Built to Last
Editor's Note: Guy Clark passed away on May 17, 2016, according to his longtime friend and colleague Tamara Saviano. In his memory, we're re-running this cover story from 2002. May he rest in peace.
Guy Clark lives on a quiet cul de sac in West
Doug Martsch - You gotta move
When Doug Martsch, once and future leader of Built To Spill, idiosyncratic guitar hero and full-time resident of Idaho, recorded his debut solo album, Now You Know, in the fall of 1999, he didn't like it very much. The album, a stripped-down semi-blues, partly country
Walking the Streets of Bakersfield
It's hard to find history in a patch of hot dirt, weeds, and cracked asphalt. Yet just such an abandoned vision of former honky-tonk glory is exactly what you get if you come to Bakersfield in search of the Blackboard, the infamous nightclub that, during the 1950s
Various Artists - Going Driftless: An Artists' Tribute To Greg Brown
Since debuting in 1981 with the humble Iowa Waltz on what was, at the time, his own Red House imprint, Greg Brown has forged a singular career based on tireless touring, a seemingly bottomless sack of earthy tunes exploring simple concerns with regional-specific overtones, and inimitable, glass-rattling baritone
James McMurtry - Saint Mary Of The Woods
James McMurtry has made his name -- and the part he inherited hasn't hurt him -- as a wordsmith, a sketcher of characters and teller of stories. The music to which these have been set hasn't generated much comment over the course of his first five albums, but
Gourds / Kev Russell's Junker / Clocker Redbury & Dusty Slosinger
Let me drop my critical guise for a moment and talk straight from the heart: I love the Gourds. This Austin combo is all about serious fun. They have livelier music than your favorite bar band and more memorable lines than a lounge lizard, and they keep getting better. Their