David Gray and the Legacy of Romanticism
Romanticism is characterized by a desire for transcendence of the everyday; unity with God, a Higher Power, Nature, or Life; and harmony with the idealized lover or soulmate. As these cravings are ultimately unfulfillable, at least in any permanent sense, Romantic works of literature, art, and music exude palpable melancholy
BLUEGRASS RAMBLES: Ernie Evans and a New Approach to Bluegrass Festivals
Bluegrass music has a long and lively history in Florida, where we’re coming close to the end of another winter festival season. While many people who come to the Sunshine State love to cluster along the Atlantic or Gulf shores, or visit the attractions of Orlando, Florida, most of
New Collection Shows the Many Sides of John Hartford
This has been a good year for John Hartford fans. In the summer of 2018, Hartford’s daughter, Katie Harford Hogue, assisted by fiddler Matt Combs and musicologist and musician Greg Reish, compiled and narrated John Hartford’s Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes (StuffWorks Press Inc.), an astonishing anthology of
Austin Meade Puts Grunge Vibe to Fresh Use
The ripples of grunge are a funny thing. While as a standalone genre, it's pretty much extinct, some remnants have survived, weaving their way into other musical forms. And so the pleasant surprise of singer-songwriter Austin Meade's Waves is not just the clever lyrics, but also
The Cactus Blossoms Take a Turn onto ‘Easy Way’
The first time I met Jack Torrey of The Cactus Blossoms, we were standing in line to use the latrines at a music festival in Madison, Wisconsin. I had first heard The Cactus Blossoms about a year earlier, in 2014, when I attended a live taping of A Prairie Home
THROUGH THE LENS: Why Vinyl? A Roots Music Lover’s Guide to Analog
Readers of this column have heard me say more than a few times that we are in the midst of a roots revival, and we are in the midst of an analog revival as well.
In my town alone, we’ve gone from one record store to three, with the