Photo: Jacob Blinkentaff For Dale Watson, music started at home, not on a stage. It came from the next room, early in the morning, when his father picked up a guitar. “I would wake up to my dad playing,” Watson says. That introduction opened the door to a lifetime of listening. Records spun by George […]
Studio Spotlight/1809 Studios, Dave Drago
We recently checked in with Dave at 1809 at had a great interview. Hope you enjoy! Where is the studio located? Macedon, NY (20 Minutes east of Rochester)A solar-powered recording studio is housed inside a re-purposed, 19th-century Erie Canalside Tavern. In a nice off-the-beaten-path kind of location, while still close to any amenities one needs. […]
Jennie Arnau on Sentimental Things and Touring in Hazel the Honda
Singer-songwriter Jennie Arnau talks about her favorite day job, the best payment found in playing music, and the lie that fear can be debilitating.
Kalyn Fay on Alliteration and Working as a Museum Curator
Oklahoma-based singer-songwriter Kalyn Fay talks about being gentle in spirit and song and offers some tax season advice.
Monday Morning Video – Tom Petty “You Got Lucky”
I have to admit that I was long jaded by the original video for Tom Petty’s “You Got Lucky” as it had little, if anything, to do with the song. Once I got past that, however, the song became a fave among faves within the Petty catalog. The song is, at its core, a pointed […]
Now & Then: Drayton Farley’s A Heavy Duty Heart and the reach of Trace
Drayton Farley’s A Heavy Duty Heart arrives like the sound of a songwriter stepping out of the dim room and into the bandstand without giving up the bruises that got him there. Released March 27, 2026, the record was cut live to tape in Nashville with his touring band and produced again by Sadler Vaden, which matters because these songs are still built on Farley’s plainspoken honesty, but they now hit with more lift, more room, and more faith in momentum. For the “Then,” Son Volt’s Trace from 1995 makes the most sense. Not because Farley sounds like Jay Farrar in some copycat way, but because Trace helped define how alt-country could carry working-class weariness, road-dusted poetics, and rock-band force in the same frame.
SXSW 2026: Say What?!
One of my favorite things about SXSW (well, after the music) are the crazy comments that you hear along the way. Here are a few choice selections from SXSW 2026. Whoever your favorite band is, their favorite band is Los Lobos. NPR DJ introducing Los Lobos at their Thursday afternoon set We played three songs, […]
Readers’ Pick: Drayton Farley – A Heavy Duty Heart
You picked Drayton Farley – A Heavy Duty Heart as your favorite new release for the week of March 27, 2026.
Heart – a Premiere from Charlie Marie
Photo credit Courtney Denelle Rhode Island doesn’t typically come to mind as country music country, but Charlie Marie has never needed geography on her side. Her voice does the work — warm, commanding, and woven from the same thread as Kitty Wells, Tammy Wynette, and Emmylou Harris. After her last album in 2021, she did […]
SXSW 2026: The Sounds, Part 3
NAKIA Austin’s Nakia was a favorite SXSW discovery from nearly 20 years ago. I caught two sets towards the close of SXSW – a fitting way to round out the week. The Wednesday afternoon set at C-Boys, in particular, brought me right back to that first encounter — the voice, the energy, the songs, all […]