Every year at this time, a couple of weeks after all the glitterati have left South By, one of the best music festivals in the country kicks off 20 minutes outside of Austin: the Old Settler’s Music Festival. Â It’s a great mix of old and new talent, with enough people to get a good vibe […]
Readers’ Pick: Lucinda Williams, “Blessedâ€
READERS PICK: MARCH 2011 Twangville readers recently picked Lucinda Williams Blessed as their favorite album of March 2011. It seems like each time Williams releases a new album critics call it the best since Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. I guess that’s the consequence of having a Grammy-winning album. While comparisons will forever be […]
The Band Of Heathens – Top Hat Crown & the Clapmaster’s Son
I’m beginning to think The Band of Heathens are a little bit like Benjamin Button. Â Many well-known bands start with critically acclaimed albums, move to spending more time on the road, then abandon studio releases all together to milk their live performances. Â The Heathens started as a live-only phenomena and now, with their third release, […]
Twangville Talks to Jason Isbell
Twangville recently got a chance to talk with Jason Isbell by phone as he was resting up back home, getting ready for the release of his new record, Here We Rest (see Chip’s review here). The fruits of said conversation are below, enjoy. Congratulations on the new record, I really think it’s the best thing […]
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – Here we Rest
I almost didn’t make it past the first song. “Alabama Pines”. Usually that would have bad conotations, but in this case the song was absolutely mesmerizing. It is a song centered around the area of Alabama where I grew up. It is not the first Isbell penned song to have such an impact. “Dress Blues”, […]
Bobby Long – A Winter Tale
English Folkster Bobby Long, the man with a name that (to me, at least) recalls more baseball and apple pie than London Bridge and Boddington’s, is back with an album that, at first blush, seems like a relatively stright-forward folk record, A Winter Tale. Sure, the album’s title has a certain Stratford-on-Avon feel to it, […]
SXSW 2011: The Sounds, Part 2
Kasey Anderson & the Honkies Music is often about improvisation. In this case, however, it wasn’t the type of improvisation that one would expect. When the bass drum kept slipping across the cement floor, the band grabbed a keg to hold it in place. When that didn’t work, Anderson took a seat on the keg […]
SXSW 2011: The Sounds, Part 1
Maxim Ludwig & the Santa Fe Seven If I were to highlight only one band from SXSW, this would be this one. To say that Ludwig is high energy simply doesn’t do him justice. He exudes enthusiasm with a confidence and maturity that belies his age. His songs have a familiar quality to them, a […]
Mark Erelli – Live in the Treehouse
After several spins of his 2010 release “Little Vigils,” I realized that Mark Erelli would really appeal not only to the singer/songwriter crowd, but to the Americana twangville crowd just the same. Erelli has a unique voice in his writing. The stories paint pictures and bring characters to life like short stories. Both the tunes […]
J. Mascis – Several Shades of Why
The new album from J. Mascis, Several Shades of Why (Sub Pop), is a thoroughly predictable affair. But wait, that doesnt mean what you may think it does. It should be of little shock that Mascis’ laconic, and iconic, delivery is indeed tailor-made for an album comprised of primarily acoustic arrangements. But, given that Mascis […]