Chris Thomas King - O brother, who art thou?
The Coen brothers couldn't have scripted a stranger irony than the musical resurrection of Chris Thomas King. After years of refusing to submit to traditionalist strictures -- resisting the pressures of a record industry that couldn't accept his streetwise raps and hip-hop samples as a natural
The Cramps - Smell of Female/ A Date With Elvis/ Rockinnreelininaucklandnewzealandxxx/ Stay Sick!/ Look Mom, No Head!/ Big Beat From Badsville/
In the late 1970s, when other whippersnappers rediscovered the joys of rock 'n' roll, twisted it around, and called it punk, the Cramps latched onto rockabilly, tossed in other pop culture elements (B movies, surf music), and called it something even scarier -- psychobilly. That's sex, drugs,
Gene Clark - Gypsy Angel: The Gene Clark Demos 1983-1990
By the turn of the 1980s, ex-Byrd Gene Clark's glory days were dwindling fast. Despite three good-to-dazzling mid-1970s solo albums, the major-label crash-and-burn of McGuinn, Clark & Hillman in late 1979 (after such a promising rebirth just two years before) signaled
Webb Pierce - Caught In The Webb: A Tribute To The Legendary Webb Pierce
Webb Pierce should have been in the Country Music Hall of Fame a decade before he died of pancreatic cancer in 1991. He didn't get there until 2001.
Shortly after he died, I began researching a story on his life. I planned to speak with some of his
Dan Baird & The Sofa Kings - Redneck Savant
Everyone's favorite satellite from Georgia, Dan Baird, has recently been serving up twang and thunder in the refreshingly blue-collar Yayhoos. Here, via a 2000 concert set recorded in Switzerland, he tugs that collar down and proudly shows off his farmer's tan line. And then some;
John "Mambo" Treanor: 1953 to 2001
August found the heart of Austin, Texas, beating in a mournfully irregular fashion after the loss on August 20 of John "Mambo" Treanor, arguably the city's most prolific, eccentric and best-loved drummer. Mambo, 48, died after what is usually referred to as a "brave