This may sound like an overstatement, but Chuck Hawthorne’s debut album, Silver Line, sounds to my brain like the platonic ideal of country music. This wasn’t a conscious decision. As I did the tourist thing in Nashville and stood on…
I think Annie Woodward would have been most at home in New York City at the Sidewalk Cafe back in the early 2000s. I bet she and Kimya Dawson would have gotten on famously. But she’s ten years too late…
I’m fresh back from a whirlwind tour of Nashville (really it was more like four days of touristing and two days of “what do I do in this one-horse town while waiting for concerts to start?”) and felt pretty humbled…
I don’t know what it is about the lilting sway of Cajun music that speaks to me, but there it is. A lot of people think it’s corny and I can see why. But Steve Riley and his band bring…
As I write this, the US Supreme Court has yet to announce its ruling on same-sex marriage, though we all may wake up to a significantly altered America by the time this goes live. (Edit: I wrote thi son Thursday.…
Christopher Paul Stelling’s secret weapon is lulling you into a false sense of security, then taking you out with a suckerpunch. Stelling’s Anti- Records debut, Labor Against Waste, begins with a number of soothing tracks, including the imminently radio and…
Round Eye’s debut reminded me a lot of Mad Max. As I wrote previously, it’s a movie that happens to you. In similar fashion, Round Eye isn’t something you listen to. It’s a forcefield that radiates through your speakers. It has the…
I totally missed doing Pride-related stuff last year and I know I’m juuuuuuust narrowly avoiding doing the same things this year. What can I say? These papers don’t grade themselves. I almost wasn’t going to do anything at all until…