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The situation is eerily similar, when you think about it. Both bands formed in the mid-'80s in the Midwest and had co-leaders who generally wrote separately yet shared songwriting credits on all their material. Both drew caringly from the deep well of country music's legacy, though

Jay Farrar's voice hits like raw coffee on an empty stomach. It cuts into things -- the night usually -- with plain force and unkind certainty. He does not write songs to put you at your ease, and if perchance they inspire in the listener an impulse to

While he certainly wrote a handful of enduring classics as a member of the Byrds, it's surprising that Gene Clark has never been given the recognition for his solo work that the music so obviously deserves. Between 1966 (the year he quit the Byrds, at the peak of

Charlie Rich was always such a humble singer. He never showed off or drew attention to himself at the expense of the song. He caressed his lyrics; he worked his one-of-a-kind voice over the words so carefully, the better to feel their meaning, and then he let loose his discoveries

Tim Lee was half of the Windbreakers, a Mississippi-based duo who released seven raggedly charming records in the '80s and early '90s. Lee and partner Bobby Sutliff's main gift was their ability to reveal, within a hook-laden pop framework, a welcome edginess when things threatened to

If it's true that Bill Monroe invented bluegrass, it's equally true that it wouldn't have happened the way it did without guitarist/lead singer Lester Flatt and banjo player/baritone singer Earl Scruggs. As members of Monroe's 1946-48 Blue Grass Boys, they