Legendary Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly talks about working as a “dish pig” and describes time spent in a rental van at the beginning and the ending of tour.
Monday Morning Video – Matthew Sweet
Matthew Sweet emerged in the era of grunge and broke through by combining the intensity of that genre with the melodic grandeur of power pop. The results were potent. Sweet recently suffered a massive stroke while on tour in Canada. Like many independent musicians, Sweet doesn’t have adequate insurance coverage. He now faces a long […]
Long Prairie – By Sunrise
Movies made the transition to color from black-and-white along about the time of The Wizard of Oz, held back only by the economics in the years of the Depression. Photography, on the other hand, maintains a vibrant vein of black-and-white artistry to this day. Monochrome enhances the effect of light and shadow without the distraction […]
Singles Club – A Special Twangville Playlist
I typically stick to writing about albums and EPs – it’s enough to just keep up with all of those. There have been a slew of stand-alone singles over the past several months, however, that caught my attention. Here’s a sampling of them. Optimistic, Fee Doyle I had a conversation earlier this year with a […]
Amy Speace – The American Dream
In this year of election divisiveness perhaps no topic separates people more than what it means to live the American dream. When I saw the title of Amy Speace’s latest album, I wondered how she was going to address the issue. Instead of painting a picture of what it is, Speace instead offers vignettes of […]
Kasey Chambers on Lucinda Williams and Simplifying Her Approach to Touring
Australian singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers talks about her “inner foghorn” and the cover songs she sang at her first gig. and shares
Bonus Monday Video – The Waymores
Atlanta’s The Waymores have spent years on the road, cross-crossing the country with their honky-tonk sound. Unfortunately things are about to change for the duo of Kira Annalise and Willie Heath Neal as Annalise is facing brain surgeries in the coming months. The healthcare costs, not to mention the loss of touring income, are a […]
Monday Morning Video – Jeffrey Gaines
When I’m not listening to stuff that I plan to review, I like to listen to music on shuffle. It’s particularly fun when I get reminded of an artist who had slipped from memory. This past week’s surprise was Jeffrey Gaines, whose music and performances pack an emotional punch. Here’s an example, “No, I Don’t […]
Ronnie Baker Brooks – Blues In My DNA
Ronnie Baker Brooks plays such a serious guitar, one might say it’s in his DNA. The son of Chicago blues great Lonnie Brooks, Brooks (whose birth name was Rodney Dion Baker), along with his brother Wayne Baker Brooks, is one of a number of gifted blues offspring, including the likes of Shemekia Copeland (daughter of […]
New Earth Farmers – The Sky From the Underground
Paul Knowles and Nicole Storto first came to my attention a decade plus ago as Mars Arizona, a folk music duo. The pair morphed into New American Farmers, a Northern California Americana/roots band. From there they became New Earth Farmers, leaving most of the twang and acoustic arrangements behind. The first NEF album featured a […]