You’ve no doubt heard the saying, popularized by author Thomas Wolfe, “you can’t go home again.” There are an endless number of dissections about what that really means, but the gist is that nostalgia has colored memories enough that the home you remember wasn’t exactly like that. So it was with some curiosity I listened […]
Marley’s Ghost – Honky Tonk
If you follow the Americana music genre, in all its facets, it’s not long before you become a fan of one or more regional bands. It’s not that they don’t have fans around the country or internationally, but rather they’ve found a community, their community, that supports them financially and emotionally. Even without new music […]
Reckless Kelly – Alternate Routes
Thirty years ago in a wide-spot-in-the-road Idaho town 300 miles west of Yellowstone, Willy and Cody Braun formed their first band. As the sons and grandsons of professional musicians, their knowledge about how to do that was ahead of most of their garage band peers. One of their first decisions was to relocate to Austin. […]
India Ramey – Villain Era
No Fear. Nashville’s India Ramey must have taken some inspiration from that clothing line’s name. Lots of musicians have songs about finding their true self and coming to terms with who they are. On Villain Era, Ramey takes it a step further with a confidence and frankness that would make Clint Eastwood blush. She doesn’t […]
Odd Marshall – Seconds
I’m not really a believer in fate. I just feel like people can make rational choices that end up steering them down a new path. Having said that, I’ve certainly seen examples where the Universe just keeps knocking someone back on track. The musician Odd Marshall seems to be one of those. An obsession with […]
Hank Alrich – Broken River
It’s well known that the Armadillo World Headquarters was at ground-zero for the Austin music scene in the early 70’s. Gary P. Nunn once noted, “It’s been said that our music was the catalyst that brought the shit-kickers and the hippies together at the Armadillo.” Presumably one of those hippies was Hank Alrich, a California […]
Adam Gaffney Song Premiere – Product of Another Sad Song
You’ve no doubt heard the phrase, “but for the grace of God, there go I.” For St. Louis native Adam Gaffney, sometimes God’s grace wasn’t around and so he went down a few harmful paths. He has a new album coming out next month, Product of Another Sad Song, and it’s centered around some of […]
Ben Musser Song Premiere – Sentimental Fever
Like all things artistic, it’s hard to predict where one’s musical muse is going to be. A lot of musicians find a move into some beautiful surroundings provides the necessary inspiration–there’s nothing like Mother Nature to open your mind to the wonders of life. Wyoming resident Ben Musser found the opposite. After spending years in […]
Andy Hedges – The Westerner
It used to be called country & western. Then two or three decades ago, for reasons I’m sure the ethnographers still debate, it just became country music. Western just sort of slipped out of the vernacular, except for maybe a strip of North America from around Calgary to somewhere near El Paso. Fortunately, there’s still […]
Krislyn Arthurs Song Premiere – Missin’ Man
When you grow up in a small town you learn young that one thing you’ll never have is anonymity. So you quickly figure out how to smile and be polite because you just can’t avoid anyone. That does not mean people don’t make bad decisions, and then live with the results of those choices. Krislyn […]