Big Joe's Proteges: Bob Dylan and Mike Bloomfield
Two Degrees of Separation
I blogged about Mike Bloomfield and Bob Dylan in December, writing here about their first encounter in Chicago in 1963, the crucial role that Bloomfield played backing Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, the beautiful licks he laid down on Highway 61 Revisited, and his decision
All Aboard the Blues and Gospel Train
These days, the blues is pretty much universally acknowledged as integral to the world’s music DNA. Even ad-men get it. But, fifty years ago, when a bunch of English white kids with names like Clapton, Jagger, Jones, and Page first fell in love with the music they were going
Tyler Childers – Live On Red Barn Radio II
I’ve said before that Kentucky has a prospering music scene these days with both up-and-coming talents, such as Tyler Childers, to so-called “country music saviors” like Sturgill Simpson and the great Chris Knight. On May 1, 2014 Tyler Childers officially released his second EP, Live On Red Barn Radio
Australian Band T-Bones' New Album Was Indeed a Long Time Coming
When I joined the T-Bones back in the early 1990s, I was appalled to discover they couldn’t play covers. What sort of “country band”--genuinely from the country, to boot--could not fill a night with country and western classics, rockabilly, Cash covers, and so on? At the least, couldn’
Willy Porter's Classic Album Dog Eared Dream
It was 1996 and I was a senior in high school. As a huge fan of Tori Amos, I was determined not to miss her Pittsburgh performance at the Benedum. Back then, if you wanted to get tickets to a concert, you had to camp out, wait in lines and
The Everly Brothers - Songs Our Daddy Taught Us
2014 expanded reissue of the Everlys' deepest roots
The Everly Brothers second full-length album is extraordinary in many different ways. In addition to its basic triumph as roots music, its exposition of traditional folk and country songs was a nervy artistic statement by a duo that was helping build