Practiced nonchalance. In the music world, it’s the ability to sound just as fresh the 500th time you play a song as you did when you first wrote it. Bands that are good at it are always better live. Although I’ve only seen them live once, I get an overwhelming sense Californians Mark Tegio and […]
Low Water Bridge Band – Back to the Valley
If Nashville is the white collar home of country music, then the blue collar home must be about 500 miles northeast of there, near the Shenandoah Valley. I stumbled across a band recently that is the epitome of blue collar country music, and coincidentally they call the Shenandoah Valley home. The Low Water Bridge Band […]
Nora Jane Struthers – Back To Cast Iron
We all had to make unplanned changes for the forced differences the pandemic made on our lives, but few had to adapt as much as Nora Jane Struthers. Having reconciled how to be simultaneously a traveling musician and full-time mother, she suddenly had to re-examine almost everything. That whole process informed the songs on her […]
John Baumann on a Stolen Tour Van and How He Found His First Gig
Texas singer-songwriter John Baumann pleads the 5th in response to one of our questions but talks about his food menu while on tour and rehearsing in an Airbnb.
Vinnie Paolizzi – The Vinnie Paolizzi LP
Plenty of people, myself included, have lamented the music Nashville is known for has become a formulaic creation from click-tracks and tailgate party themes. While there’s certainly plenty of that, it’s an exaggeration to suggest that’s all there is. Case in point is Pennsylvania native, now Nashville resident Vinnie Paolizzi. After banging around Music City […]
Guy Forsyth Video Premiere – Rider
At the risk of mixing metaphors, Guy Forsyth started his journey washing dishes and mucking stalls in the musical kingdom of Austin. From those early days of busking on the UT campus he worked his way up to leading multiple bands and securing a residency at Antone’s, the throne room of Texas blues. Along the […]
Barton Davies from Boy Named Banjo on Their Tour Van “Bessie” and Working Odd Jobs
Barton Davies, banjo player from Boy Named Banjo, talks about banjo strings (obviously) and tour meal priorities.
Old Californio – Metaterranea
Everywhere has a home team band. Between long-time fans, songs that reference local places, or just the stamina to play anywhere that will have them, they start to become identified with a local style of music as much as the local style gets defined by them. When it comes to roots and Americana music, we […]
Robert Rex Waller, Jr. – See the Big Man Cry
I have to profess, a vocalist’s range is not something where I tend to pay enough attention. But it came up front and center on Robert Rex Waller, Junior’s latest album, See the Big Man Cry. Like hearing Roy Orbison or Raul Malo for the first time, you suddenly realize there’s a whole other axis […]
Josh Travis – Few of Days & Full of Trouble
Many religions, Christianity among them, have a common thread that life is hard, and short, and the reason to suffer through it is the afterlife. A lucky few learn to find and cherish the moments that offer a respite from the daily turmoil. Even those times are earned; they’re not a birthright. That kind of […]