Holiday shows abound in Nashville, including the annual Ryman residency of Amy Grant and Vince Gill. We particularly enjoyed shows by Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss at the Franklin Theater. Both artists offered a mix of holiday songs and their own hits. Entertaining and often moving.
Review: Jimmy Webb’ shares his legendary songs and stories
By Paul T. Mueller – Songwriters, even great ones, aren’t always the best performers of their own songs. But when a songwriter of Jimmy Webb’s stature hits the road, it seems worth the ticket price to hear the author’s own take on some of his best-known work. A few hundred people at Dosey Doe Big Barn in The Woodlands, Texas,…
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s triumphant final turn
We keep saying goodbye to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and they keep getting better.We were at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville when the band kicked off its farewell tour last year and were back again this week for what logically would have been the closing of the loop, their final show at this storied theater. Not likely, though. They’re…
WMOT presents Los Lonely Boys, Strung Like A Horse, Bettysoo
Los Lonely Boys, on the road promoting new album Resurrection, headlined the Oct. 8 WMOT concert at Riverside Revival in Nashville. Set opener “See Your Face” set the tone for the energetic acoustic set to follow. The evening’s revelation was Knoxville’s Strung Like a Horse, whose showmanship transcended the recorded work we’ve heard. There’s a Old Crow Medicine Show spirit…
Kris Kristofferson on free speech and music
Kris Kristofferson’s passing this week prompted an outpouring of thoughtful articles about what made this man and his art so special. We had the pleasure of interviewing Kristofferson about two decades ago about songs that challenge and sometimes offend an audience. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
Kent Blazy celebrates “My Life So Far” with new release, concert
By Ken Paulson – Kent Blazy’s new album My Life So Far is that rare album founded in truth and fueled by gratitude. Blazy has had plenty of success, writing seven number one country songs and earning induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. But this musical autobiography is not about personal achievement. Instead, it’s a reflective acknowledgement of…
Todd Rundgren’s show at the Ryman in Nashville 2024
Todd Rundgren’s show at the Ryman was impressive and challenging in equal measure. It’s the rare artist who chooses to do an entire set of deep cuts largely drawn from his least successful albums, completely forgoing the reliable crowd-pleasers. Not until the encore and a 5-minute medley combining “I Saw the Light,” “It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference” and “Hello…
8 decades on, Bruce Cockburn spans past, present
By Paul T. Mueller – Showcasing most of the songs on one’s latest release while also providing a career retrospective spanning decades is quite an achievement for pretty much any performer. Doing so less than a month before one’s 79th birthday, as Bruce Cockburn did at Houston’s Heights Theater on May 3, falls somewhere between impressive and phenomenal. With his…
Buddy Mondlock’s rich and bright “Filament”
By Ken Paulson Buddy Mondlock is part of a rich singer-songwriter tradition. His songs – like those of Nanci Griffith, Steve Goodman and Guy Clark – tell stories and create characters in a truly compelling and realistic way. By the end of a Buddy Mondlock album, you feel as though you’ve met a half-dozen new people. Filmanent, produced by Brad…
Hayes Carll holiday-flavored set makes for a great time
By Paul T. Mueller Singer-songwriter and Texas native Hayes Carll launched his Grateful for Christmas Tour with a couple of sold-out shows at Houston’s Heights Theater. The second, on Dec. 2, was a great time for all concerned. Carll, in fine voice and fine humor, performed only a couple of actual holiday songs (his own “Grateful for Christmas” and Buck…
Thirty years on, Ellis Paul’s songs and stories delight audiences
By Ken Paulson – Singer-songwriters are plentiful these days. Have a guitar, smartphone and social media account? Suddenly you’re giving concerts. There was a time, though, when anyone stepping on stage at a coffeehouse had to truly engage an audience with songs, stories and a sense of humor. If you wanted to work, you had to entertain. Ellis Paul is…
Perfect pairing: James McMurtry and BettySoo in concert
It might sound like an unlikely pairing for a singer-songwriter show – a famously curmudgeonly Anglo man in his early 60s and a Korean-American woman in her mid-40s.
A brilliant showcase from Lori McKenna and Brandy Clark
By Paul T. Mueller – There’s a belief in some quarters that everything coming out of Nashville these days is formulaic dross, but Lori McKenna and Brandy Clark put that idea to rest in their Sept. 28 co-headlining appearance at Houston’s Heights Theater. The 90-minute show, the first on an 11-date tour, amounted to a two-person guitar pull that drew…
Kent Blazy Meets the Beatles
By Ken Paulson – It’s always a joy when an artist and songwriter is an unabashed music fan like the rest of us. That’s certainly the case with Kent Blazy, whose new album From The Beatles to the Bluebird, is fueled by a love of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Blazy, a 2020 inductee into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of…
Time Traveler: Jason Wilber’s engaging musical journey
By Ken Paulson — Jason Wilber was among friends and family as he took the stage in Fort Myers, Florida on June 24. There was his wife Michelle in the second row. Sitting next to her was Jason’s father. On the left side of the room were friends from Bloomington, Indiana. And pretty much everywhere there were fans who loved…
Gretchen Peters’ graceful exit from touring
By Paul T. Mueller — Gretchen Peters, wrapping up a long touring career, gave her fans in Houston a fine show to remember her by. The prolific singer-songwriter and her husband and musical partner, Barry Walsh, performed for a nearly full house at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on June 22, the final show in the church’s Coffee House Live spring…
Michelle Malone spans decades in Houston show
By Paul T. Mueller – Georgia-based singer-songwriter Michelle Malone brought decades’ worth of songs and showmanship to her May 13 show in Houston. The show at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, featuring Malone on acoustic guitars and Doug Kees on electric, included a career-spanning 14 songs. All were fueled by Malone’s powerful vocals, ranging from a delicate croon to an all-out roar.…
Mastersons’ folk with a rock ‘n’ roll heart
By Paul T. Mueller The Mastersons – guitarist/singer Chris Masterson and multi-instrumentalist/singer Eleanor Whitmore – finished up their current tour March 12 with a matinee show at the Old Quarter Acoustic Café in Galveston, Texas. The duo, longtime – and now former – members of Steve Earle’s band, The Dukes, got rhythmic support from Eleanor’s sister Bonnie on bass and…
Cayamo 2023 soars with diverse sounds
By Paul T. Mueller – Like any established music festival, Cayamo – the festival-at-sea that just wrapped up its 15th edition – faces the challenge of attracting new attendees while keeping returning guests interested. Sixthman, the Norwegian Cruise Line subsidiary that produces Cayamo, was up to the task this year, putting together a lineup that combined well-known veterans of the…
Review: RB Morris in rare concert in Nacogdoches
By Paul T. Mueller – RB Morris, a singer-songwriter, poet and playwright based in Knoxville, doesn’t tend to venture too far west from his Tennessee base. So it was something of a rare treat for his Texas fans when Morris played a Jan. 21 show at Live Oak Listening Room, a former church turned intimate concert venue in the East…