I first connected with Bay Area artist and producer Mickelson in 2019 when he produced Blanket the Homeless, a wonderful benefit album to support programs for the homeless in San Francisco. He followed that project with a solo album Drowning in an Inflatable Pool, a one of my favorite releases of that year. And now […]
Monday Morning Video – Keepsake House “From Story to Song”
A chance encounter at the Americana Conference in Nashville last September led to me to the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center in NYC in October. The occasion was an event called “From Story to Song“, produced by NYC-based Keepsake House. The premise of the event was to pair a storyteller with a musical artist and […]
Monday Morning Video – Mando Saenz
Here are acoustic versions of two songs from All My Shame, one of my top ten favorite 2021 releases, courtesy of Nashville by way of Texas songwriter Mando Saenz.
Mayer’s Playlist for Feb/Mar 2022, Part 1
The Ballad of Sissy & Porter, The Whitmore Sisters (from the Red House Records release Ghost Stories) There’s a throwback quality to the Whitmore Sisters’ Ghost Stories. Sure, sisters Eleanor and Bonnie have magical familial harmonies that recall The Everly Brothers. It’s the songs and arrangements, however, that hearken back to a bygone era when […]
Jackie Bristow on Honda Civics and Her SongCatcher Program for Kids
Singer-songwriter Jackie Bristow talks about the price of guitar strings in New Zealand and writing songs as a love-struck teenager.
Monday Morning Video – Steve Goodman
Steve Goodman was a songwriter’s songwriter whose compositions have been recorded by everyone from Jimmy Buffett to Willie Nelson. Here’s the master performing a few himself, including “Banana Republics” and “City of New Orleans”, the latter of which earned Goodman a posthumous Grammy when Nelson covered it in 1984.
Eliza Gilkyson on Recovering the “Football” and Shopping at the “Death Star”
Folk singer-songwriter Eliza Gilkyson talks about why survival is an art form on the road and why success is relative.
The Twangville Early 2022 Release Preview
Meet the new year. Same as the old? Not so much on the music front with a great batch of new music on the horizon. Here are some releases eagerly anticipated by the Twangville posse. Hell on Church Street by Punch Brothers (14 January) The virtuoso string quintet remind us yet again why they are […]
Todd’s Tops of 2021
1. James McMurtry/The Horses and theHounds2. Jose Gonzalez/Local Valley 3. Isla, Josh Rouse/The Mediterranean Gardner4. The War on Drugs/I Don’t Live Here Anymore5. Charley Crockett/10 For Slim6. Todd Snider/First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder7. The Hold Steady/Open Door Policy 8. Neil Young and Crazy Horse/Barn9. The Felice Brothers/From Dreams to Dust10. Nell Smith, The […]
Shawn’s Picks – 2021 Favorite Albums
For the second time in a row we’ve finished a year like no other. On the plus side, all that time at home seems to have upped everyone’s songwriting skills. I can’t remember the last time my first pass at the annual favorites list was so long. The first couple of picks were relatively easy. […]