Archive

Neither a solo artist nor a car dealership, Lou Ford is a Charlotte, North Carolina, quartet whose "So Far Gone" was arguably the highlight of the Revival compilation of Carolina-region roots bands. (For those who might care, the band is named after a character in a Jim Thompson

Townes Van Zandt's legacy cuts quite a swath through contemporary singer-songwriters; his compositions are becoming standards, and his restless, lyrical spirit holds considerable sway. Chris Buhalis is a case in point: You get the sense that without Townes, this Michigan songwriter might be lost. His temperament never quite

When first hearing that there would be no chainsaw mayhem on the new Angry Johnny album (the previous one, Hankenstein, had two separate songs about chainsaw murders), I feared the Angry one might be trying to clean up his cruddy act. Doesn't Angry realize that when chainsaws are

I still admire singer-guitarist Chris Whitley for following up his mostly acoustic debut, Living With The Law, with a white-noise album loud enough to make Sonic Youth wear earplugs. But it couldn't have been good for his career. Whitley, a skinny hunk type whose first single, 1991'

In 1971, at the same festival where Bill Monroe ended his long feud with Lester Flatt and again shared a stage with his old partner, John Hartford made his first bluegrass festival appearance. He brought with him a mangy band of veteran roister doisters: Norman Blake flatpicked, Vassar Clements sawed,

419 West Main is the CD debut of one of the great lost bluegrass bands of the early '60s. Lost, because by all rights this band's work should stand alongside that of the best young bluegrass acts of the era: the Country Gentlemen, the Kentucky Colonels and