Darn if this ain’t one of rock’s most cherished voice covering one of its most respected songwriters.
Iron & Wine – Around the Well
When it comes to do-it-yourselfers, Sam Beam proved with his first album that he didn’t need anyone to create good music. In fact, he’d already been doin’ it for seven years before anything happened. If his demo didn’t land in the hands of someone who recognized it, Sam may still be creating his beautiful melodies […]
Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women
It’s not as groundbreaking as his work with The Blasters or The Knitters , but this might be the best Dave Alvin record to date. It’s certainly the most complex. Alvin helped define the punkabilly/L.A. country punk sound with those early 80’s projects, and then went on to hone his songwriting and musician skills with […]
Hoots & Hellmouth/The Holy Open Secret
When I get a CD from a band I’ve never heard of in the mail for review, a lot of times I trash the band bio that comes along with it. The reason I do this is I’ve found a lot of bands that make good music write bad bios. Or they at least have […]
Wilco (The Album) Stream Available
Wilco is streaming the entirety of their forthcoming release Wilco (the album) at their web site here. Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.
Listen Up: Willie Nile’s 1000 Guitars
I’ve figured out the secret to Willie Nile. It’s not some special studio trick or the backing of a top notch band (though they do rock like nobody’s business). No, the magic of Willie Nile is his unbridled passion for life that permeates the man and his music. It hearkens back to the romantic innocence […]
Ted Russell Kamp – Poor Man’s Paradise
When reporting on Major League Baseball, it seems as though most anchors or scribes have a hard time saying anything, whether it be positive or negative, about Manny Ramirez without using the tired, lazy phrase, “Manny being Manny” . I imagine that there is a similar need or desire by most bloggers or music journalists […]
Webb Wilder – More Like Me
Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard, grow big, wear glasses if you need ’em.” This is the Webb Wilder credo. It is a credo that I have lived by since my college days in the late 80s when I first heard Webb Wilder. Back then Webb was doing the college bar circuit that […]
Win Big: Sara Watkins
“I just say that I grew up in a bluegrass band that became something else,” says Sara Watkins to describe her time spent with Nickel Creek. Watkins stretches out on her self-titled newly released solo outing. Recorded in Nashville and LA with producer John Paul Jones (he of Led Zeppelin fame), the album features tracks […]
Listen Up: Buddy and Julie Miller
If there has been a more heart-breaking song this year than the Miller’s “Chalk,†I haven’t heard it. The twinge in Buddy’s voice as he sings, “If all our heartaches were in a stack, they’d go all the way up to heaven and back,†is spine-tingling. The song, a duet with Patty Griffin, is only […]