John Hartford - Looks At Life/Earthwords & Music/The Love Album/Housing Project/John Hartford/Iron Mountain Depot/Radio John
The cover of John Hartford's first album for RCA had both "folk" and "country" on it, just below the label's logo -- a tangible sign of the confusion that must have reigned in the marketing department. You can almost feel the head-scratching:
Marah - Float Away With The Friday Night Gods
It was Sunday morning at South By Southwest in Austin. I was eating breakfast with my kid sister when Peter Jesperson stopped by our table to rave about Marah's gig the night before. For years the former manager of the Replacements (now a New West Records VP) had
Deer Whistle - Stranded Somewhere Else (EP)
Since the dissolution of his hard-pop band Best Kissers In The World in 1995, Gerald Collier has been drawn to the dark side of country. On two solo offerings (1996's I Had To Laugh Like Hell and 1998's self-titled album), he staked out a piece of
Alejandro Escovedo - Gravity / Thirteen Years
In 1991, Alejandro Escovedo turned 40 and also turned a corner personally and artistically. In the liner notes to the newly reissued Gravity, he writes, "One day the world stopped spinning until it took on the proportions of a lifetime, never to be the same again -- out of
Various Artists - Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood (soundtrack)
Veering from his unlikely role revitalizing old-time bluegrass, T Bone Burnett explores different terrain this time around in his continued quest to revive the dying art of the soundtrack. His companion piece to the Ashley Judd/Sandra Bullock film Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood is as pleasantly unambitious as
Nanci Griffith - Tennessee Theatre (Knoxville, TN)
The closing show of a tour is always a dicey proposition. Depending on how well the tour's gone and how tired and cranky the band is, you might get either a jubilant party or a hasty run-through from weary players anxious just to get home. Judging from the