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Jesse Harris - They're playing his song

A few hours before I'm supposed to meet Jesse Harris for an interview, I walk down to the deli on the corner of my block to pick up a couple things. The PA system in the store is tuned to the same light-rock station as usual, and it

Willie Nelson - Gonna catch tomorrow now

Luck, Texas, isn't as easy to find as it used to be. Development has sprawled the entire 25 miles from downtown Austin to this idyllic little spot in the Hill Country near Lake Travis where Willie Nelson created his own universe more than two decades ago. The old

Hal Willner's Neil Young Project - Prospect Park Bandshell (Brooklyn, NY)

At their best, Hal Willner's tribute projects (which have included albums devoted to Kurt Weill, Disney movie songs and Edgar Allan Poe) can reveal unexpected things about both the source material and the performers. At their clunkiest, the boho producer/arranger's efforts can come across as

Gram Parsons Tribute - Universal Amphitheatre (Universal City, CA)

Why a Gram Parsons tribute concert now? Good question. There was no real specific reason for such a lofty event -- no anniversary of his birth or notorious death to wrap a big to-do around, and it could hardly be the result of a deprivation of tributes to, arguably, the

Ray Charles Funeral - Willie Nelson / Stevie Wonder / B.B. King / Glen Campbell - First AME Church (Los Angeles, CA)

Even on the most prosaic of occasions, hearing a decent version of "Georgia On My Mind" can be an evocative experience. It's just one of those perfect songs, so perfect, in fact, that it really takes little more than the singing of its very first word

Muddy Waters - Hard Again / I'm Ready / King Bee

The lion in winter. He's the king of the jungle, and he's won the title fair and square. He suns himself on the hill and watches his young descendants vying for the spot he'll soon vacate. But what they don't know is

Various Artists - Touch My Heart: A Tribute To Johnny Paycheck

The sensibility connections between the subject of this tribute (the late and unforgettable honky-tonker Johnny Paycheck) and the album's producer (the live and irreplaceable Robbie Fulks) go a long ways toward describing this music and the performers brought together to deliver it with so much audible affection. Both