If you’ve been reading Twangville for more than a couple of weeks, chances are you have your favorite roots/southern/alt-country rock band. It might be Drive By Truckers, The Hold Steady, Gaslight Anthem, whatever. Regardless of who your favorite is, you’re going to hear some of them in the latest release from 6 Day Bender, E’ville […]
The Restoration/Constance
While listening to the latest release from South Carolina’s The Restoration, one almost wishes there was a novel accompanying the disc. While I’m guessing that one does in fact exist, it may never leave the mind of brainchild Daniel Machado. Not the whole novel, anyway. Many pieces and parts of it are scattered throughout, but […]
Two Cow Garage- Sweet Saint Me
Sweet Saint Me is Two Cow Garage’s fifth record. This is significant. Craig Finn of the Hold Steady recently expounded on the fifth album concept. Upon the release of his band’s latest opus and fifth record, he talked about the significance of a fifth album for a band, noting that most bands-even the successful ones- […]
EP Round-Up (Jill Andrews, Cary Ann Hearst, Hannah Miller, Jon Drake, and Luke Elliot)
Jill Andrews- S/T Jill Andrews was half of the late-great, under-the-radar band The Everybodyfields. With partner in crime Sam Quinn, Andrews created up beat yet haunting folk music. Their three records together were a sublime synthesis of folk, bluegrass, rock, and indie influences. They grew a fairly devoted cult like fan base before calling it […]
Pat Anderson – Magnolia Road
To re-arrange a Bruce Springsteen hit for inclusion on your first record requires either courage and talent, or stupidity and narcissism. Fortunately, Pat Anderson exhibits the former on his debut album, Magnolia Road. He turns an anthemic tale of defiance into a story of resignation and anguish. Accompanied by a sparse banjo from virtuoso Will […]
Jesse Malin & St. Marks Social – Love It to Life
It seems like everything written about Jesse Malin refers to his punk years in the band D Generation. If not about that, it’s all about the Bruce Springsteen or Ryan Adams comparisons drawing from his solo career. For far too long, I’ve ignored the chit-chat. I wanted to like Malin’s music as much as everyone […]
Mike Farris – The Night Cumberland Came Alive
I’m not sure why the May floods that hit Nashville in May of this year did not seem to grasp the nation’s attention like other recent natural disasters did. There was a lot of press attention, but it seems that the lack of hurricane force winds made the story less captivating. However, the people who […]
The Old 97’s – The Grand Theatre, Volume One.
Much noise has been made over the past decade as we have seen bands that reveled in roots-rock rowdiness polish their tones a bit and venture into the waters of pop and even experimental sounds. Of course, for every Wilco, there’s a band like Son Volt – a band that has stayed the country-rock course. […]
Kasey Anderson Unveils Heart of A Dog
For those Kasey Anderson fans out there, good news arrives in the form a new album. Heart of A Dog is the follow-up to this year’s critically acclaimed Nowhere Nights. Here’s Kasey unveiling the new record: Starting today, and running every Friday for the next 11 weeks (until Dec. 10), I’ll be posting a tune […]
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2010
This year marked the 10th version of the world’s largest music festival. It’s grown from 13,000 people watching 9 acts on 2 stages in one day, called Strictly Bluegrass, to a 3-day event with nearly 90 acts on 6 stages with 650,000 attendees, called Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. All of it free: paid for by philanthropist […]