Greg Felden may have grown up in the Pacific Northwest, and then spent time on the East Coast. But his new album could be a metaphor for a California coast summer day. It starts with some gray and fog that can limit your visibility, like the first 3-4 songs on the record. So true to […]
Sour Bridges – Neon Headed Fool
Sometimes, when you hear music coming out of Austin you realize that it just couldn’t come from anywhere else. The songwriting style of Guy Clark and Townes van Zandt from back in the day; the fiddle and accordion Tejano influences; the dance halls of central Texas; it’s all there. That’s what struck me most about […]
Bambi Lee Savage – Berlin-Nashville Express
Bambi Lee Savage started her music career on the control side of the mixing board, doing audio engineering for the likes of U2 and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Over time, though, her creative outlet became the craft of songwriting and led her to singing and playing on the other side of the glass. […]
Old Settler’s Music Festival 2019 – The Music
Every year in mid-April I head to Austin for the Old Settler’s Music Festival. Â Here are some of the highlights for me of the 4 day line-up. Kickin’ It Off: Â The first night of music at OSMF is always in the campground and a nice welcome to get things started right. Â The first band was […]
Old Setter’s Music Festival 2019
Every year in mid April I head to Austin for the start of the outdoor music season. Â No, I’m not headed to SXSW, but rather to the Old Settler’s Music Festival. Â It’s become my favorite outdoor festival with a mix of good vibe and good music I haven’t found elsewhere. Let’s start with the music. […]
Manx Marriner Mainline – Hell Bound For Heaven
I heard Harry Manx a few years back and instantly dug his performance, which was concert footage from Australia. Manx’s rich slide guitar playing had a powerful enchantment. Steve Marriner, of the raucous swamp blues outfit MonkeyJunk, is a frequent Manx collaborator, and judging from Hell Bound for Heaven, the duo’s first album release, I […]
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.
Roses And Cigarettes – Echoes And Silence
One of the threads that bind us here in Twangville is love for a soaring vocal, screaming guitar, driving rhythm, rock and roll song. Â Not the over-produced kind you get in some arena show, but one that has roots in a dimly lit bar in Memphis or Austin or Muscle Shoals. Â My latest find along […]
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 […]
Melissa Ruth – Meteor
Starting a few miles north of the Golden Gate and lasting all the way to Canada, the coastal redwoods make their way to the very edge of the ocean. Â The climate that supports them cycles from the omnipresent fog in the summer to the waves of rain that blur the distinction between sea and land […]