Grant Alden

The suspicion lingers that somewhere in Nashville -- a front porch, a living room, a converted garage with a well-stocked refrigerator -- the best songwriters sit and trade works-in-progress late into the night, and magic happens. Well, some of 'em do hang out together, and sometimes there are rumors

Without peer -- absolutely without peer -- as an interpreter of the far-flung American songbook, Ted Hawkins was also a fine songwriter, an indifferent guitarist, and a complicated man. The Unstoppable began life as a board tape from a December 18, 1988, show in London, England, and suffers not in

Wait long enough and Billy Joe Shaver's entire catalogue will be in print, at least for an instant. Which in itself is a striking endorsement of the work of a gifted songwriter who has never more than waved at commercial success as a singer. Salt Of The Earth,

Dolly Parton could have taken her plaque in the Country Music Hall of Fame and gone home to count her money, accepting the judgment of the marketplace that her career was no longer of interest. She could have (perhaps then her private life would cease to be of interest to

Even getting the name right has been hard for Knoxville expat Brian Waldschlager. Originally his Nashville band was called Shinola, but as labels came to be interested, it was clear the shoe polish company wouldn't relinquish its trademark. So they became Five Bucks. Along the way, and just