Merle Haggard - Ryman Auditorium (Nashville, TN)
When Merle Haggard returned to the stage of the refurbished Ryman Auditorium for the second time in 13 months, he probably had all the immortals who had stood there before him in mind. To the delight of the many blue-collar fans in attendance, he opened the show with a vigorous
Johnny Cash / Mark Lanegan - Rose Gardens (Portland, OR)
Rosy-fingered dusk tripped slowly down green terrace steps, folding chairs, sculpted roses, and halfway through Mark Lanegan's second solo show settled an indirect glow across the stage. All in the time it took Lanegan to work through a half-dozen songs from his two solo albums and Willie Nelson&
Emmylou Harris - Wrecking Ball
Though Emmylou Harris new album is titled Wrecking Ball, that could also be the description of the tool Daniel Lanois brings into the producers booth and attacks Harris past efforts with. This album is so unlike Harris other albums that when I played it at a recent backyard barbecue, all
Shaver - Unshaven: Shaver Live at Smith's Olde Bar
If you had a photographic memory, a video camera and an audio recorder, Unshaven would be your own private Shaver bootleg. (Yes, sounds can create vivid pictures.) You'd play it often to recapture that rip-roarin' evening of honky tonk. Like any live show, you'd groan
Bodeans - Joe Dirt Car
Bursting out of Waukesha, WI in 1986 on the heels of the T Bone Burnett-produced Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams, the BoDeans sounded like a trap door out of new-wave hell, back into a no-frills nirvana where acoustic guitars, harmony vocals and catchy three-chord melodies were the golden
Joe Ely - Letter to Laredo
The first clue that Joe Ely is up to something different on Letter to Laredo is in the thank-you credits, where the Lubbock legend tips his hat to writers Garcia Lorca, Michael Ventura and Cormac McCarthy. The next clue is the disc's second track, a cover of Tom