Tribute Celebrates Beauty and Empathy in Tom Waits’ Songs
The advantage — or disadvantage, depending on your perspective — of a tribute album is that by glancing at the track listing you already have an idea in your head of how it will sound. Depending on your familiarity with the artists involved, that idea extends to how those artists will likely
Today's Southern Rock Offers Bridges Amid Troubled History
“We’re not here to change your mind about anything,” Charlie Starr, lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for Blackberry Smoke, announced from the stage at a recent live performance in Chicago. “We’re here to ease your mind about everything.”
The infectious melodies, thoughtful lyrics, anthemic choruses, and, most of
‘East Nashville Skyline’ and a New View of Possibility
EDITOR'S NOTE: As Todd Snider’s landmark East Nashville Skyline album (2004) gets its first vinyl release today, singer-songwriter Korby Lenker shares what the album meant — and still means — to him.
Setting: Austin, SXSW, maybe 2005. Saturday afternoon. I was 28 or 29.
I'd been
THROUGH THE LENS: The Women Who Are Taking Back Country Music
“What I love the most are sad songs. My heart was broken and, I dunno, I guess when my heart breaks, pedal steel comes out.”
So said Karen Pittelman (Karen & the Sorrows) in a 2017 Bluegrass Situation article exploring the assumptions behind who owns country music and who’s
The Good Ones Share Their Rwanda With The World
In this hellacious year of our lord, it seems like we mortals are living and reliving humanity’s worst moments on earth with nauseating frequency. Among the already tired political, social, and environmental tropes rotating through an endless news cycle, 2019 also marks 25 years since the Rwandan genocide — a
EASY ED’S BROADSIDE: John Moreland, An Appreciation and Anticipation
In addition to writing this weekly column, I also aggregate flotsam and jetsam from multiple sources that I post throughout each day on a Facebook page as a non-commercial service to share with fans of Americana and roots music. Some people like to collect coins or stamps, follow a