Lyle Lovett’s Release Me remains in the top spot on the Americana Music Airplay Chart, with Justin Townes Earles’ Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me surging into the second position. New to the top 10: Bruce Springsteen’s The Wrecking Ball at #8 and Ray Wylie Hubbard’s The Grifter’s Hymnal at #9. New to the charts this week:…
Tin Pan South Festival: Opening night preview
You’ll find great music in Nashville’s clubs all this week as they host the annual Tin Pan South Festival, a celebration of songwriters. Venues all over town feature singers and songwriters, typically in the round in groups of four. The performances are short on flash and high in talent. The 2012 festival kicks off tonight. Among the evening’s highlights: 6…
Concert review: Spanky and Our Gang
by Terry Roland –The new Spanky and Our Gang played to a sold-out audience at Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena, California this month, not so much a reunion as an acknowledgement of the way Americana music connects us to our past and to each other. With the exception of Elaine ”Spanky” McFarlane, the original players are gone. They included Oz…
Review: Bruce Springsteen’s “Wrecking Ball”
by Terry Roland Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball is the antithesis of his nearly 30 year-old Born in the U.S.A. As a writer, he has always highlighted the dark edges and ragged truth found in an America that has more kinship with John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie than Ronald Reagan. While this earlier classic was in many ways just as dark…