Greg Brown - Further In
Baby boomer balladeer Greg Brown is like one of those friends you had back in school, the one you would always go to for advice because they could look at what seemed a complicated dilemma and extract an obvious answer. Brown's wisdom cuts through the fog with amazing
One Fell Swoop - Self-Titled (EP)
Understated but resolutely bluesy, smoldering but bell-clear; there's something timeless about this St. Louis band. One Fell Swoop defies one fell label: their sound is acoustic, hip-swiveling and scorched with twang, but it also celebrates the intimacy of lyrical narratives. The band possesses at least two
Seldom Scene - Dream Scene / Sam Bush - Glamour & Grits
This is overdue, and maybe he'll never see it, but I owe a lot to a long-retired Seattle DJ and (I think, still) Pioneer Square bouncer named Tiny Freeman. He had a Sunday night bluegrass show on KRAB-FM, a community radio station (pre-college radio) that
Willard Grant Conspiracy - 3am Sunday @ Fortune Otto's
Simplicity is ravishing. Here's a record that has no liner notes except the statement, "Anyone who tells you they played on this, probably did." The songs are not listed anywhere on the package -- except for the actual CD, which is in the player, which means you
Slim Dunlap - Times Like This
There's this country ditty near the end of Times Like This called "Nowheres Near". It tells the story of a band that hasn't been noticed after "20 fucking years." The band is having tryouts to replace the bassist, axed for being too
Del McCoury Band - The Cold Hard Facts
The father of bluegrass may have recently passed away, but the high-lonesome bluesiness of Bill Monroe can still be found in the music of the Del McCoury Band. Their recent string of albums for Rounder are perhaps the finest examples of traditional bluegrass in the '90s, and their