Field Studies

Truck Drivin’ Songwritin’ Man

[30.Sep.09] :. Trucking songs, with their heart-of-gold waitresses, foggy nights, heavy loads, and rolling tires, must hit some modern emotional sweet spot, and musicians on the road share a kindred spirit with truckers.

They Killed John Henry but They Won’t Kill Me

[6.Aug.09] :. In these days of economic turmoil, massive job losses, and corporate profiteering, you'd expect to hear more rewritings of the John Henry legend.

Blood Meridian: The Last of the True

[8.Jun.09] :. Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian has been called unfilmable, but that doesn't stop Ben Nichols from getting ahead of the game and crafting a worthy soundtrack.

Heaven Can Wait ‘Til I Finish This Remix

[25.Mar.09] :. Should I die before I wake, I’d better make sure I’ve already got my iPod / mix-tapes / CDs/ vinyl in order.

Art Imitates Death

[30.Jan.09] :. One of the misconceptions that Graeme Thomson deals with in his book I Shot a Man in Reno is that music about death is somehow out of the norm. In fact, death finds its way into pretty much every type of music.

Bleary Eyed Duty: The Unflinching Testimony of David Eugene Edwards

[17.Nov.08] :. In a world where you can have a Christian version of pretty much any genre, Woven Hand's David Eugene Edwards is a real outlier because you wouldn't know where to put him if he were a secular artist.

Vinyl: Got to Get You Into My Life

[24.Jul.08] :. Maybe it's because current methods of listening aren't cutting it that I've started buying more vinyl. Not because it sounds better or evokes nostalgia, but because listening to vinyl is a more structured and formal experience.

Righteous Paths

[9.Jun.08] :. The Drive-By Truckers' live shows once played like a songwriters-in-the-round session with electric guitars and increasingly empty bottles of Jack Daniels. Then Jason Isbell came along -- and it only got better.

Anger With Stoic Dignity

[21.Mar.08] :. Protest music can go one of three ways: angry, storytelling, or communal. Sowing the Seeds is communal, meant to shore up the spirits of people who are locked together, arm-in-arm, to fight for a common cause.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (A Eulogy for the E Street Sound)

[21.Jan.08] :. When it comes to his work with the E Street Band, Springsteen seems to have tempered or even jettisoned other songwriting trademarks, such as the sense of place that informed so many of his songs.

Young Upstarts and Wily Veterans

[10.Dec.07] :. If you thought Satan couldn't invent a few new rides for you, you obviously forgot that he's got all the time in the world and plenty of cheap labor -- and other thoughts on the 2007 roots music scene.

The Cradle Will Rock

[21.Sep.07] :. While my wife sings sea chantys to our baby, I'm finding plenty of dark, tranquil passages from Bruce Springsteen to help her sleep. Beats tales of the Black Death, miscarriages, and executions found in traditional nursery rhymes.

Resurrections

[23.Jul.07] :. The co-founder of the maverick reissue label the Numero Group talks about seeking out the eccentric, saving the unknown, and releasing only what you love.

Collective Impulses

[4.May.07] :. The wife disposing of her ex-husband's collection. The estate sale. The stash of records sold for pennies on the dollar because the water bill was overdue. Collecting music often depends on someone else's misfortune.

2006, Through Roots-Colored Glasses

[20.Dec.06] :. It's the same old complaint every year, isn't it? You do what you can, you hear what you can, and you wait to see what takes root in your brain as a keeper.

Wild Abandon

[25.Sep.06] :. It may seem quaint now, even after punk's scorched-earth campaign, to think of '50s rockabilly as a danger to Western Civilization, especially in light of pop culture's rampant envelope-pushing since then. But a closer inspection would make even the seen-it-all cynics take pause.