Before I fall into the end-of-year routine I wanted to highlight a couple of EP’s that struck me particularly well. One’s been out a couple of months and the other releases next month. I’ll start with the one that’s not out just yet, Kailey Nicole’s self-titled release. Raised in southern California, Nicole started her artistic […]
Hannah & Falco – Field Notes
I love it when friends turn me on to great new music. Chatting recently with the folks at smallsongs, I got turned on to the German Americana duo, Hannah & Falco. With their latest record, Field Notes, the couple shows you can deliver cutting observations on weighty subjects without the music itself being too heavy. […]
Triggers And Slips – The Stranger
Like a 5-year-old watching the parade as the circus comes to town, I just sat there mesmerized as the latest from Triggers And Slips, The Stranger, passed by. Equal parts classic rock and country, front man and leader Morgan Snow has captured a musical style that transports you back in time if you lived through […]
Stoney LaRue – Onward
Sometimes things sneak up on you. I’ve heard Stoney RaRue a few times over the years, but it wasn’t until I listened to his latest album, Onward, that I realized he’s been around 20 years. It was a bit of the same thing with the record, produced by Gary Nicholson who also co-wrote most of […]
The House Of Songs
The creative process of writing good music has been compared to catching lightning in a bottle. The implication is that it’s random good luck. Yet time and time again you hear of artists who have a process they follow and a string of great songs that came out of it. Similarly, musicians frequently get together […]
Scott Walker – The Rock House Project
Back in the day I had the (mis)fortune of having to make many long drives across various parts of the south central U.S. This was before satellite radio or iPods and rental cars didn’t have tape decks. So you listened to the radio; mostly country music, and in more than a few of those DJ’s […]
Terri Hendrix – Talk To A Human
When we last checked into the intrepid folk music hero, Terri Hendrix, she was releasing the first record in a 5 part project she was calling, simply, Project 5. She recently released the final music in an EP, the album Talk To A Human, and a book. I haven’t read the book, but the album […]
Che Apalache – Rearrange My Heart
So much of the early development of Americana and roots music sprung out of the mountains of Appalachia and the cotton fields of the Delta that we tend forget how popular a lot of it is across the globe. And like any musical style, once musicians learn it they start adding their own influences. Nothing […]
Americana 2019: Shawn’s Picks
Every fall, The Americana Music Association gathers members, artists and music fans together in Nashville for its annual conference. Starting with the annual Americana Music Awards and continuing through several days of showcases and panel discussions, it is a tremendous celebration of Americana music. Here are but a few of my favorite performers and performances […]
Americana Music Awards, 2019 Edition
In what’s beginning to resemble a miniature SXSW, with over 50,000 attendees, the Americana music industry and fans gathered in Nashville recently for AmericanaFest. Although the vast majority of the event was about live music, with some business-related panels during the day, the apex of the nearly week-long musical bacchanal is still the awards show […]