If you laid the resumes of Marco Gutierrez, Trinidad Leal, Daniel Davis, Eric Harrison, and Colin Gilmore side by side you’d pretty quickly figure they were going to play together in a band, if not in this timeline in another. Turns out it is in this one, and the west Texas native sons have just […]
The Pleasures – Enemy Of My Enemy
At last year’s Folk Alliance I had the pleasure (pun intended) of seeing a new-ish duo from Australia, Catherine Britt and Lachlan Bryan, who now perform as The Pleasures. Both had already established themselves at solo artists, Britt as an internationally respected country music award winner, and Bryan as a veteran rock and roll road […]
Chip’s Best of 2025 – So Far
I thought I would kill two birds with one stone. My year end best of is a daunting task, so I am going to cut the challenge in half and try to get the Twangville readers to think about what their favorites are so far in 2025. No better to do that than give you […]
The Dang-It Bobbys – Early Riser
With July 4th just passed the cultural calendar is firmly planted in summer styles. The literary publications are full of reviews of beach reads. Hollywood is rolling out their summer blockbusters, a category which, if the critics are to be believed, pretty much originated 50 years ago with a story about a beach and a […]
The Twangville 2025 Album Preview-Side B
Here are some albums that we’re looking forward to hearing in the back half of 2025… Americana Radio by J. Isaiah Evans and the Boss Tweed (11 July) Evans and the Boss Tweed make a raucous entrance with their debut album. Evans pairs his booming voice with his fierce guitar for ten tracks of what […]
The Shootouts – Switchback
Some people collect old vinyl records. Some people collect autographs. As far as I can tell, Ryan Humbert and his bandmates in The Shootouts collect guest stars. They just released their 4th album, Switchback, and it includes appearances from Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, and Sam Bush, among others. Their previous records have featured Chuck Mead, […]
Ashleigh Flynn & the Riveters – Good Morning, Sunshine
Organizing an album around a theme is, of course, nothing new. It’s easy to cite examples from as far back as the 60’s, and I have no doubt the historically astute can point to even earlier projects. What’s far less common is organizing a band with a theme. That’s just what Portland, Oregon’s, Ashley Flynn […]
Pug Johnson – El Cabron
As a rule I believe you don’t have to grow up with a style of music in order to write it and play it well. I’ve heard great Americana music out of Scandinavia; some authentic country music from people who lived their whole life in Los Angeles; Bela Fleck grew up in that hotbed of […]
Dustin Brown – Dustin Brown
I’ve heard many musicians, from Todd Snider to Warren Haynes to Kris Kristofferson, advise aspiring songwriters to write about what they know. I have no idea if Texan Dustin Brown heard someone tell him that firsthand, but somewhere along the way he picked up the skill. He grew up the kid where both parents had […]
American Aquarium’s Road Trip to Raleigh 2025
Every year the first weekend of February B. J. Barham hosts American Aquarium’s Road Trip to Raleigh. In fact, this year was the Tenth anniversary of Road Trip. As usual it was held at Lincoln Theater in downtown Raleigh. It was the second time I attended, with last year being my first. One thing for […]