Several good EP’s have crossed my listening desk over the summer, and while individually there wasn’t quite enough material in each of them for a full review, they’re all worth a listen. First up is the latest from Lost & Nameless, When You Walked Into the Room. Â I first ran across this group early in […]
Phoebe Hunt & the Gatherers – Walk With Me
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like The Belleville Outfit is becoming sort of like Big Star or Nick Drake.  Which is to say that if everyone who currently claims to have been a huge fan from the beginning had actually bought records or gone to shows when the band existed, they’d have been a hugely successful […]
Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen – Cold Spell
By the late 60’s and early 70’s bluegrass had evolved from Bill Monroe’s radical take on old-timey music to a relatively known and expected performance and sound.  The Stanley Brothers, the Foggy Mountain Boys, The Osborne Brothers, and many of their peers followed a set framework and style with matching dress and choreographed solos.  It’s hard […]
Haas Kowert Tice – You Got This
A few years ago I saw Casey Driessen at a music festival down in Austin. Â Of the perhaps 100 people backstage at the moment, I’d guess half of them were fiddle players. Â Every fiddle player who was performing that day was there. Â It was impressive to see all that talent make their way to see […]
Corb Lund – Counterfeit Blues
Corb Lund built a time machine. Â He took his long-time band, The Hurtin’ Albertans, down to Memphis and recorded a number of his live show staples and made them sound more original and rootsy than when they first laid down the tracks 8 – 10 years ago. Â Retransmitting the ambience of the famed Sun Studios, […]
Missy Werner – Turn This Heart Around
You just can’t have a good summer mix tape without some bluegrass. Â Whether you’re getting liquored up at a festival down at the fairgrounds or spending some quality time with the family at the annual church picnic, bluegrass just sounds like a carefree, sunny day. Â Yes, there are plenty of songs about heartbreak and angst, […]
Madisons – You Can Take Your Sorry Ass Back To West Texas!
If there is such a musical genre as Americana Noir, the Austin-based Madisons may be one of the leading disciples.  Front man, and sole songwriter for the band, Dominic Solis has imbued their second album, You Can Take Your Sorry Ass Back To West Texas! with a darkness that is equal parts fear and curiosity.  Solis’ […]
Classic African American Songsters from Smithsonian Folkways
It’s often said that those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. Â The implication is this is a bad thing. Â It may be in many settings, but in music it’s more the case that those who know history love to repeat it. Â Shortly after World War II there was a concerted effort to […]
Amy McCarley – Jet Engines
There must be something in the air or water again in northern Alabama.  Home to the legendary Fame studio in Muscle Shoals, site of innumerable hits in the 60’s and 70’s, this part of the country is breeding future stars again.  This time, though, it’s not the studio musicians adding brilliance to an outsider’s record, but […]
Anna Lynch – Anna Lynch
In the last couple of weeks I’ve written about North Of Nashville and True North. Â Unwittingly, I was leading up to this week’s review–Anna Lynch. Â As residents of Anchorage, Alaska, Anna and her bandmates are waaaay north of Nashville. Â You’d never know that by listening to Anna’s self-titled release, though. Â It has love songs and […]