Rick Hall: The Soul of Muscle Shoals
If you heard just about any soul, pop, or even country hit between 1960 and 1974, and well beyond, you were hearing a special sound produced by a musical genius named Rick Hall. In a little northern Alabama town called Muscle Shoals, Hall worked tirelessly — he would later write in
On "Dog," bluesman Charlie Parr sees canines on a par with humans
Charlie Parr Dog (Red House Records)
The great contemporary country blues artist Charlie Parr manages a trick of sly self-portraiture in his new album. His ingenious title song emanates from a dog’s point of view. The hound objects to a human-centric injustice, as Parr sings, “You say that I
Matthew O'Neill Takes Inspiration from Neil Young and Nature
Matthew O’Neill’s goal when recording his most recent album, Trophic Cascade, was “timelessness,” and with so much creative musical diversity flowing through it, its appeal will undoubtedly last for many generations.
Trophic Cascade, released on the environmental record label Underwater Panther Coalition, has touches of rock, folk, and
The Most Detailed Look Yet at Chris Bell Before and After Big Star
Chris Bell’s untimely death in 1978 not only robbed the world of his musical greatness, but also froze his artistic assets. A full appraisal of his art was retarded by the paucity of available recorded material that lingered for many years after his passing. Big Star’s debut, #1
2017: The year of the Hitchcock (Robyn)
Even for an artist as consistently productive and aesthetically satisfying as psychedelic folk troubadour Robyn Hitchcock has been over the past four decades, 2017 was an especially rewarding year. For those paying attention, Hitchcock is seemingly everywhere - in concert, in print, participating in podcasts, radio programs, cable TV, music
Grandpa’s Music is Alive and Well: A Struggle for Identity in Country Music
Bill C. Malone opens his 2010 book Country Music, U.S.A., stating that country music “defies precise definition, and no term (not even ‘country’) has ever successfully encapsulated its essence” (Malone 2010, 1). In the past century, the ‘country music’ genre has comprised several different sub-genres, including hillbilly, old-time,