Recent

Say It Loud! 100 Great Protest Songs: Part 4 - Dead Kennedys to Steve Earle

PopMatters has scoured the musical spectrum for the best examples of the protest song form, including anthems of great popularity and obscurity alike. Stay tuned all week as we unveil the top 100.

Music

An Alternative Christmas Playlist for the Coming Ice Age

If the idea is that earth, water, fire, air and space constitute the core elements of life, then these five songs might seem as their equivalents to surviving the complications that come from embracing the good and enduring the ugly of the Christmas season.

Music

A Look Back but a Step Forward: An Interview with Steve Earle

Steve Earle has blazed his own trails but now, at 62, he reflects on fallen heroes, chance encounters, and how he'll always be a political rabble-rouser.

Interviews

Steve Earle and the Dukes: Terraplane

Terraplane pays homage to the Texas blues, with mixed results.

Music

Country Fried Rock: Steve Earle Interview

Steve Earle's new album, Terraplane, takes this lyrical master down to his Texas blues roots.

Music

Steve Earle and the Dukes - "You're The Best Lover That I Ever Had" (video)

Americana hero Steve Earle returns with Terraplane releasing via New West on 17 February.

Music

The 100 Best Albums of the 2000s: 80-61

In this next segment of PopMatters' look back on the music of the 2000s, we examine works by British electronic pioneers, Americana legends, and Armenian metal provocateurs.

Music

When the Man in Black Went to Bat for Native America

A recasting of Johnny Cash's most controversial album, Bitter Tears, raises questions about the inclusiveness of American music.

Music

Everyone Lost: Protest Art and the Iraq War

While people were killing and dying, what did it matter whether there were decent songs being sung, insightful films being produced, appropriate art being inspired? When did poetry ever stop a war?

Film

Steve Earle & The Dukes (And Duchesses) - "Invisible" (video)

The first single from Steve Earle's superb new album, 'The Low Highway', released yesterday.

Music

Steve Earle's 'I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive'

A been-there-lived-it-attitude and street-level redemption, all propelled by a songwriter's/storyteller's lyrical and narrative knack.

Music

Play Me Some Mountain Music: The Telluride Bluegrass Festival 2011, Part 1

Four days of sun, banjos, snow, Mumfords, fiddles, and rock gods at 10,000 feet.

Steve Leftridge

Reviews

Commit: An Interview with Steve Earle

Earle digs through a mutual past for a new album of Townes Van Zandt covers, and he explains what it was like knowing, and being heckled by, the songwriter himself.

Music

Steve Earle: Townes

A distinctively Earle-stamped tribute to one of the greatest American songwriters of all time.

Jayson Harsin

Music

Pop Ten

The 50 Best Albums of 2019 So Far

Jackie Chan's 10 Best Films

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 1: 100 - 81

Collapse Expand Pop Ten

Mixed Media

Collapse Expand Mixed Media

PM Picks

Collapse Expand Pm Picks

PopMatters has scoured the musical spectrum for the best examples of the protest song form, including anthems of great popularity and obscurity alike. Stay tuned all week as we unveil the top 100.

If the idea is that earth, water, fire, air and space constitute the core elements of life, then these five songs might seem as their equivalents to surviving the complications that come from embracing the good and enduring the ugly of the Christmas season.

Steve Earle has blazed his own trails but now, at 62, he reflects on fallen heroes, chance encounters, and how he'll always be a political rabble-rouser.

Terraplane pays homage to the Texas blues, with mixed results.

Steve Earle's new album, Terraplane, takes this lyrical master down to his Texas blues roots.

Americana hero Steve Earle returns with Terraplane releasing via New West on 17 February.

In this next segment of PopMatters' look back on the music of the 2000s, we examine works by British electronic pioneers, Americana legends, and Armenian metal provocateurs.

A recasting of Johnny Cash's most controversial album, Bitter Tears, raises questions about the inclusiveness of American music.

While people were killing and dying, what did it matter whether there were decent songs being sung, insightful films being produced, appropriate art being inspired? When did poetry ever stop a war?

The first single from Steve Earle's superb new album, 'The Low Highway', released yesterday.

A been-there-lived-it-attitude and street-level redemption, all propelled by a songwriter's/storyteller's lyrical and narrative knack.

Four days of sun, banjos, snow, Mumfords, fiddles, and rock gods at 10,000 feet.

Albums that missed our Top 60 Albums list, but at least one of our writers loves.

Earle digs through a mutual past for a new album of Townes Van Zandt covers, and he explains what it was like knowing, and being heckled by, the songwriter himself.

A distinctively Earle-stamped tribute to one of the greatest American songwriters of all time.