Backyard Tire Fire, Vagabonds and Hooligans (O.L.E. Records) Good stuff from Athens and Asheville rooted Backyard Tire Fire. Now putting it down in Bloomington, IL the trio delivers a promising new record titled Vagabonds and Hooligans. You gotta love an album whose first verse reads: Instruments and cable ties and bottles on the floor / […]
Paolo Nutini & More, Album Previews
HOT STUFF: Paolo Nutini, These Streets (WEA) I haven’t given many of this week’s new releases a listen yet, but a preliminary dig into Scottish cat, Paolo Nutini, has me interested. I’m getting some of the same good vibes I’ve had from Amos Lee and K.T. Tunstall in the past. It has me looking forward […]
Tom’s Pick of the Week, Drive-by Truckers
DBT!… DBT!… DBT!… my favorite rock band since GBV hung the towel over a year ago. The Drive-by Truckers return with their latest release A Blessing and A Curse. While I’m not as emotionally attached to this one as I was 2004’s The Dirty South, I undoubtedly believe this will add yet one more notch […]
Tom’s Pick of the Week, Josh Ritter
The Animal Years has been highly anticipated for some time now. You’ll find this album reminiscent of the folkier side of Bruce Springsteen and more recently Ryan Adams but with better vocals, at least in my opinion. So far this year, this is the best Folk album I’ve listened to. A full album stream is […]
Tom’s Pick of the Week, Bruce Robison
There are several interesting releases this week. I’m intrigued by releases from just about all these artists. Though, the only one that I’ve been able to preview that I feel comfortable recommending is Texas-based, Americana singer-songwriter, Bruce Robison’s Eleven Stories. Check out track #2 “Virginia”: [audio:http://www.sustainrecords.com/audio/Bruce%20Robison%20-%20Virginia.mp3] Notable releases for week of April 4, 2006 from: […]
Tom’s Pick of the Week, Matt Costa
What’s the deal with surfer-turned-musicians lately? There’s Jack Johnson, Tristan Prettyman and now Matt Costa. Well, diverging slightly, Costa is skateboarder-turned-musician. Regardless of the subtle difference, it seems that he is closely associated with the aformentioned Johnson. You’ll find him on Brushfire Records home of Johnson and pal G. Love. Costa’s “Songs We Sing” mostly […]
The Wood Brothers – Ways Not To Lose
The Wood Brothers released their first official album recently. Until now all that had been available were bootlegs of live shows that were only attainable through generous friends. Their new album is titled “Ways Not To Lose” and was released by Blue Note records, the same label that has claim over bassist Chris Wood’s other […]
Listen to Rhett Miller’s “Believer”
Here’s a full album stream of Rhett Miller‘s latest album “Believer” courtesy of ARTISTdirect. Also, check out Tom or Mayer’s previous posts about this album. By the way, somebody has got to rough this boy up a bit if he wants to continue being a twanger. He is way too pretty for this line of […]
Listen to KT Tunstall’s “Eye to the Telescope”
Check out up and coming folk pop star KT Tunstall’s full release “Eye to the Telescope” on ARTISTdirect.com. Its so refreshing to see someone new to the pop scene that carries some solid songwriting, outstanding acoustic guitar and bluesy vocals. For her, I’m going to start an early campaign for Best New Artist of 2006. […]
Check Out Jon Nicholson’s “Stereo”
They say that we all benefit from artists’ pain and sacrifice. Well here’s one tale that proves the point. A few years back, the drummer in Jon Nicholson’s former band broke into the band’s storage locker, stole all the gear and pawned it for cash. Nicholson took the tale and turned into this great track. […]