Monday, August 16 2010
Josh Ritter + Justin Townes Earle + Dawn Landes: 8 August 2010 - New York
Two young forces in Americana songwriting made for a pleasant Sunday night on Governor’s Island in New York Harbor.
Monday, June 3 2013
Della Mae: This World Oft Can Be
This World Oft Can Be is the rarest kind of roots album: The past grounds it, but so too does the present, and the result illuminates both.
Tuesday, May 28 2013
William Tyler: Impossible Truth
Shimmering, textured, and glorious. A sublime album from the most creative solo acoustic guitar player around.
Thursday, April 25 2013
A Preview of the 2013 Twilight Americana Festival
Adam Klein is committed. When I sat down to meet him for coffee to chat about this year’s Twilight Americana Festival held in Athens, GA (formerly named the Athens Americana Festival), the festival’s organizer had just been rear-ended in a car accident.
Monday, April 8 2013
Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell: Old Yellow Moon
A long-delayed collaboration between two roots music greats proves perfectly pleasant but may leave the listener wishing for a little more spark and fire.
Terry Allen: Bottom of the World
Allen ponders the meaning of life, sex, and dreams to a sparse musical accompaniment.
Friday, April 5 2013
Vandaveer - “Pretty Polly” (video) (PopMatters Premiere)
Vandaveer revisit the ghastly tale of "Pretty Polly" with a haunting and gorgeously spare arrangement on their new album of murder ballads, Oh, Willie, Please....
Townes Van Zandt: Sunshine Boy - The Unheard Studio Sessions
The brilliant cult singer-songwriter's peak creative moment gets new light in this double-CD, which captures his joyous highs and near-mystical lows.
Wednesday, July 18 2012
The Steeldrivers - “Can You Run” (2010)
Nashville's Steeldrivers create virtuostic songs focused on Southern life past and present.
Thursday, February 23 2012
Americana May Be Country, But Country Is Rarely Americana
Like punk rock and heavy metal, country music has a formula and violating that formula is a kind of betrayal, a heresy for which one may not be forgiven. In Americana, such betrayals and unexpected turns are often welcomed.
