Twangville

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

Tim Bluhm – Sorta Surviving

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There’s nothing like going to the source of your inspiration to really understand its intricacies.  Californian Tim Bluhm, of The Mother Hips, did just that when he decided to do a country music album.  Sorta Surviving was recorded at Johnny Cash’s cabin-cum-studio, and features A-list players like Jesse Aycock on guitar and Elizabeth Cook on […]

SXSW 2019 – The Sounds, Part 2

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BEN KWELLER After a multi-year hiatus from music and, at least on this night, was in a feisty mood. In power trio format, he unleashed a boisterous pop fury. Welcome back, Ben. DEATH BY UNGA BUNGA This was the band that I saw that I saw the most at SXSW, catching three of their six […]

SXSW 2019 – The Sounds, Part 1

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BALTO I was sold on Balto as soon as I heard the blistering slide on “Black Snake, Mojave Blues”, the sample track that they shared on their SXSW profile page. Seeing them live provided an exclamation point – I caught two exceptional raucous and greasy outdoor sets in the afternoon sun. The LA-based quartet were […]

SXSW 2019 – The Scene

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For me, the true harbinger of spring is the arrival of the SXSW Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas. Or rather, spring begins for me when I arrive in Austin for SXSW. With upwards of 2,000 bands and more than 20,000 attendees from around the world, SXSW is the world’s premiere music conference. Even […]

Robbie Walden Band – When the Rooster Crows

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The opening song on the Robbie Walden Band’s latest album, When the Rooster Crows, is 50 Years Too Late.  It’s appropriately named because the record is what it would have sounded like if Merle Haggard had done a concept album in the late sixties when The Beatles first popularized the idea.  Lyrically the project follows […]

Joey McGee – El Camino Real

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Although he wrote the rest of the songs on his new album, El Camino Real, the one that most epitomizes the record is a cover of Susanna & Guy Clark’s The Cape.  Clark told the story, in his homespun way, of one of the crazy characters that inhabited his world.  McGee adds an electric guitar […]

Mayer’s Playlist for January/February 2019, Part 2

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Jingle and Go, Ryan Bingham (from the Axster Bingham Records release American Love Song) Ryan Bingham stretches out on American Love Song, offering up a roadhouse full of of songs about on love, political commentary and boisterous escapades. Opener “Jingle and Go” kicks things off playfully, recalling Little Feat with its intertwined piano and slide […]