Tim O'Reagan - Flying solo
Friday night during South By Southwest was what you'd expect from a music industry showdown slammed alongside St. Patrick's Day weekend and college spring break: bands slugging it out in clubs, tourists trailing into the streets, boozehound frat types prowling for a party.
Above it all
Tab Benoit - Keeping his roots well-watered
When Tab Benoit discarded the piloting education his parents had financed, he wanted to reassure them he was a young man with artistic conviction and a good head on his shoulders. That was 1989, and he was 20. "They weren't real happy with me, put it that
Frank Black - Eugene skyline
At this late date in pop music history, it's probably unrealistic to expect that a respected, prolific indie-rocker would travel to Nashville and enter into the world of the southern baroque. Sure, Bob Dylan did it with Blonde On Blonde 40 years ago, and made something new
Earl Brothers - Nowhere near the old mainstream
"Bluegrass now is like rock in the '70s. It's produced. It's predictable." Bobby Earl Davis sits in a San Francisco coffee shop, his right shoulder cocked and hunched. An angular, tense, Picasso blue-period Ralph Stanley, he'll assume the same posture
Elvis Costello And Allen Toussaint - Tipitina and Us
Both his personality and the signature musical style of Allen Toussaint -- the two are inseparable -- reflect such refinement, grace and subtle whimsy that the soggy tale of his evacuation from his native New Orleans seems as incongruous as the devastation of that city remains unthinkable. Even after Hurricane Katrina had
Wailin' Jennys - Firecracker
With singer-songwriters walking the earth in continually expanding numbers, it's a wonder more of them don't band together to try to differentiate themselves from the pack. That's sort of the story of Ruth Moody, Nicky Mehta, and Annabelle Chvostek, collectively known as the