Archive

When it comes to Ryan Adams, contradictions appear to be the rule, not the exception. On the one hand, Pneumonia is the presumed final album from Whiskeytown, the band Adams has fronted since he was 20. On the other hand, Whiskeytown wasn't much of a band at the

Anyone foolish (or impatient) enough to dismiss Jerry Lee Lewis after his 1956-1963 Sun Records tenure is not only selling the man woefully short, they are also denying themselves some of the most satisfying music of his 40-plus-year career. After leaving the famed Memphis label, Lewis continued down the same

From the first note of Young, Guitar Days, you're re-immersed in that Alive On Arrival sound -- a loose, earthy mix of acoustic guitar, piano, pedal steel, and Steve Forbert's wispy, whispery, distinctly Southern voice, an awkward instrument that, through absolute precision, intimacy, and unorthodox phrasing,

Clarence Ashley was a first-generation country music performer whose "Greenback Dollar" became one of the signature songs of the early-'60s folk boom. Born into a family of traditional musicians and singers from Shouns, near Mountain City in eastern Tennessee, he was playing banjo and guitar before

Though the terminally brash Steve Wynn has never lacked ambition, he returns with his boldest artistic testament to date. All but forgotten a decade ago when the Dream Syndicate imploded and his solo career failed to spark, Wynn fires back with both barrels blazing on this two-disc set of thematically

By the company you keep. If that's how we're judged, consider the lineup on Joe Henry's latest, Scar. Me'shell Ndegeocello on bass, Marc Ribot on guitar, Brian Blade on drums, Brad Mehldau on piano. Each a monster. Each a bandleader in his