The Gourds: Old Mad Joy
The Gourds recorded Old Mad Joy up at Levon Helm's barn, with former Bob Dylan sideman Larry Campbell on the controls. The album serves up tunes that are Gourd-like, with disconnected lyrics that defy narrative comprehension but sound really good, such as Melchert. But Old Mad Joy is
Mostly True Story in Honor of Bill Monroe's 10oth Birthday
I Shook the Hand of Bill Monroe
When Bill Monroe pulled into Gateway Center, the heart of downtown Pittsburgh, on a hot summer afternoon, his long sleek custom bus was greeted by a crowd of about seventy devotees. Most had been waiting all morning.
Now, if you don’t know
Kenny Vaughan: V
As many readers of these pages know, Kenny Vaughan is one of the best guitarists in the business. Since starting as a teenager, he's played country, rock and even punk. He's performed and/or recorded with a lot of great artists (including Rodney Crowell, Lucinda Williams,
Review: Nick Lowe - The Old Magic
by Nick DeRiso
Growing older has made Nick Lowe grayer, a little quieter, but no less clever, no less relevant, and certainly no less off-handedly absorbing. He is the living, breathing, guitar-playing, Buddy Holly shade-wearing embodiment of the old saw about getting better with age.
And that’s saying something.
Who are Elmo Buzz and the Eastside Bulldogs?
Elizabeth Cook, Bobby Bare Jr., Tim Carroll, Jen Gunderman, Mark Horn, Eric McConnell, Dennis Taylor and some dude named Todd Snider.
If that sounds interesting to you, and it should, you can download their six song EP Shit Sandwich for free.
Excerpt from an interview I did with Todd for
Other Lives - 'Tamer Animals' Reviewed
Tamer Animals by Other Lives
The mysterious cover image is apt: Other Lives are not easy to grip or pigeonhole. The word that seems to come up most frequently in pieces about them is 'cinematic' and there is a Morricone-like soundtrack quality to some of what they do,