Twangville

A music blog featuring Alt-Country, Americana, Indie, Rock, Folk & Blues. Est. 2005.

Guy Davis – Kokomo Kidd

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Guy Davis is among the vanguard of musicians, including Keb’ Mo’, Eric Bibb, Otis Taylor, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Corey Harris, who have carried the blues torch lit by the post-war greats like Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and B.B. King.   His newest album, Kokomo Kidd, reminds us why Davis is a key voice in […]

John Mayall – Find a Way to Care

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John Mayall is often called the “Godfather of British Blues,” but his legacy may include so much more than just pioneering the British blues.  By introducing a generation of rock fans to the blues, he arguably had a hand in saving blues as a viable music form at a time in the 1960s when elderly bluesmen […]

The Blackberry Bushes String Band – Three Red Feathers

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I love it when music transports you to another time or place.  Some musicians do it with their stories.  We wrote about Kevin Gordon last week.  John Prine and Robert Earl Keen also come to mind.  Other musicians do it with the music itself.  The Mavericks always make my short list for that, as does […]

Zac Harmon – Right Man Right Now

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Good music speaks for itself. Long-time session- and side-man Zac Harmon, who produced and wrote music for artists as varied as Black Uhuru and The O’Jays, has made some good music after launching his young solo blues career. Hailing from Jackson, Mississippi, Harmon spent a number of years playing with soul-blues artists like Z.Z. Hill and […]

Mea Culpa! A Special Summer Playlist, Part 3

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Hard Work, Christopher Paul Stelling (from the Anti Records release Labor Against Waste) Count Labor Against Waste among the most powerful albums that you’ll hear this year. Wandering troubadour Stelling uses his songs to offer taut social commentary, peering into human intentions and sharing pointed perspectives on life’s opportunities and challenges. The mesmerizing ballad “Scarecrow” […]

Jackie Greene – Back To Birth

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I’ve always liked musicians who mix things up in a live show and aren’t afraid to dive into a new genre, comfortable their artistry and talent aren’t confined to a single style.  Over the years, Joan Osborne has been a poster child for that, doing everything from 90’s pop ballads to covers of Motown classics […]

Mea Culpa! A Special Summer Playlist, Part 2

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Devil in Me, Anderson East (from the Low Country Sound/Elektra Records release Delilah) There’s something special about that old-school soul sound. It’s all the more impressive when it is created by a young whippersnapper like Anderson East. The Nashville by way of Alabama singer-songwriter serves up an exhilarating debut album that is steeped in Muscle […]

Peace, Love and Twang at the Philadelphia Folk Festival

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The Philadelphia Folk Festival, which has been around for 54 years, isn’t your grandfather’s folk festival. While there is still a smattering of venerable acoustic solo folksingers on its program like Arlo Guthrie, Bruce Cockburn and Tom Paxton, the festival has become a great platform for Americana artists of all flavors as well as for […]