Life on the road is hard. Â As the glass of water metaphor describes, though, optimists and pessimists see that challenge differently. Â You can put Ted Russell Kamp firmly in the former. Â Between his own performances and as a long-time member of Shooter Jennings’ band, Kamp gets double the opportunity to travel. Â On his latest record, […]
Jimbo Mathus on Rehearsing in an Old Fire Station and Working to Stay Afloat
Jimbo Mathus recalls riding multiple tour vans into the ground, time spent working as a deck hand for the Canal Barge Company in New Orleans and a blessed career without health insurance.
Tim Bluhm – Sorta Surviving
There’s nothing like going to the source of your inspiration to really understand its intricacies. Â Californian Tim Bluhm, of The Mother Hips, did just that when he decided to do a country music album. Â 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 […]
Kylie Rae Harris on Topo Chico and Not Losing Sight of the “Why”
Texas singer-songwriter Kylie Rae Harris on the high school residency that helped her build her musical chops, the importance of showing up and why being an artist is a total gamble.
SXSW 2019 – The Sounds, Part 2
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
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
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
The opening song on the Robbie Walden Band’s latest album, When the Rooster Crows, is 50 Years Too Late. Â 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. Â Lyrically the project follows […]
Ray Benson on the Day Job He’s Had for 49 Years and an Eclectic First Gig
Joey McGee – El Camino Real
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. Â Clark told the story, in his homespun way, of one of the crazy characters that inhabited his world. Â McGee adds an electric guitar […]