George Jones - I Lived to Tell it All
Garth Brooks may be country music's answer to Billy Joel, and Travis Tritt its Elton John (check out "Up Against the Wall" off his new album, The Restless Kind), but the beauty of George Jones is that, no matter what he does, he'll never
Iris Dement - The Way I Should
If June and Ward Cleaver had conceived a daughter -- in addition to Wally and the Beav -- and that daughter had been a folk singer, the third Cleaver child very well could have been Iris DeMent. DeMent appears to share many traits with the Cleaver household -- she'
Hazeldine - "Tarmac" b/w "Apothecary"
You don't usually encounter such wonder from bands so young, bands just putting out their first single. More often than not, the 7-inch is a hint of greater things to come, or merely a sidelighting curiosity. But the two sides here are, quite frankly, two of the better
Various Artists - Rig Rock Deluxe: A Musical Salute to the American Truck Driver
There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
-- Robert Service, "The Men That Don't Fit In"
Steve Forbert - Rocking Horse Head
The tenderness and longing expressed on Steve Forbert's new album, especially the way he wraps these emotions up in his warm, sandpapery vocals, at times recalls early Rod Stewart classics such as "Handbags and Gladrags" and "An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You
Various Artists - Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation the Songs of Vic Chesnutt
The story goes that on the day Vic Chesnutt recorded the song "Guilty By Association" for his 1995 album Is The Actor Happy?, he asked his pal Michael Stipe to stop by the studio to add backing vocals. The song tells the tale of a struggling artist obscured