Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives / Mavis Staples - Damrosch Park Bandshell (New York, NY)
The pairing of Marty Stuart and Mavis Staples at the Roots of American Music Festival at Lincoln Center made for a sweet Sunday night service. During her opening set, Staples invited Stuart to join her on the first song Pops Staples taught his children, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken&
Sally Spring - Americana Before Its Time
Blessed with hindsight, you could easily consider the music that Sally Spring was making in the '70s to be what's known these days as Americana. Her 1978 album Bird sported contributions from a guitarist and a bassist who were longtime Doc Watson sidemen; string support featured fiddle,
Kasey Chambers - Don't take it personal
"This record isn't like three years of therapy for me. I look back on Barricades and I can hear every moment in there of those three years prior to bringing that record out -- that struggle of getting through that time, and that happiness of having that
Grandpa, Granny, and Hee Haw
In 1971, CBS executive Fred Silverman made headlines with what became known as his "Rural Purge" when he canceled nine television shows (including The Beverly Hillbillies, Mayberry RFD, and Green Acres) -- not because they weren't successful, but because they skewed to a rural audience, which
Paul Westerberg - "Open Season" Soundtrack
Throughout Paul Westerberg's career as frontman for garage-pop band the Replacements and then as a solo artist, a sense of childlike fun has more than occasionally infused his songwriting. It should come as no surprise, then, that Westerberg, who has also been a dad for a few years
Chris Smither - Leave The Light On
Chris Smither has said he accumulates phrases, musical and lyrical, over time, and slowly pieces them together into the immaculately shaped conceptions for which he is known. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that this is just his twelfth album in a career that dates to 1970.
Leave The Light