Josh Erwin of Athens, GA’s Packway Handle Band chats about engine troubles with the group’s Ford passenger van, a rather interesting day job and the distractions to be found while rehearsing at musician Jim White’s house.
Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys – Ionia
In small rural towns across America Friday night is high school sports night. Â Everyone collects at the field/gymnasium about 6:30 and watches the local kids take on the town-down-the-road kids. Â In autumn it’s football, winter means basketball, and spring is for track & field. Â Because the school is so small, all the kids play all […]
Hazy Shade of Winter — A Special Boston Playlist
Here is the latest installment in our periodic series highlighting Boston and New England artists. (View the complete series here.) FEATURED ALBUMS Barnstar! (from the Signature Sounds Records release Sit Down! Get Up! Get Out!) I don’t think that it is possible to listen to Barnstar and not crack a smile. Every performance, even the […]
Wood & Wire – The Coast
A few years ago some members of a couple of different Austin-based bluegrass bands got together for some late night jamming and out of it came one of my favorite bluegrass albums of 2013, the self-titled Wood & Wire. Â The boys are now releasing their follow-up album, The Coast. There’s an occasionally recurring theme that […]
Mayer’s Playlist for January 2015
ALBUM OF THE MONTH Fear and Saturday Night, by Ryan Bingham Bingham sets the tone for his latest album right out of the gate. “I’ve been carrying my troubles in this pack strapped to my shoulder,” he confesses in the opening “Nobody Knows My Trouble.” What follows are twelve songs that are filled with life […]
The Sweet Lowdown – Chasing the Sun
There have been a small handful of times over the last 30 years of seeing perhaps 100 bands/year where the vocals made such a powerful impression on me that I had a visceral reaction, stopping me in my tracks or sending a shiver down my spine. Â One of those was the first time seeing The […]
The Twangville 2015 Release Preview, Boston Edition
I expect that these releases are just the beginning of another great year of Boston music. MAKE TIME by THE SUITCASE JUNKET(6 January) Singer-songwriter Matt Lorenz knows how to make one heck of a racket. His one-man band sound leans heavy on fuzzy guitar and ragged percussion, augmented by occasional throat-singing that gives the songs […]
The Twangville 2015 Release Preview
There is already an impressive collection of releases on the docket for 2015, with plenty more sure to follow. Here are a handful that the Twangville crew are eagerly anticipating. What albums, whether on this list or not, are you most excited to hear? ABSENT FATHERS by JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE(13 January on Vagrant Records) Earle […]
Chip’s Best of 2014
As usual it was a tough year to pick the top albums. This year was particularly tough; in that there were a number of top notch releases, but no clear standouts. Thus the conundrum, how to separate albums that are all deserving and uniquely their own. Here is an attempt to rank my top ten. […]
Jim White On Never Working a Day Job and a Musician’s Eternal Struggle
Musician, producer and writer White shares tour stories, talks super glue and reflects on why he can’t write a pop song.