BONUS TRACKS: The Mystery of Oliver Anthony
Music is a weird business. You can put out the best song in the world, hire the best people in the world to promote it, and it can still fizzle. Meanwhile, all sorts of terrible songs inexplicably catch fire and rocket to the top of the charts. Oliver Anthony, this
ALBUM REVIEW: East Nash Grass Brings Live Spirit to ‘Last Chance to Win’
If indeed East Nash Grass is betting it all on Last Chance to Win, the follow-up to their 2021 self-titled debut, the odds of success are stacked in their favor. The album opens with an old-time vibe on the title track, with the band’s five members pulling out all
ALBUM REVIEW: Bobby Rush Brings Full Band to Full Blues on ‘All My Love For You’
The king is back.
Bluesman Bobby Rush, the 89-year-old King of the Chitlin’ Circuit, is still going strong. In 2021, he released Rawer Than Raw, a solo acoustic LP that earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Blues Album (ND review). This week, he’s back with a full band
THE READING ROOM: Country’s Evolution Told Through Careers of Ricky Skaggs and Marty Stuart
Like Marty Stuart’s rockabilly guitar licks and Ricky Skaggs’ lightning-fast mandolin runs, music historian and critic Michael Streissguth’s tour-de-force music history, Highways and Heartaches: How Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, and Children of the New South Saved the Soul of Country Music, scampers through the musical landscapes that influenced
ALBUM REVIEW: Teddy Thompson Revisits Classic Country Weepers
Teddy Thompson has been here before. In 2007, the son of British folk greats Richard and Linda Thompson took a detour from recording original material to put down some vintage country songs on his third album, Upfront & Down Low. (However, his first two outings both included Everly Brothers songs
ALBUM REVIEW: Jill Andrews Writes Songs Across Time for ‘Modern Age’
The sound of a cassette tape slipping into a boombox and the click of the record button begins Modern Age, the newest release by Jill Andrews. That throwback sets the tone for an album full of nostalgia for the simpler days of childhood, but also a rumination on the effects