The email started innocuously: “Hey, hope all’s well.” It was from a record company publicist suggesting there was a show at my local spot I might want to go see. Dave Alvin’s jam band had a new record out, they’d played a successful first live gig at Hardly Strictly, and they were going to take […]
Sarah Jarosz – Polaroid Lovers
Back in 2005 I had the pleasure of seeing a then-13-year-old Sarah Jarosz in cut-offs and black high-tops shredding her mandolin on a couple of bluegrass numbers in the spot she’d earned by winning the previous year’s youth talent contest at Old Settler’s Music Festival. Several of the other acts that year invited her up […]
Shawn’s Favorite Albums of 2023
2023 was a good year for new records. It seemed like themes and topics were no longer dominated by pandemic-induced experiences, and writers felt free to explore the entirety of their experience again. There was a good mix of new and old, both in terms of songs and artists. There’s the usual caveat that what […]
Uncle Lucius – Like It’s the Last One Left
The sub-title of this review could be “Uncle Lucius, a band in 3 acts”. In the early-mid 2010’s, Uncle Lucius was emblematic of the Austin bands that could make a living without ever sleeping in a hotel (although they certainly did their fair share of touring). Then in 2018 front man Kevin Galloway decided it […]
Smith & Tegio – Can’t Stay Here
Practiced nonchalance. In the music world, it’s the ability to sound just as fresh the 500th time you play a song as you did when you first wrote it. Bands that are good at it are always better live. Although I’ve only seen them live once, I get an overwhelming sense Californians Mark Tegio and […]
Low Water Bridge Band – Back to the Valley
If Nashville is the white collar home of country music, then the blue collar home must be about 500 miles northeast of there, near the Shenandoah Valley. I stumbled across a band recently that is the epitome of blue collar country music, and coincidentally they call the Shenandoah Valley home. The Low Water Bridge Band […]
Nora Jane Struthers – Back To Cast Iron
We all had to make unplanned changes for the forced differences the pandemic made on our lives, but few had to adapt as much as Nora Jane Struthers. Having reconciled how to be simultaneously a traveling musician and full-time mother, she suddenly had to re-examine almost everything. That whole process informed the songs on her […]
Vinnie Paolizzi – The Vinnie Paolizzi LP
Plenty of people, myself included, have lamented the music Nashville is known for has become a formulaic creation from click-tracks and tailgate party themes. While there’s certainly plenty of that, it’s an exaggeration to suggest that’s all there is. Case in point is Pennsylvania native, now Nashville resident Vinnie Paolizzi. After banging around Music City […]
Guy Forsyth Video Premiere – Rider
At the risk of mixing metaphors, Guy Forsyth started his journey washing dishes and mucking stalls in the musical kingdom of Austin. From those early days of busking on the UT campus he worked his way up to leading multiple bands and securing a residency at Antone’s, the throne room of Texas blues. Along the […]
Melissa Ruth Song Premiere – Low-Key Christmas
As we head into the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we’re bombarded with reinforcements of the typical Western Christmas by pretty much any and every media outlet we come across. You know them all: a bountiful, picture-perfect family dinner, fashionably wrapped gifts under an impeccably decorated tree, snowfall adding a glisten and sparkle […]