Synergy is such an over-used word, but the idea is so important you can’t stop using it in protest, especially when you witness how a band comes together as something greater than the individuals. Â On her latest album, Aiofe O’Donovan (pronounce Ee-fah if you’re new to her music) has captured that magic in a single […]
St. Paul & the Broken Bones – Sea Of Noise
In 1954 Ray Charles took a gospel song, My Jesus Is All the World To Me, mixed in some R&B, and made it into a decidedly secular song, I Got A Woman. Â Soul music was born. Â Like all musical styles, soul music has morphed and evolved into something that’s a lot more popular, but along […]
Donovan Woods – Hard Settle, Ain’t Troubled
The long, native grasses seem to find a way to root in no more than a half inch of soil, deposited by the never-ending wind in every crack and crevice. Â Concrete crumbles and slowly resembles the sky in the many months of winter. Â Steel, on the other hand, turns a reddish-brown that’s indistinguishable from the […]
Boo Ray – Sea Of Lights
After listening for the first time to Boo Ray’s latest record, Sea Of Lights, I went to his web site. Â He compared his approach to making a record to like being on a dirt track race team. Â Damn. Â To anyone who’s ever done that, it says all that needs to be said about a work […]
The Silks – Turn Me On
For years the description of Big 10 football was “3 yards and a cloud of dust”. Â It was straight-ahead, grind-it-out, pigskin football. Â Fans in the upper Midwest were proud of their brand of ball, even while the sophisticates on either coast snickered, and it started to reflect not just a sports mentality, but a general […]
Ralph Stanley Remembered
There’s a quote frequently used to describe how old blues musicians managed to get the sound they did despite having no formal training, “it’s in him, and it got to get out.” Â That came to mind last weekend as I heard of the passing of Dr. Ralph Stanley. Â Anyone who heard Stanley perform O Death, […]
Elizabeth Wills – Every Little Star
Somewhere along the way, we seem to have lost an important component of American music. Â In the 70’s, as solo artists, Joni Mitchell and Carol King defined popular music every bit as much as Zeppelin or the Stones. Â Fast forward a couple of decades and Sarah McLachlan and Jewel were the flag-bearers. Â Nowadays, Shawn Colvin […]
Grant Farm – Kiss the Ground
Say “jam band” to a lot of people and they picture fans as face painted twirlers wearing tie-dye in the meadow. Â I’ve never been to a Grant Farm show, but I have to believe they have also have a contingent dressed in pearl-snap shirts and intricately stitched cowboy boots. Â They’re about the only jam band […]
Ana Egge Premiere – Promises To Break
Last year I reviewed Ana Egge’s album, Bright Shadow. Â She had a progressive folk sound that owed a lot to her back up band, the Stray Birds. Â For her latest effort, Ana has thrown in with Danish indie band, The Sentimentals, to supplement her rich vocal talents. Here at Twangville we’re darned happy to offer […]
Robert Rex Waller, Jr – Fancy Free
The snow swirls around the lamp posts and even the bars have been closed for hours.  It’s too cold to kill time, but killing time is all you have left.  Painting that picture of desolation and near despair, Robert Rex Waller, Jr., opens his upcoming album with a version of Utah Phillips’ Walking Through the Snow In […]