Steve Earle / Townes Van Zandt / Guy Clark - Together At The Bluebird Cafe
The suspicion lingers that somewhere in Nashville -- a front porch, a living room, a converted garage with a well-stocked refrigerator -- the best songwriters sit and trade works-in-progress late into the night, and magic happens. Well, some of 'em do hang out together, and sometimes there are rumors
Mcguinn, Clark & Hillman - Self-Titled
After more than a decade apart, these three founding Byrds reconvened at the end of the '70s. Rather than echoing the classic early Byrds, their collaboration resembled the bands of diminishing potency who had followed in their wake -- Poco, Manassas, Firefall.
Roger McGuinn's 12-string jangle is
Wild Seeds - I'm Sorry, I Can't Rock You All Night Long: 1984-1989
There are bad singers, and then there are good bad singers. Bad singers just make you wince at their ineptitude, either in sympathy or in horror. Good bad singers, meanwhile, can get you to dig their mood so much that you don't mind the cracked notes. When you
X - Los Angeles / Wild Gift / Under The Big Black Sun
"The World's A Mess; It's In My Kiss" -- Los Angeles' closing track aptly encapsulates X's sustaining power and accomplishment: wresting the universal from deeply felt personal experience. Again and again, these poets-turned-punks capture the telling detail -- snatches of overheard
Charley Patton - Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues
A percussive truthfulness. A synthesis of conflict and beauty. A futuristic maturity. An opening out toward multidimensionality through simplicity.
-- Yusef Komunyakaa
Aw take my picture,
hang it up in Jackson's wall
Aw take my picture,
hang it up in Jackson's wall
Anybody asks you "
Roy Nichols: 1932 to 2001
West Coast guitarist Roy Nichols was one of the most influential axemen in country music. Though he was best known for his long run as a member of Merle Haggard's band the Strangers, Nichols was already a seasoned pro by the time he began playing with Merle, having