Giant Sand - Official Bootleg Series, Vol. 1
Will Giant Sand ever be a smidgen more definable? Will they ever sound slightly more commercial? Will they ever behave in an ambitious manner that behooves their potential greatness? It doesn't seem likely.
Flying in the face of corporate assembly-line logic, Giant Sand records music, somehow manages
Tim O'Brien - Red on Blonde / Tony Rice - Sings Gordon Lightfoot
Given that Bob Dylan's catalog has pretty much been interpreted to death by all manner of song stylists by now, an album of all-Dylan covers would seem a rather risky proposition, but Tim O'Brien proves more than up to the task with Red on Blonde.
Jonell Mosser - Around Townes
Lacking the flamboyant vocal range of Jonell Mosser, Townes Van Zandt couldn't sing his own songs like this if he tried. And since his laconic restraint is such an integral trait of his artistry, he likely wouldn't if he could. Even so, my guess is that
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's honest, practical,
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