Your Front Row Seat To Americana Music
What is “real” country music? That’s a debate that will likely never be resolved in our lifetime. What we can agree on is that as the genre has evolved over the last century, with the current product sounding much different than its roots. On her latest solo project, Daddy’s Country Gold, singer/songwriter/upright bassist Melissa Carper... Continue Reading →
Earlier this year, Denver-based singer/songwriter Leslie Tom, who cut her teeth in her native Texas listening to Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and Bob Wills on the radio of her father’s Ford truck, released her new self-titled EP. Produced by John Macy (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Richie Furay, Los Lobos) and recorded at legendary studio Cinderella Sound... Continue Reading →
Instead of making “lake life” pontoon party-inspired songs about solo cups and pickup trucks in the spirit of redneck escapism, songcrafter Tyler Childers croons of drug addiction and hardship, relevant issues faced on the daily by the folks in his eastern Kentucky home. In the vein of classic country icons like Hank Williams, Sr. and... Continue Reading →
On Steve Earle’s new release, So You Wannabe An Outlaw, the stylized view of being an outlaw is given a much-needed return to reality. In the current country music genre, the term “outlaw” has become vernacular better lending itself to fashion sense over substance. Earle does a fine job on this album bringing the listener... Continue Reading →
“One distinct memory I have is dancing around the living room to Brooks & Dunn when I was a kid, ‘Boot Scootin’ Boogie’ was my song,” laughs country roots artist Kayley Hill. Raised on a steady diet of The Dixie Chicks and Martina McBride, Hill developed a taste for country music and bluegrass acquired during... Continue Reading →
Last Friday Night at the Nashville Boogie Weekender was a royal affair featuring both the Queen of Rockabilly, Wanda Jackson, and the Queen of Outlaw Country, Nikki Lane. After soaking in a fabulous performance from Ms. Jackson, I was on the run to the Nashville Palace Stage for Lane's rocking country barn-burner. Luckily, the party... Continue Reading →
It happens every time I go to a music festival. Every. Single. Time. It’s also one of my top reasons for going to festivals—there’s always that artist that jumps out at me and makes me ask, “why am I just learning about this person? Why don’t I have these songs on repeat at home?” At... Continue Reading →
The Blue Room at Third Man Records is a fascinating blend of technology and intimacy-- a collection of the finest acoustic designs and recording equipment with a small club vibe, the perfect setting for rising artist Lillie Mae to open up about the creation of her new record, the Jack White-produced Forever and Then Some.... Continue Reading →
Sunny Sweeney--Trophy Sunny Sweeney is unafraid to tackle heaviness in her finely-crafted classic country-style songs—in the grand tradition of women like Loretta Lynn, who weren’t afraid to take someone to “fist city,” Sweeney sings of the choice to make a career instead of a family, drunken naughtiness, and substance abuse. In the title track (and... Continue Reading →
The Kernal - Light Country There's something refreshingly familiar about Light Country, the new full-length record from Jackson, Tennessee-based red suit wearing traditionalist, The Kernal, out via John Paul White's Single Lock Records. With quick-witted lyrics that encompass everything from a knock-kneed ballerina who has the heart but not the know-how to living in an abandoned Taco Bell, and... Continue Reading →