John Doe - A Year In The Wilderness
The finest singer to emerge from American punk (depending on how you classify Los Lobos and David Hidalgo), John Doe has somehow managed to combine the reckless urgency that burned through his work with X with the lyrical precision and musical expansiveness that has marked his growth as a songwriter.
Jim Ford - The Sounds Of Our Time
Jim Ford is a music-world Zelig. He grew up with Loretta Lynn a neighbor and later was in a relationship with Bobbie Gentry, afterward contending that he wrote "Ode To Billie Joe". There he is in the photo collage adorning his close friend Sly Stone's There&
Bill Monroe - My Last Days On Earth: 1981-1994
This four-CD box concludes Bear Family's encyclopedic six-box exploration of Monroe's career. The focus here, Monroe's last thirteen years on MCA, starts in 1981 when, diagnosed with colon cancer, he wrote and recorded the somber, decidedly un-Monroe instrumental peroration "My Last Days On
George Jones - The Grand Tour
By 1974, George Jones had already had quite the volatile career -- riding high on a long string of top-10 hits, being reduced to living in his car outside of Jasper, Texas, and hitting every conceivable point between. The '70s opened with mostly misses for Jones, including releases with
Gene Clark With The Gosdin Brothers - Self-Titled
When Gene Clark died in 1991 after years of substance abuse, obit writers cited his brief period as a founding member of the Byrds. Clark was actually much more. He infused the original band with much of its soul and vision, establishing himself as a pivotal folk-rock innovator, a fact
Various Artists - Just One More: A Musical Tribute To Larry Brown
Larry Brown, the renowned southern writer who passed away in November 2004, loved music. Unlike many writers of his stature, he never forgot where he was from and even celebrated that place in his novels, short stories, and memoirs. Brown is remembered as one of the masters at capturing a