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 […]
SXSW 2026: The Sounds, Part 2
LOS LOBOS It doesn’t get much better than Los Lobos. Seriously. They’ve shared more than 50 years of great music and performances with the world, and they ain’t done yet. Their introduction at the NPR day stage spoke volumes: “Whoever your favorite band is, their favorite band is Los Lobos.” They were even brought back […]
SXSW 2026: The Sounds, Part 1
JON DEE GRAHAM AND WILLIAM HARRIES GRAHAM News broke last Friday night that Jon Dee Graham had passed away that morning. What was already a SXSW performance highlight suddenly felt like something more. Jon Dee had battled serious health issues for years, making his reflection on the experience and performance of “I Can See Clearly […]