guitar […]
Monday Morning Video – Taylor Hollingsworth
Birmingham guitarist and singer-songwriter Taylor Hollingsworth has built a devoted following through his solo work and as a member of Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, earning acclaim for his cosmic fingerpicking and distinctive “folk-art-punk-blues” style. We caught Hollingsworth for the first time last year at a rocking solo show in Brooklyn, and we’ve […]
Monday Morning Video – John Moreland
Few artists mine the depths of emotion like John Moreland. “Break My Heart Sweetly”, from 2013’s In the Throes, is a prime example—raw and heartbreaking, capturing that brutal moment when you know exactly where a relationship is headed but can’t bear to reach the destination. Stark, beautiful, and deeply moving, it’s Moreland at his most […]
It’s Time for Our Next Sunday Social in Dallas
There’s a specific kind of magic that happens when the sun starts to dip over a Dallas afternoon and the music takes hold. If you’ve been to a Twangville Sunday Social, you know exactly what we mean. If you haven’t? Well, April 19th is your chance to find out. All three of our featured artists […]
Monday Morning Video – TopHouse
Some shows remind you why you fell in love with live music in the first place. TopHouse delivered one of those last week in Boston. The Montana-bred group is rooted in bluegrass—intricate instrumentation, rich harmonies—but their songs are something else entirely: brilliantly crafted pop songs that hit like a gut punch. Live, those punches land […]
Twangville Returns to NYC’s Cafe Wha? on April 1st
Some rooms hold onto their songs. Cafe Wha? is one of them. The Greenwich Village landmark has heard Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Jimi Hendrix, among others — and the memory of those performances lives in its walls. Twangville is honored to return on April 1st and add the songs of Lydia Loveless and Will […]