Twangville

A music blog featuring Alt-Country, Americana, Indie, Rock, Folk & Blues. Est. 2005.

Now & Then: Ian Noe’s Canyon Falls Trailer Band and the reach of Grievous Angel

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Country music has always had room for musicians whose ambitions exceed their prospects. Ian Noe gives those musicians a whole album on Canyon Falls Trailer Band, imagining a group taking its shot at a Nashville showcase. Gram Parsons makes a fitting companion: an artist whose attachment to traditional country helped expand what younger songwriters could do with it. The connection becomes especially clear when Noe introduces some interstellar visitors with country music on their minds.

Now & Then: Rhiannon Giddens’s Hope Is the Thing with Feathers and the reach of Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues

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Rhiannon Giddens has spent much of her career expanding the commonly told history of American folk music, particularly the role Black musicians played in shaping it. Hope Is the Thing with Feathers continues that work while emphasizing ensemble performance and songs connected to North Carolina. Odetta’s 1956 debut, Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues, offers a useful earlier reference point. Both records mix interpretation with a strong sense of ownership over the material.

Now & Then: The Yawpers’ Teething and the reach of Fire of Love

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The Yawpers have never hidden the influence of bands that pushed country and blues through a punk framework. Nate Cook has specifically cited the Gun Club, which makes Fire of Love, the band’s 1981 debut, a strong reference point for Teething. The connection is not simply aggression or guitar tone. Both records treat roots music as working material, preserving its rhythmic and melodic foundations while making it fit the concerns and energy of their own moment.

Now & Then: The Jayhawks’ Sanctuary Park and the reach of Buffalo Springfield Again

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The Jayhawks have spent much of their career balancing country songwriting with a rock-band approach, and Sanctuary Park continues that tradition. That makes Buffalo Springfield Again a useful predecessor. The 1967 album mixed country instrumentation, folk-rooted harmonies and electric rock without treating those elements as separate styles. The Jayhawks work from a similar foundation, but with the benefit of decades spent refining their own version of it.