by Terry Roland – Ry Cooder’s latest release, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, hearkens back to the salad days of his breakthrough album, 1972’s Into The Purple Valley, an ironically nostalgic ode to Central California during the Great Depression. While that album was a wink and a grin about America’s past, an attempt to escape the political insanity…
Category: Reviews
Review: Jason Boland & the Stragglers
Rancho Alto, the new album from Jason Boland and the Stragglers, offers up traditional country music with a contemporary perspective. Although comparisons to George Strait and Merle Haggard are inevitable and appropriate, Boland also brings to mind a young Gordon Lightfoot, combining traditional sounds with a resonant voice and a strong sense of narrative. There are stories laced throughout Rancho…
TV holds key to growth of Americana music
By Ken Paulson Television is a very big deal to the Americana music community. For years, the Americana Music Association has worked to establish the genre with the general public, and TV is the key. Any medium that can make Snooki a household name should do wonders for Buddy Miller. That’s why news that WNPT, Nashville’s public television station, would…
Hank Williams’ “Notebooks” enters Americana chart
The highest entry on this week’s Americana music chart (# 17) is “The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams,” a collection of songs built around handwritten lyrics found on the day he died. The mix of artists is remarkable, and includes Bob Dylan, Alan Jackson, Lucinda Williams, Jack White, Norah Jones, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Levon Helm, Jakob Dylan, Sheryl Crow,…
Celebrating the music of Muscle Shoals
The 2011 Americana Music Festival began last night with an event that illustrates the genre’s greatest strengths: outstanding performances and a respect for what has come before. The 90-minute concert celebrating the Muscle Shoals sound was equal parts energy and nostalgia, with legendary figures like Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, Jimmy Johnson and David Briggs sharing the stage with some of…
Review: Chip Taylor and the Grandkids
Chip Taylor’s new album is a family effort, teaming him with his grandchildren for a refreshing and engaging kids’ record. Golden Kids Rules (Smithsonain Folkways Recordings) features songs they wrote and performed together. The title song sets the positive and loving tone: “5-6-7-8 who do we appreciate? Kids, even if they’re breaking some rules.” “Big Ideas” is sweet and melodic,…
Saluting Buck Owens and the Bakersfield Sound
Fans of the Bakersfield Sound have plenty to celebrate. First there’s the just-released Buck Owens collection “Bound for Bakersfield 1953-1956: The Complete Pre-Capitol Collection.” The Rockbeat album collects songs that Owens recorded for the Pep, Chesterfield and La Brea labels before a much more successful run on Capitol. It’s a mixed bag of honky tonk and early rock ‘n’ roll,…
Concert review: Elvis Costello at the Ryman Auditorium
Roy Acuff wouldn’t have approved. There on the stage of the legendary Ryman Auditorium tonight was a go-go dancer moving to the music of Elvis Costello and the Imposters. The dancer’s cage – and the multi-colored “Spectacular Spinning Songbook” that drove the setlist- contributed to a carnival-like atmosphere and an entertaining and outlandish show. This was in sharp contrast to…
Jackie DeShannon: “When You Walk in the Room”
“When You Walk in the Room,” Jackie DeShannon’s first album in 11 years, is a remarkable retrospective of songs she wrote and others she made famous. DeShannon is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, but you have to wonder why she’s not also in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Like Carole King, she wrote songs for some of…
Mark Twain: Words and Music
It’s been a good month for Americana music fans who love history. First came the fine 1861 Project , which chronicled the Civil War. New today is “Mark Twain: Words and Music,” a fundraising project for the Mark Twain Boyhood Home in Hannibal, Missouri. We haven’t heard the two-CD package yet, but the spoken word and music set features a…
Nick Lowe’s “The Old Magic”
Someone somewhere once told Nick Lowe to act his age and he took the advice seriously. His new “The Old Magic” is a masterful album, impeccably performed and produced, but it’s also sad and subdued, a quiet declaration that “the Basher” has abandoned any thought of actually rocking ever again. You can’t knock that. Lowe has decided to croon through…
Review: Slaid Cleaves’ “Sorrow and Smoke”
I first saw Slaid Cleaves on stage at the Barns of Wolf Trap outside Washington, D.C. He was the opening act, but he quickly won over a tough audience with his compelling story-songs and confident presence. “Sorrow And Smoke: Live at the Horseshoe Lounge, a new two CD set (#26 on the Americana music chart), captures a similar performance at…
Glen Campbell’s powerful “Ghost on the Canvas”
Tickets for Glen Campbell’s final show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Nov. 30 go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 9. It’s part of the “Goodbye Tour,” Campbell’s farewell concert series in the wake of his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. I respect Campbell and his family, and their decision to face his illness in a public and forthright…
Buddy Holly at 75
This day in Americana music: Buddy Holly would have been 75 years old today, and it’s a measure of his impact that there are two new star-filled tribute CDs celebrating his work. “Rave On Buddy Holly,” currently number 23 on the Americana Music Association chart, veers younger with bands like the Black Keys and Florence and the Machine, though Paul…
Paul Kelly’s “Greatest Hits”
Talk about your continental divide. I knew Paul Kelly’s name because some of my favorite artists, including Last Train Home, Kelly Willis and Kasey Chambers had recorded his work. But I’ll have to admit that I was totally unprepared for the scope and quality of the music on “Songs of the South: Paul Kelly’s Greatest Hits,” a 40-song reissue about…
Review: Robert Earl Keen’s “Ready for Confetti”
Robert Earl Keen’s 16th album “Ready for Confetti” is a musically adventurous, almost joyous-sounding album that lives up to its playful title. Keen has said he approached this album differently, writing on the road for a change and encouraging lots of feedback. It worked. “Ready for Confetti” is a diverse, yet focused collection, packed with memorable songs. Fron the upbeat…
Review: The 1861 Project
You can’t put “The 1861 Project” on shuffle. This ambitious, engaging and yes, educational project chronicles the Civil War through the perspectives of those who fought it. The stirring John Anderson performance on “The Turning of a Field” foreshadows the events of the next four years, culiminating in the surrender at Appomattox and the soldiers’ return home. There are inherent…
Jeff Bridges: High profile and low-key music
You don’t hire T Bone Burnett to produce a vanity project. Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for playing a ragged country singer in “Crazy Heart”, but his aspiration to do it for real is more than fantasy. His new album is credible, distinguished by talented players and songs from fine Americana music writers. It’s also uneven and not particularly interesting.…
Nick Lowe at Country Music Hall of Fame
Nick Lowe is no longer the “Jesus of Cool” his first album touted, but he still strives to be all things to all people. In an interview with Michael McCall at the Country Music Hall of Fame this morning, Lowe said his goal as a performer is to be cool enough to attract both young and old. “You get different…
John Hiatt’s “Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns”
John Hiatt’s 20th album “Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns” continues his remarkable streak of consistently solid recordings. It feels like an extension of last year’s “The Open Road,” with a few more songs about regrets and a couple of compelling compositions about transportation. The album opens with “Damn This Town,” a vow to leave everything and everyone behind. The arrangement echoes…