As seems to be the case every year, selecting a top 25 was difficult task for 2025. There are so many good albums not on the list, that I liked almost as much as what was included. However, selecting the top album was not hard this year. Wednesday – Bleeds was an obvious choice to […]
Shawn’s Album Favorites: 25 From 25
1) Silverada – Texas 42. A love letter to the Lone Star State, from the title track to the drinking song to the closer with the armadillo. With some slight changes of lyrics it’s also a requiem for living just about anywhere in southern and/or western rural America. 2) I’m With Her – Wild And […]
Mayer’s Picks, More 2025 Favorites
Here, in no particular order, are more favorites from 2025.
Rod Picott Has Left the Road—but Not the Work
For a quarter century, Rod Picott lived the life his songs describe. He drove the long miles, played the rooms that smelled of beer and dust, and wrote from the inside of working days that left their marks on the body. Now 61, Picott has stepped away from touring—not from music, and certainly not from […]
Monday Morning Video – Joe Ely
It’s hard to overstate Joe Ely’s influence. When your admirers range from Bruce Springsteen to the Clash, it says everything about both your reach and your range. Ely helped lay the groundwork for what became alt-country/Americana—starting with the Flatlanders—and then spent the rest of his career embodying Texas music in its fullest sense: folk storytelling, […]
Avery Ballotta of Damn Tall Buildings on Outdoor Rehearsals and Why Time Is Your Friend
Avery Ballotta, violinist and vocalist in trio Damn Tall Buildings, talks about working as a Cultural Ambassador with the U.S. State Dept. and the “Create, Craft, Release, Repeat” approach.
Afton Wolfe – Ophiuchus
I’ve noted before that I’m a fan of concept albums. I have not seen anyone embrace it quite the way Nashville-by-way-of-Mississippi resident Afton Wolfe did on his newest record, Ophiuchus. Each of the 13 songs is associated with one of the 12 well-known signs of the zodiac, plus one for the lesser known Ophiuchus. Then, […]
Damn Tall Buildings – The Universe Is Hungry
A few years ago, at Folk Alliance, I was in a room waiting for a band I wanted to hear when I saw a band I realized I needed to hear, Brooklyn’s Damn Tall Buildings. They’re a bluegrass trio that clearly had honed a lot of their act out on a sidewalk where you have […]
Diane Hubka & the Sun Canyon Band Premiere – Moon Over Larrabee
From the late 60’s to the early 90’s, the center of the rock and roll universe was a short stretch of Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. With clubs like the Rainbow Bar & Grill, The Viper Room, and Whisky A Go Go, it was the place to be seen and heard, especially if you were […]
The Grahams – The Bridge
When we last checked into our Americana travelogue protagonists, Alyssa and Doug Graham, they had just finished the third segment in a 3-part journey across the landscape. It was a motorcycle ride down Route 66, and was preceded by a train tour of the country and a Mississippi riverboat cruise. For their newest release, The […]