Sonny Curtis, a first-generation rocker and a highly successful songwriter, was saluted at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville as part of its “Poets and Prophets” series today. The program was a compelling reminder of the many talented contributors to contemporary music who are not household names, but should be. The warm and self-effacing Curtis has had an…
Category: Reviews
Review: Richie Furay Band live
by Terry Roland The Richie Furay Band’s brief February tour through Southern California was important for this veteran country-rock artist. His last time around was with his old bandmates Neil Young and Stephen Stills on their long-awaited Buffalo Springfield reunion tour. While most of the audiences who attended the Springfield shows in California were familiar with Stephen Stills of Crosby,…
Leonard Cohen’s “Old Ideas”
by Terry Roland — Leonard Cohen’s latest album returns us to his dark ballroom of late night apocalyptic poetic waltzes, haikus and tongue-in-cheek pessimistic self-reflections. Old Ideas is built off of much the same musical landscape that Cohen has carefully laid for the last ten years with spare and lean cabaret instrumentation, Sharon Robinson’s gorgeous, simple and clear background vocal…
The classic roots-rock of Springfield, Missouri
By Bruce Rosenstein – If I could be magically transported to any roots-rock gig, I’d pick wherever guitarist D. Clinton (Donnie) Thompson and bassist Lou Whitney are playing, in whatever band configuration. For nearly 35 years, these Springfield, Missouri musicians have led excellent bands with a revolving cast of members under the names The Skeletons, The Morells and The Symptoms.…
Celebrating Leo Kottke’s “6- & 12-String Guitar”
By Marv Wells No singing. No backup band. No accompaniment of any kind. Just exactly what the album cover says… 6- & 12-String Guitar. Pure and simple. Forty-three years ago, a young Leo Kottke recorded his second album, his first and only for Takoma Records, an obscure label founded by an eccentric master of the guitar, John Fahey. Who knew…
Review: Bill Monroe 100th Year Celebration: Live At Bean Blossom
By Joe Ross – A CD sampler of live cuts from a bluegrass festival can rarely capture the real feeling and spirit of those special musical moments when bands play their hearts out to thousands of fans. However, second best to actually being there, some favorite LPs of mine were those double-disc sets with an array of professional bluegrass bands…
Feb. 3, 1959:The music lives on
By Marv Wells “Clear Lake/Mason City” the highway sign reads. How many times have I driven past this exit on 1-35 over the past 30+ years and said “Someday I’ll check it out?” “It” was the site of Buddy Holly’s plane crash in 1959. Somehow I’d gotten the impression that Clear Lake was a ways off, thirty miles or more.…
Guy Clark tribute #1; Ani DeFranco, Orbo & Longshots, Sons of Fathers enter chart
This One’s For Him, the outstanding double-CD tribute to Guy Clark, lands in the #1 spot this week after a steady run up the Americana Music radio airplay chart. You’ll find our review here. New to the chart this week: – At #17, the massive Chimes of Freedom tribute to Bob Dylan. The album, with a generation-spanning line-up of artists (Patti…
Review: Carolina Road’s “Back to My Roots”
By Joe Ross It’s been about five years since I reviewed Carolina Road’s two releases on Tom T. Hall’s Blue Circle Records label. I found the hardworking band from North Carolina to be fully dedicated to presenting a traditional bluegrass sound with a copious amount of contemporary charisma. Now associated with Rural Rhythm Records, Back to My Roots is the band’s…
Review: Danny Barnes’ “Rocket”
By Ken Paulson – Danny Barnes’ album is best listened to and not described. After all, how many would flock to hear an album by a banjo player, with Dave Mathews on background vocals and a T.Rex cover in the mix? What do you file that under? A driving force behind the Bad Livers, Barnes is never predictable. His Rocket,…
The Deep Dark Woods: The Place I Left Behind
By Ken Paulson —It’s too easy to compare a Canadian band to The Band, but in the case of the Deep Dark Woods, it’s also inescapable. The sonic resemblance is most apparent on murder saga “The Ballad of Frank Dupree,” but the Deep Dark Woods also mine The Band’s terrain of days long past, regrets and remembrances. Listening to The…
Americana chart: Kathleen Edwards’ “Voyageur” at #1
On the day of its release, Kathleen Edwards’ Voyageur is at the top of the Americana Music Association Chart. The Little Willies’ For the Good Times is at the number three position, just one week after release. Both albums are new to the market, but have been played for weeks on Americana radio. The release of albums to radio weeks…
Bangles showcase great songs and writers
By Ken Paulson –Seaside, Fla. — As headliners at the 30A Songwriters Festival, the Bangles proudly proclaimed their founding three decades ago. Both the band and their music have held up remarkably well. There’s some irony in the Bangles being the biggest names at the festival because while they’ve written a good part of their material, some of their biggest…
Matthew Sweet at 30A Songwriters Festival
Matthew Sweet opened the afternoon show at the 30A Songwriters Festival with a set that drew heavily from his breakthrough 1991 album Girlfriend. Sweet joked that the girlfriend was now 21 and old enough to drink. It was a tough setting for Sweet. Most of the crowd had come to see the Bangles, and though there’s some stylistic common ground,…
The Washover Fans: “That Habit Suits You”
By Joe Ross A “washover fan” is a term used by scientists for those sandy landforms that wash in over an island or spit of land during a storm. While one member of this Washington-based acoustic Americana quartet was studying geology, the band adopted its moniker. It’s a good initial indication of their earthy approach to music. That Habit Suits…
Carole King at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe
By Ken Paulson – Carole King performed some of her biggest hits in the relatively small confines of the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville Monday night, a memorable evening even in a city known for them. King’s “Troubador” tour with James Taylor was an enormous success, but the remininiscing was largely scripted, with the same photos and anecdotes appearing night after…
Rounder, New West, Lost Highway top Americana labels
Among the joys of Americana music is the range of artists and labels. Indie labels often break through, leading to dark horses and pleasant surprises. Yet this year’s Americana Music Association list of the top 100 albums from November 16, 2010 through November 14, 2011, serves as a reminder that the bigger labels still play a major role. An analysis…
Reviews: Dirt Drifters, Chris Isaak,Verlon Thompson, more
By Ken Paulson – As we close out 2011, there’s still a stack of CDs we’ve been meaning to write about. Here’s a quick round-up of noteworthy 2011 Americana music releases: The Dirt Drifters – This Is My Blood: We first came across the Dirt Drifters at a free-speech benefit in Nashville in 2009; they had tremendous energy on stage…
Americana music 2011: No Depression’s 50 favorites
No Depression has released its list of the Top 50 favorite albums of 2011, as voted by its fan community. It’s an interesting mix, with Gillian Welch’s The Harrow and the Harvest at the top, followed by a remarkable range of artists, genres, styles and ages. Some have complained that it’s a surprisingingly mainstream list for an alt-country site, but…
Review: Chicago Kingsnakes’ “Blue Mosaic”
By Joe Ross – As with any album I review, it’s usually the cover that first catches my eye. The Chicago Kingsnakes chose some artwork by modernist painter Marc Chagall to grace the cover of their new CD, “Blue Mosaic.” Like Chagall’s work in which his colors attract and capture attention, The Chicago Kingsnakes blend tones and graduated perspectives into…