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.
Readers’ Pick: The Jayhawks – Sanctuary Park
You picked The Jayhawks – Sanctuary Park as your favorite new release for the week of August 28, 2026.
Drivin N Cryin: Still Writing the Story
Several days after speaking with Kevn Kinney, I watched a storm roll across the mesas outside Taos, New Mexico. Purple lightning split the sky, eventually forcing Drivin N Cryin’s scheduled outdoor performance indoors. The band adjusted. Instead of the full-throttle rock show one might expect from a group that has spent nearly four decades making […]
“Don’t Fence Me In” – a Premiere from Sanford
Brooklyn by way of South Carolina, Jay Sanford follows January’s Big Tent Revival with an old-school two-sided (digital) single. The A-side, “Don’t Fence Me In,” takes a honky-tonk two-step and runs it through a rock engine — same dance-floor bones, more muscle. Sanford lays out the thesis in the chorus: “I do some honky-tonkin’ but […]
Futurebirds’ Carter King on Gas-Station Chicken Tenders and 401(k) Plans
Carter King, singer-guitarist for Athens, Georgia’s Futurebirds, talks about the sea of part-time odds-n-ends he’s taken over the years to fill the music gaps and how Howie Mandel inspired the first song he ever wrote.
Monday Morning Video – Dolly Parton
Plenty has already been written about Dolly Parton, and the stories and praise will continue to flow. All are glorious tributes to an artist whose impact spanned generations and will continue to do so across those that follow. Twangville Shawn already shared his memories of Dolly. Here’s one of mine — a night at SXSW […]
Now & Then: Ray Wylie Hubbard’s Reel 2 Reel 4 Real and the reach of Naturally
Ray Wylie Hubbard has long worked in the overlap between country, blues and rock, usually with more interest in feel than polish. Reel 2 Reel 4 Real continues that approach with a rawer, more garage-minded sound. J.J. Cale’s 1971 debut Naturally makes a useful comparison because it established an earlier model for roots music built around groove, restraint and an unmistakable guitar style.
Readers’ Pick: Ray Wylie Hubbard – Reel 2 Reel 4 Real
You picked Ray Wylie Hubbard – Reel 2 Reel 4 Real as your favorite new release for the week of August 21, 2026.
Dolly Parton – In Memoriam
As a kid growing up I didn’t like Dolly Parton. She and her musical partner, Porter Wagoner, represented everything I hated about country music at the time. They were well-coifed, fancily dressed, polished, with heavily produced records. Absolutely nothing of value to a teenage boy. Fast forward a few years and she’d shed Porter and, […]
Norwegian-Americana: Nashville on Her Mind, Norway in Her Bones
Before there was Tennessee, there was Stavanger. Before the highways, honky-tonks and imagined horizons of America, there was the Norwegian coastline—cold water, hard wind, immense mountains and a young girl searching for where she belonged. Maren Davidsen’s music exists in that distance between two worlds. A Norwegian singer-songwriter drawn to the emotional honesty of Americana, […]