Whiskeytown - Borderline (London, England)
"I think I'm the only one in the band who still drinks whiskey, so cheers," fiddler Caitlin Cary proclaimed during the encore of Whiskeytown's debut performance in London. Indeed, these shows seemed largely focused on how well leader Ryan Adams could adjust to yet
Suzanne Thomas - Branching out on her own
A commanding singer with a broad, expressive range, a deep knowledge of country idioms and some 30 years of experience in the music business, Suzanne Thomas remains largely unknown. In large part this is because she's spent the past decade as part of the Dry Branch Fire Squad,
Martin Zellar - Growin' Up
Martin Zellar used to be the lead singer of the Gear Daddies, a Minneapolis-based garage band of rare vision and grace that released two albums in the late '80s. The band's emotional live shows -- great rambling sets filled with alternately delicate and raging rock 'n&
Marques Bovre & The Evil Twins - Multiple personality music
For Marques Bovre & the Evil Twins, there are two sides to every coin. Bovre grew up in the tiny Sugar River village of Paoli, Wisconsin, but he remembers taking the 8 a.m. Badger Bus into Madison most weekends, finding relief in a place so big that nobody knew
Lucinda Williams - Setting the record straight
In a 1986 article about Delta blues singer Robert Johnson, Greil Marcus observed that blues was music born not of enslavement, but of liberation. "For the first time," he wrote, "[blacks] were acting like free people, and running into the wall that separates desire from its realization.
Lost Continentals - Singin' and swingin'
Turning down Pearl Street into the Southern gothic neighborhood of Cabbagetown near downtown Atlanta, Amy Pike belts out her take on Big Joe Turner's "Love Roller Coaster" over the car stereo: "I've got atomic power," she croons, "Going a thousand miles