Spend enough time in the South in the summer and your definition of “clean” changes.  Whether it’s the humidity coming off the big, muddy rivers, or the dust devils spawning out of the cotton fields and cattle ranches, a shower is just temptation for the grit to cling harder.  After a while, that dirt permeates your […]
The Twangville 2018 Release Preview
If the albums scheduled for release over the next few months are any indication, there’s a great year of music ahead of us. Here are just a few forthcoming long-players that we are eagerly anticipating in 2018. BETWEEN TWO SHORES by GLEN HANSARD (19 January on Anti- Records) Hansard has the unique ability to combine […]
Bill’s Blues-Based Best of 2017
For me, and perhaps for all of us, 2017 was a year of challenges and changes. But through the challenges we’re facing, it’s reassuring to fall back on great music that expresses our frustrations and hopes. The following are my inexpert highlights of the best of blues-based (not strictly blues) music of 2017.  North Mississippi Allstars – Prayer […]
Fall Music Clean Up
Here it is the end of the year and I was going back through all the great music I’ve heard this year and found 3 CDs that never worked their way up to a full review, but for one reason or another they hung around in my playlist. Â So as you sit there turkey-drunk and […]
Peter Parcek – Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven
If you like crusty, aggressive blues and you haven’t heard Boston’s Peter Parcek, give him a listen. You won’t be disappointed. Parcek, whose love of blue-rock began when he was an American ex-patriot in London during the Vietnam War, again shows off his lightning guitar-slinger licks on Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven, his third […]
Matt Patershuk – Same As I Ever Have Been
There’s a gritty, dirty style of music that owes much of it’s heritage to the central swath of America, whether it’s the dirt-under-the-fingernails blues from the cotton fields of Mississippi or the the soot-stained rock and roll that came out of the factories in Detroit and Cleveland.  The ranches and oil fields of the plains of western […]
Deer Tick – Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
It takes a bit of bravado to release two albums simultaneously. Most bands work hard to put 10 – 12 well-crafted songs together every few years. It is not uncommon to see “B-side†albums come out shortly after a release, but for the most part they are only collections of songs and not a cohesive […]
Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires – Youth Detention
There is only one way to listen to a Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires album…. LOUD!!! Don’t worry about disturbing the neighbors. Just crank it up and wake up the whole neighborhood. On their new album, Youth Detention, the band combines their power chord driven Southern Rock and Blues influences with a Punk […]
Monday Morning Video – Gregg Allman (1947-2017)
It’s shaping up to be another tough year in the world of music. We’ve just lost another rock icon with the passing of Gregg Allman. Not only was he the writer of songs that have become touchstones in the rock canon, he was – and continues to be – an inspiration to musicians and fans […]
Monday Morning Video – The Suitcase Junket
Matt Lorenz, aka The Suitcase Junket, is one of the most distinctive singer-songwriters you’ll come across these days. A one-man band in the dumpster-diving tradition (his guitar was rescued from a dumpster; his kick-drum features his own re-purposed baby shoe), his songs veer from the beautiful ballads to battered blues. Layered on top are tasteful […]