Jeb Loy Nichols - Lovers Knot
From the opening rhythmic vibe that bursts into a New Orleans funeral-march horn section, it's apparent that what follows is not your average singer-songwriter fare. Maybe it is the voice -- a resonant, nasal, keening, disarming warble that's inclusive of a hundred years of recorded music.
Marcia Ball - Let Me Play With Your Poodle Dog
She's a little bit country. But only a little. Mostly, she's...well, it's hard to say just what Marcia Ball is: a little rock, a lot of roll; a pinch of rhythm, a handful of blues; a Cajun Texan with a sultry voice and
Tom Russell - Song Of The West: The Cowboy Collection
Geography and imagination are funny things. Ramblin' Jack Elliott lives in California, but he grew up in Brooklyn. Tom Russell grew up California, but he lives in Brooklyn (or he did for many years before a recent relocation to West Texas). And both fancy themselves cowboys. On the liner
Townes Van Zandt - Last Rights
More a documentary project than a musical recording, Last Rights features 10 Townes Van Zandt songs rendered solo acoustic, primarily as part of an interview session with Larry Monroe, a longtime DJ at KUT-FM in Austin. Interspersed between the musical performances are quotes from Van Zandt explaining the background and
Nadine - Back To My Senses
On the cover a boy sits on a diving board, watching a neon Ferris wheel lit up in a six-pointed Big Star. The allusion is subtle but well-made, for the tubed-out guitar hooks, the summer harmonies, the spiteless praise of youth, dreams and senses, both physical and emotional -- from
Sara Evans - Three Chords and the Truth
If Music Row is regularly to be chastised for abandoning country music's past -- and they should -- well, they should also be congratulated for occasionally getting it right. Sara Evans' debut isn't a big and important record, it's just a first-class example