After an Americana love festival on Saturday, the true bluegrassers came out to play on Sunday. No this wasn’t Fresh Grass but it did share Sierra Hull and Festy hosts and curators Infamous Stringdusters. The day started with newly crowned IBMA award winning mandolin player of the year/singer-songwriter Sierra Hull. I’d seen her previously with […]
Boston’s Best Kept Festy – Saturday
I have to admit, I was surprised to see the lineup at such a relatively unknown festival called Festy this year. Where else can you see Americana stalwarts Josh Ritter and Justin Townes Earle on the same day? And when my wife and I waltzed in to the show at a hair past noon, I […]
Win Big – Steve Earle’s “Guitar Town” (with a bonus live album)!
Here’s your chance to win a copy of the Steve Earle Guitar Town 30th Anniversary Collection. Read on for details! There are few artists whose careers can be described as a musical journey. Steve Earle is one of them. Over his more than 30 year – and nearly 20 album – career he has taken […]
Americana 2016: The Sounds, Part 2
Every fall, The Americana Music Association gathers members, artists and music fans together in Nashville for its annual conference. Starting with the annual Americana Music Awards and continuing through four days of showcases and panel discussions, it is a tremendous celebration of Americana music. SHANNON MCNALLY It’s become something of an annual tradition to close […]
Americana 2016: The Sounds, Part 1
Every fall, The Americana Music Association gathers members, artists and music fans together in Nashville for its annual conference. Starting with the annual Americana Music Awards and continuing through four days of showcases and panel discussions, it is a tremendous celebration of Americana music. SHANE NICHOLSON I caught Australian singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson three times over […]
AmericanaFest 2016 – The AMA Awards
Every fall, The Americana Music Association gathers members, artists and music fans together in Nashville for its annual conference. Starting with the annual Americana Music Awards and continuing through four days of showcases and panel discussions, it is a tremendous celebration of Americana music.  Traditionally, the opening of the annual Americana Music Festival was always […]
“The Favors You Ask,” A Premiere from Zach Schmidt
The best country songs tell great stories. Well, singer-songwriter Zach Schmidt has got a bunch of ’em. All the better, they are drawn from his own life experiences. The now Nashville-based Schmidt has lived a life of wanderlust, having bicycled across the US and worked on a Texas cattle ranch. No surprise to anyone, Schmidt […]
Amanda Shires- My Piece of Land
From the opening notes, I could already tell that this was going to be my favorite Amanda Shires record. There’s just something different about it. Shires is now married and has a beautiful baby, just like I do, so I felt a particular connection. She wrote these songs at the very end of her pregnancy, […]
In Memoriam – Buckwheat Zydeco
While New Orleans has played a significant role in two of America’s greatest musical forms, jazz and blues, when you say “Louisiana music” to most people they hear the style championed by Stanley Dural, Jr., aka Buckwheat Zydeco. Â Dural passed away this past weekend and it’s worth remembering the man who became the face of […]
The Handsome Family/Unseen
I first became aware of The Handsome Family sometime around 1997 or so when the drummer in my college band blasted the tune “Moving Furniture Around†from their 1994 debut Odessa. I went on to hear them on and off throughout the years on the local Americana radio show (Red Bank Bar & Grille show) […]