Latest

Townes Van Zandt's legacy cuts quite a swath through contemporary singer-songwriters; his compositions are becoming standards, and his restless, lyrical spirit holds considerable sway. Chris Buhalis is a case in point: You get the sense that without Townes, this Michigan songwriter might be lost. His temperament never quite

There's no more exciting or excitable a picker in acoustic music than Sam Bush. A whirling dervish onstage, he flails like Jimmy Page, conjuring up mesmerizing polyrhythmic chops and trailblazing solos, seasoned with the old-time wisdom of Bill Monroe and the persona of a Muppet. It's

Driving burned and pissed out of Arizona over the Plains is an acid test of a true road song, and was the making of some mighty good ones on this solo debut by Gin Blossoms piano man Robert Becker. His track record with bands can only improve; meanwhile, he'

When first hearing that there would be no chainsaw mayhem on the new Angry Johnny album (the previous one, Hankenstein, had two separate songs about chainsaw murders), I feared the Angry one might be trying to clean up his cruddy act. Doesn't Angry realize that when chainsaws are

I still admire singer-guitarist Chris Whitley for following up his mostly acoustic debut, Living With The Law, with a white-noise album loud enough to make Sonic Youth wear earplugs. But it couldn't have been good for his career. Whitley, a skinny hunk type whose first single, 1991'

In 1971, at the same festival where Bill Monroe ended his long feud with Lester Flatt and again shared a stage with his old partner, John Hartford made his first bluegrass festival appearance. He brought with him a mangy band of veteran roister doisters: Norman Blake flatpicked, Vassar Clements sawed,