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Way back at the dawn of his career, a shocking 15 years of hair loss ago now, Dwight Yoakam looked to be crossover big. Riffing on Buck Owens and Don Rich, Yoakam and longtime collaborator Pete Anderson were presented as hard-core country traditionalists who had simultaneously been blessed with

On the surface, the solo debut by Jon Dee Graham is certain to conjure comparisons with early Springsteen and later Tom Waits -- if one can imagine either of those urban artists transported to the border culture of the Tex-Mex cantina. Beneath the surface, however, is where the richness of

An unkempt romantic streak runs through the last two decades' worth of Texas songwriting, identifiable by its occasionally bombastic representations of violence and its more pervasive attempts at inflating even trenchantly average characters to the status of archetypes. As a lyrical tendency, it least serves those who insist on

While most American record companies seem content to let languish in their vaults countless classic performances from even the most well-known country legends, the British label Krazy Kat has once again dug up some long-buried musical treasures and compiled them on a couple of fascinating new collections. Jitterbug

Fifty years ago, the Stanley Brothers -- Ralph, Carter and company -- made their recording debut. One of the first tracks they committed to posterity was an as-of-then unreleased Bill Monroe composition called "Molly and Tenbrook". Just a few bars into the song, someone -- one of the Stanleys,