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Terry Roland

"Boys from Houston" Captures the Sweep of '60s Music History

"Boys from Houston" Captures the Sweep of '60s Music History

In American roots music history, following and tracing the movement of artists, emerging genres, and lasting legacies can be a daunting task. For most popular music historians and ethnomusicologists with a focus on the roots of American music, the common geographical outgrowth, especially over the last 50 years, has been

The Long, Lonesome Highway of Hank Williams

The Long, Lonesome Highway of Hank Williams

The roses have faded, there's frost at my door The birds in the morning don't sing anymore The grass in the valley is starting to die And out in the darkness the whippoorwills cry. -- Hank Williams, from “Alone & Forsaken” The South in the deep,

Remembering Joe Cocker

Remembering Joe Cocker

Joe Cocker, the British blue-eyed soul singer who helped lead the second British music invasion -- along with Cream, The Who, Small Faces, Rod Stewart, Led Zeppelin and Jeff Beck -- has died of lung cancer. He was 70 years old. Cocker will be remembered for his unique blues-soaked interpretations

Mother Country: Dave Crossland Shines a Light on John Stewart

Before the singer-songwriter movement took shape in the early '70s, before James Taylor made his way through “Fire and Rain” on his breakout Sweet Baby James album; before Carole King wove her Tapestry album into a bestselling classic, there was California Bloodlines. In 1969, former Kingston Trio member John

Del & Woody: Tapping a Folk Hero’s Hillbilly Roots

Del & Woody: Tapping a Folk Hero’s Hillbilly Roots

Between them, Woody Guthrie and Del McCoury’s voices have blown like wind through much of the last century. Each has traveled the length and breadth of the United States. The depth of the American soul these two men have mined in songs and stories has been without measure. As

Jonny Two-Bags Finds his Father's Heart in Salvation Town

Jonny Two-Bags Finds his Father's Heart in Salvation Town

When the Orange County punk band the Vandals first released the song “Johnny Two-Bags” from their 1995 album, Live Fast Diarrea, it must have felt like some kind of backhanded recognition to punk musician Jonny (Two Bags) Wikersham. Lyrics like, “You ain't black and you ain't

Garrison Keillor: The Grandfather of Americana Music

Garrison Keillor: The Grandfather of Americana Music

Garrison Keillor is a sneaky guy. Over the last 40 years he has quietly, but consistently, worked his way into the homes of America on that forgotten medium – live radio broadcasts – from his home in Minnesota. He was retro before retro was even close to cool. Like Mark Twain and