South Carolina Americana duo Shovels & Rope discuss their superb new release, By Blood, and its ongoing evolution: "We always knew there were going to be less banjos, less mandolins, more weird things."
Listening to Howe Gelb's Gathered is like being at a dinner party with Gelb at the head of the table, telling stories, offering his sagacity, and taking the listener on clever lexical excursions.
Shovels & Rope's By Blood is a record that smacks you in the face as a first impression, but then, still demands time to give up its secrets and grow on you. Give it the time.
Terry Allen's musical compositions suggest that the Southwestern desert landscape is made up equally of wavering guitar lines, a broken television set, mad women, pounding drums, Indian chants, buzzing insects, and of course rodents and birds of all variety.
Long-running alt-country act Son Volt mixes some forceful politics with a bit of filler for an album that's not quite as unified as it could have been.
On Forever, Vandoliers imbue the classic country figure with punk's emphasis on community thereby establishing an individualized take on the two genres.
Inspired by a deep-seated desire for humankind to regain genuine connections, the scorching songs of which Boo Ray's latest album is comprised are among his most ambitious yet.
"Psychedelic Country Soul" could have been the tagline on the Long Ryders' business cards in the 1980s, and the tag still fits 30 years on as they remain masters in combining all of the above.
Wilco's de facto leader Jeff Tweedy releases his very first solo album of all-new material, and it's a quiet, powerful statement from one of America's greatest living songwriters.
