Star Room Boys - Why Do Lonely Men And Women Want To Break Each Other's Hearts?
From "Will the circle be unbroken?" to "Why don't you love me like you used to do?" to "Do you think about me?", country music has a long and distinguished history of posing questions -- some rhetorical, but most pleading -- in
Ray Wylie Hubbard - Crusades Of The Restless Knights
Working in relative obscurity, '70s Texas songwriting great Ray Wylie Hubbard has resurfaced in the '90s through a series of fine solo albums, beginning with 1992's Lost Train Of Thought and continuing through 1994's Loco Gringo's Lament and 1997's Dangerous
Cowboy Junkies - Rarities, B-Sides And Slow, Sad Waltzes
Ever since their acclaimed late-'80s breakthrough The Trinity Session, the Cowboy Junkies' sound -- underamped instruments, lugubrious tempos and singer Margo Timmins' glacial cool -- has become an alt-cowpoke cliche. The very style that brought them acclaim quickly became the critical stick used to beat up
Mark Lanegan - I'll Take Care Of You
Listening to Mark Lanegan on a bright, shimmering Saturday afternoon just seems so...wrong. Better to wait until you're half shot-out at 2 a.m. the following Sunday morning and let the guy's somber aura just wash over you. But since my days don't
Nanci Griffith With The London Symphony Orchestra - The Dust Bowl Symphony
Call it Moody Blues Syndrome. Or maybe Paul McCartney Disease. Whatever it is, there's something about the lure of a big full-blown symphony orchestra that attracts some rock, pop and country singers who want to prove they know they difference between fiddles and violins. Perhaps they think their
Alison Krauss - Forget About It
If there were any doubt left that Alison Krauss is a musician pursuing her own course with a healthy disregard for both the jealous embrace of bluegrass exclusivists and her own commercial success, Forget About It ought to clear things right up. With her latest album, the one-time bluegrass prodigy