Twangville

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

Mason Jennings – Minnesota

By

Mason Jennings’ latest effort, Minnesota, is a lyrical romp with Jennings’ characteristic musical hooks that teeter on the edge of sappy but that work for him.  Every song on Minnesota is worth the listen.  The multi-instrumental Jennings opens with the subdued piano-based ballad “Bitter Heart” followed immediately with “Raindrops on the Kitchen Floor,” a retro […]

Q & A – Maps & Atlases

By

Chicago-based four-piece Maps & Atlases aren’t a math-rock band. O.K., good, we’ve got that out of the way now. Sure, there are some rather math-y elements to the band’s indie-folk informed sound, but not to the extent where those intricacies define their overall sonic contributions in the way that many would have one believe. While […]

Nick 13

By

By now, surely it’s no secret that country and punk go together about as good as peanut butter and chocolate. And typically, when these two classic American forms of music are welded together, the result seems to resemble a harder, thrashing product. Of course, the overall ethos attached to artists that practice either style in […]

Readers’ Pick: My Morning Jacket, “Circuital”

By

READERS PICK: MAY 2011 Twangville readers picked My Morning Jacket‘s Circuital as their favorite album of May 2011. If there’s anyone out there redefining classic rock it’s Jim James and My Morning Jacket. Circuital the band’s sixth LP takes me back to 70’s era Pink Floyd where sound was used to paint vivid pictures of […]

Suzanna Choffel – Steady Eye Shaky Bow

By

As the old Monty Python line goes, “and now for something completely different.”  A few weeks ago I happened to catch Suzanna Choffel at Old Settlers Music Festival.  She was playing to an Austin crowd that knew her and my notes say something to the effect of “country meets jazz”.  Fast forward to last week […]

Sarah Jarosz – Follow Me Down

By

Covering the likes of Radiohead and Edgar Allen Poe in addition to her own superb songwriting, the single word to describe the latest effort from Sarah Jarosz would have to be “diversity”.  With a supporting cast of Americana and pop stars seemingly unavailable to any other musician under 70 years of age (Sarah was 19 […]

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

By

Let’s get this much out of the way: Everyone’s right about the new Fleet Foxes album, Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop). It’s astonishing. Sorry. It’s a safe bet that many out there were hoping the gentle, bearded, harmonizing folkies form the Northwest would fall flat on their nature loving faces. But, alas, they stand triumphantly, even […]

Bobby Long – A Winter Tale

By

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 Video Companion

By

I got a bit carried away with the videos, compiling 26 great videos captured live at SXSW. Not surprisingly, we kick things off with the performance that introduced me to Maxim Ludwig & the Santa Fe Seven. From there, a three-fer from Alejandro Escovedo’s special Sunday night gig at the legendary Continental Club. We’ve got […]