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Craig Havighurst

Emmylou Harris - Songbird: Rare Tracks & Forgotten Gems

The apparent effortlessness with which Emmylou Harris performs songs can belie her tenacity in finding and internalizing them in the first place. One anecdote in Peter Cooper's track-by-track notes on Songbird has Harris stalking a mystery song she heard on "A Prairie Home Companion", long before

Dan Tyminski - Team player

In every respect but talent, think of Dan Tyminski as the anti-Jimmy Martin. While Martin, one of bluegrass music's great vocalists, is an eccentric infamous for his abrasive ways, Tyminski is an unabashedly good egg: a self-effacing, small-town man, husband, father of three kids (neatly spaced out at

Guy Clark - Cold Dog Soup

Guy Clark's performances are striking for the charisma they put on display, but perhaps even more so for what they hold in reserve. When his massive frame resonates with his outoorsman's voice, you don't hear the laying bare of a folksinger soul; rather, it

Darrell Scott - Household man

Three-year-old Gabriel Scott is lying on his back in a guitar case, floating on a placid, moss-colored pond and gazing at the sky. That image adorns the cover of his father's new CD, Family Tree. The idea, says the senior Scott, came from photographer Senor McGuire, who had

Mac, Doc & Del/ Doc & Merle Watson - Home Sweet Home

Among traditional American country blues singers and guitar players, Doc Watson is without peer. When he sings in his unadorned baritone, it is as if the entire Anglo-Saxon folk tradition had been fermented in the Appalachian Mountains only to be channeled through him. Doc has been recorded and honored more

Sam Bush - Howlin' At The Moon

There's no more exciting or excitable a picker in acoustic music than Sam Bush. A whirling dervish onstage, he flails like Jimmy Page, conjuring up mesmerizing polyrhythmic chops and trailblazing solos, seasoned with the old-time wisdom of Bill Monroe and the persona of a Muppet. It's

Various Artists - The Horse Whisperer (soundtrack)

The first sounds that hit you from the Horse Whisperer soundtrack are a fat, Tejano-style accordion riff and yodeling. So far, so good. What we have here is Dwight Yoakam singing "Cattle Call", which is something I always wanted to hear without quite being aware of it. This