Spend enough time in the South in the summer and your definition of “clean” changes.  Whether it’s the humidity coming off the big, muddy rivers, or the dust devils spawning out of the cotton fields and cattle ranches, a shower is just temptation for the grit to cling harder.  After a while, that dirt permeates your […]
The Twangville 2018 Release Preview
If the albums scheduled for release over the next few months are any indication, there’s a great year of music ahead of us. Here are just a few forthcoming long-players that we are eagerly anticipating in 2018. BETWEEN TWO SHORES by GLEN HANSARD (19 January on Anti- Records) Hansard has the unique ability to combine […]
Fall Music Clean Up
Here it is the end of the year and I was going back through all the great music I’ve heard this year and found 3 CDs that never worked their way up to a full review, but for one reason or another they hung around in my playlist. Â So as you sit there turkey-drunk and […]
Monday Morning Video – Fats Domino
“Blueberry Hill” may not have been the first rock and roll song that I heard, but it certainly stands as one that left a lasting impression. Rather than the music and lyrics, it was Domino’s personality and enthusiasm that captivated my attention. The smile on his face, as infectious as it was, paled in comparison […]
Emerging Artist – Courtney Marie Andrews’ Honest Life
Catching up on missed music is not what I thought that a newborn would allow me to do this summer. But the late nights, and the missed sleep between feedings, seemed only like a time when I would just wish I could sleep through the night. But there I was, 3:30 AM on a Tuesday, […]
Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires – Youth Detention
There is only one way to listen to a Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires album…. LOUD!!! Don’t worry about disturbing the neighbors. Just crank it up and wake up the whole neighborhood. On their new album, Youth Detention, the band combines their power chord driven Southern Rock and Blues influences with a Punk […]
Pokey LaFarge – Manic Revelations
Pokey LaFarge is a musical iconoclast. Â Watch him on stage or listen superficially to his music, in particular his new release, Manic Revelations, and you get a throwback to a musical era when most songs were intended to be happy dance songs. Â Music was an escape, not a medium for a message. Â Listen more closely, […]
SXSW 2017 – The Sounds, Part 1
LANGHORNE SLIM This was the best of the best, my favorite musical moment of the week. Langhorne Slim sitting in a chair on the floor, the audience arrayed cross-legged on the floor around him. A campfire festival without the campfire. His late-night performance was a freewheeling gem that included a few impromptu requests, all delivered […]
Rhiannon Giddens – Freedom Highway
Freedom Highway may be the album that followers of the Carolina Chocolate Drops have been waiting for in the fledgling solo career of Rhiannon Giddens. The second of Giddens’ solo efforts, Freedom Highway showcases her songwriting talents in a tour de force demonstrating her ability to move nimbly between roots genres from the primitive, folky jug-band and […]
Monday Morning Video – Al Green
What’s better than some Al Green to start the week? How about Al Green covering Sam Cooke. It doesn’t get much better.