Syd Straw
Syd Straw works at her own pace when its comes to releasing solo albums. Pink Velour, her first studio CD since War And Peace in 1996, carries the credit line "Produced (very slowly) by Syd Straw." But it proves to be worth the wait, as Straw delivers an
Mark Olson & Gary Louris - Hawks of a different feather
We each inevitably hear music in the particular ways that we do at least partly because of all that we've heard before because of the context and expectations we bring to new work. For instance, many of us have anticipated Ready For The Flood, an album by Mark
The wayward taleof Will T. Massey
The Seattle to which San Angelo, Texas, native Will T. Massey moved circa 1990 he was, what? 20 years old? was a location sought by way of retreat, an end-of-the-road place that had not yet become the center of genetic engineering, gaming, Microsoft, and grunge. It was still a cheap
Ernest V. Stoneman's proper place in country music history
One of 2008's best country reissues, maybe even the best, is Ernest V. Stoneman: The Unsung Father Of Country Music, 1925-1934. The 46-track collection is smartly packaged, including a small hard-bound book with lots of photos. But it's the savvy selection of some too-long-unavailable early sides
Danny Epps, gone but not forgotten
I can't for the life of me remember how Danny Epps' self-titled debut album came into my possession, only that I played it constantly after its 1972 release on Columbia Records. I wasn't getting reviewers' copies yet, there's nothing on the jacket
Rediscovering Bob Martin, for the first time
I'm not sure what prompted me to play Bob Martin's Midwest Farm Disaster when I came across it while cleaning my office this fall. I knew that I'd never heard of Martin and that I couldn't remember the promo advance arriving in