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The descent from Dolly Parton's last visit home, the gaudy 1994 album Heartsongs -- overblown, overproduced, overcrowded, and altogether every bit larger-than-life as Parton herself -- to the stripped-down, live-to-DAT musical framework of Hungry Again might give a lesser mortal nosebleed. But in this effort to redeem her

Among traditional American country blues singers and guitar players, Doc Watson is without peer. When he sings in his unadorned baritone, it is as if the entire Anglo-Saxon folk tradition had been fermented in the Appalachian Mountains only to be channeled through him. Doc has been recorded and honored more

Willie Nelson must have been one tortured soul back when he was making his mark as a hit songwriter in the early 1960s. What, other than untold anguish, could have produced the likes of "Darkness On The Face Of The Earth", "Home Motel", and "I&

Jubilation stands apart from The Band's other post-Robbie Robertson/Richard Manuel releases for the way, once again, rich worlds are revealed in each song. Recorded in Levon Helm's converted Woodstock barn, the settings are mostly acoustic, but full of live rock 'n' roll spontaneity,

The unexpected success of Loudon Wainwright III's 1972 bluegrassy novelty tune, "Dead Skunk", put unwanted pressure on the singer. And, as Wainwright says in the liner notes to the recent reissue of his first post-Skunk album, his attempt to capitalize on the popularity of his hit

Say you're sick to death of blues -- same songs, same riffs, same endless, flavorless imitations by big white bands, same cynical pandering to tourists from exurbia. You need this box. Don't take my word for it. Hook up to a listening post somewhere. Forswear for