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Roscoe Holcomb - Stranger in a strange land

The steep ridges and narrow valleys of the Cumberland Plateau separate the coal country of eastern Kentucky from the rolling hills of the Appalachians to the south. Strip mining has leveled many of the ridges and washed rock and gravel into many of the hollers, making a tough place even

Various Artists - Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood (soundtrack)

Veering from his unlikely role revitalizing old-time bluegrass, T Bone Burnett explores different terrain this time around in his continued quest to revive the dying art of the soundtrack. His companion piece to the Ashley Judd/Sandra Bullock film Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood is as pleasantly unambitious as

Alejandro Escovedo - Gravity / Thirteen Years

In 1991, Alejandro Escovedo turned 40 and also turned a corner personally and artistically. In the liner notes to the newly reissued Gravity, he writes, "One day the world stopped spinning until it took on the proportions of a lifetime, never to be the same again -- out of

Deer Whistle - Stranded Somewhere Else (EP)

Since the dissolution of his hard-pop band Best Kissers In The World in 1995, Gerald Collier has been drawn to the dark side of country. On two solo offerings (1996's I Had To Laugh Like Hell and 1998's self-titled album), he staked out a piece of

Marah - Float Away With The Friday Night Gods

It was Sunday morning at South By Southwest in Austin. I was eating breakfast with my kid sister when Peter Jesperson stopped by our table to rave about Marah's gig the night before. For years the former manager of the Replacements (now a New West Records VP) had

John Hartford - Looks At Life/Earthwords & Music/The Love Album/Housing Project/John Hartford/Iron Mountain Depot/Radio John

The cover of John Hartford's first album for RCA had both "folk" and "country" on it, just below the label's logo -- a tangible sign of the confusion that must have reigned in the marketing department. You can almost feel the head-scratching:

International Submarine Band - Safe At Home

Gram Parsons imagined a countercultural fusion of country, soul and rock 'n' roll he called Cosmic American Music, but ultimately his approach to making records was too haphazard and intuitive for a vision as grand and calculated as all that. Wedding the vulnerability of "Dark End Of