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Former Best Kisser In The World Gerald Collier displays his wondrous aptitude for dark, acoustic-oriented pop songwriting on this solo debut, joining the ranks of expressive Pacific Northwest frontmen who also have made solo albums in an effort to cleanse their souls. Like Heatmiser's Elliott Smith and Mark

I first found out about Chris Wall a few years ago when Jerry Jeff Walker covered two of his songs on his Live At Gruene Hall record. Those songs reflected the two sides of Chris Wall's work. The first, "I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight", is

Much of country music is about landscape and travel, the road serving as a metaphor for the ups and downs of life. And if a country song is not about movin' on down the road, it's likely about hanging around honky-tonks. High Or Hurtin' speaks the

Cacophonous and caffeinated, Claire is clicking at her clackety keyboard on the teensy end of a.m., fatiguing along like the good little spit-shined she-soldier she wishes she were. And the metaphor is aptly wrapped, for like a bulging bugler (heavily into reveille), Claire has something to trumpet up your

Poor Emmylou Harris. Not that she cares, probably, but a generation of music writers, including me, have at one time or another written about Harris as if she were a footnote -- albeit a major one -- to the career of Gram Parsons. Acknowledging the relationship is one thing, but

With his focus on guitar primacy, engaging storytelling and lasting melodies, Freedy Johnston is a first-class American singer/songwriter. He's also an indefatigable craftsman who shows a perfectionist's attention to detail, but Johnston's magic is seldom clinical, and Never Home is a dynamic successor