Mayer’s Playlist from July 2009, a Video Companion
So my quest for a Bottle Rockets video from the new release turned up empty. That won’t, however, stop us from watching the boys rock out with David Bowie’s “Suffragette City.” From there we run through a string of great live performances from Daddy (Will Kimbrough & Tommy Womack), Jones Street Station, Those Darlins, Ketch […]
Zac Brown Band – Live From Bonnaroo
The Zac Brown Band is perhaps the biggest story of surprising success in the realm of popular music in the last year or two. The ZBB was a hard working, relentlessly touring band who found themselves being signed by Atlantic Records and then watched their record, The Foundation get re-released (after selling a good amount […]
Grant Langston – Stand Up Man
These days, there seems to be a retro honky-tonk style act pop-up every 10 minutes. I regularly listen to acts that really want to be Dale Watson, or really wish that they were as rebelliously reckless as they try to be. I also get plenty of albums that showcase lyrics that are supposed to be […]
Scott Warren – Quick Fix Bandage
I have really enjoyed digging into the new album from Californias’ Scott Warren. Quick Fix Bandage (Jungular Music), is one of those great singer/songwriter albums that deftly tosses folk, rock, country and pop into a wholly satisfying creation. Warren’s vocals contain a gentle rasp that seems to help the fusion of different styles, much in […]
The Deep Vibration – Veracruz
The Deep Vibration, out of Nashville, know how to leave a guy wanting more. Their EP, Veracruz (Dualtone), seems to tease the listener with only a total of 5 songs. All 5 songs are made up of high-quality, bluesy rock and it just doesnt seem like enough. Matt Campbell’s vocal performance is strong and the […]
Revisiting the Classics: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
The Band classic “The Weight” is a standard closing number for musicians across the world (see Chris & Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes joining Levon Helm on it this past week here), but I’ve always been partial to “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” Drummer Levon Helm’s impassioned vocals are downright spine-tingling as […]
Damon Fowler – Sugar Shack
A few months back, along with a couple of other CD’s I was reviewing, I received a copy of Damon Fowler’s Sugar Shack . I put it on at the time, it was OK, I didn’t think too much about it. I realized this weekend that I keep coming back to this disc. I know […]
Gina Villalobos -Days On Their Side
The name Gina Villalobos and the words “Best-of-List” will likely be placed together fairly often, once the end of 2009 begins to roll into 2010. This impending pairing is due to the release of Villalobos” beautiful 4th studio album, Days on Their Side (Face West Records). Hailing from California, her geographical roots are prominent as […]
Mayer’s Playlist for June 2009, a Video Companion
We kick the June video companion off with selections from this month’s spotlight artists: Missouri’s Ha Ha Tonka and Athens, Georgia’s Patterson Hood. From there we get a bevy of performances from Rhett Miller, Amy Speace, Crooked Fingers, A Camp, Andrew Ripp, The Roadside Graves, Pete Yorn and Matthew Grimm (covering Billy Bragg). We finish […]