Music Business. While artists rightfully focus their attention on the first word, there’s no avoiding the second. Creating the art is hard enough—but getting it out into the world takes a rare kind of perseverance and grit. Since the music industry began its digital transformation, I’ve watched countless artists explore different strategies when releasing new […]
Carolyn Wonderland – Truth Is
As some of you are already aware (based on your selection last week as Reader’s Pick), Carolyn Wonderland can play a wicked steel guitar. And on her newest release, Truth Is, she plays with attitude. Hailing originally from Houston, Wonderland didn’t have it easy. A high school dropout, she moved to Austin to pursue her […]
Big Love Car Wash Premiere – 21st Century Telegraph
I guess you could call Austin musicians Taylor Turner and Everett Wren serial band members. Taylor has been in more bands than he can remember; 15 during his college years alone. In addition to his solo projects, Wren has played with the Arkansas Youth Orchestra and formed groups Wagon, Lost & Nameless, and Chalkboard Poets. […]
I’m With Her – Wild And Clear And Blue
Sarah Jarosz, Sara Watkins and Aoife O’Donovan met each other when Jarosz was still in her early teens, and the other two barely in their twenties. By 2014 they were singing together in no less a venue than Telluride’s bluegrass festival. In 2018 they released an album, See You Around, and received a collective Grammy […]
VIDEO PREMIERE: Emily Zuzik – The Case for Slowing Down
We at Twangville are excited to premiere the video for a new song by Emily Zuzik – The Case for Slowing Down Emily Zuzik is from Los Angeles where she is active in the local independent music scene. However she is also a bit of a renaissance woman. In addition to being a talented songwriter […]
True North Duo – Time And Materials
Folk music has, I think, always had a DIY aesthetic. You strum your guitar, sing into the microphone (if available), and there you have it. Simple enough that more than a few artists have chosen to tour by bicycle. Oregon-based couple Kristen Grainger and Dan Wetzel have raised that quite a few notches on their […]
Mason Via – Mason Via
They say you can’t go home again, but that’s really about the mistaken idea nothing will have changed. What I do think is true, especially as you get older, is there’s something comforting and centering about returning to your roots for a visit. After a stint with Old Crow Medicine Show and recording with the […]
Graham Sharp – How Did We Do It
Wishes do come true. Four years ago I wrote about the debut solo album from Steep Canyon Rangers’ banjoist and frequent lead singer, Graham Sharp. I finished the post expressing a hope that, as much as I like the Rangers, the record wouldn’t be his last solo effort. Well, just out is another release from […]
Southern Avenue – Family
If you’re looking for a prescription to help get by in these darkish times, perhaps some unbridled optimism to offset the rancor that is so prevalent today, then Southern Avenue’s new Family might be just what the doctor ordered. When blues guitarist Ori Naftaly left his native Israel to compete in the International Blues Challenge […]
Grey DeLisle – The Grey Album
Back in the 60’s Nashville country music was feeling the pressure from honky-tonk hits coming out of Bakersfield, and from the blues-rock edge the Brits were putting on pop. So the A-list producers decided to replace the fiddle and steel guitar with orchestra strings and the nasally vocals with polished choruses. The resultant sound became […]