Artists
Angie Stevens delivers a time-warped trip through America’s backroads, a melange of rhythms and sounds that tap into populist (as opposed to “pop”) music past and present. For anyone who grew up listening to music in the 50s and 60s… (Read More)
Can a wheel reinvent itself while it’s still rolling? Sounds like an impossible task — but you never want to say “impossible” to Asleep at the Wheel, the famed western-swing, boogie, and roots-music outfit that’s, amazingly, still on the upswing. That’s… (Read More)
It is fitting that ten seconds into Blitzen Trapper’s fifth full-length record, front man Eric Earley utters that most sacred of rock ‘n’ roll tropes: “For to love is to leave or to run like a rollin’ stone,” he sings in… (Read More)
CAKE formed in Sacramento, California in 1991. The band quickly became a hot item in the downtown club and cafe scene, then went on to gain a steady following in San Francisco’s Bay Area. Lead singer John McCrea’s unwitting amalgam of… (Read More)
Yes, the melodies are memorable. For if you love country music, they’re virtually a soundtrack of the ’90s. And when delivered by the unmistakable voice of Clint Black, they can, indeed change your “State of Mind.” In the bleakest part of… (Read More)
Cody Canada was 16 years old when he made his way from Yukon to Stillwater, Oklahoma. He had been searching for some inspiration; a place to call home musically. What he found was a creative nirvana of musicians who were generating… (Read More)
We live in a perpetual state of war. It’s an obvious subject, yet a dangerous one. Every songwriter owes it to themselves to confront it, either allegorically or directly. On his fifth album, Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!, Corb Lund writes about… (Read More)
Despite its title, the new Cowboy Junkies album, At the End of Paths Taken, is as much about new beginnings as it is about endings. It is also about human connections, the struggle to sustain those connections over time, and the… (Read More)
Let’s get this straight right off the bat, though it should be obvious to any and all who have been listening over the last decade or so: Cross Canadian Ragweed are a rock’n’roll band. "They may be the last great Southern… (Read More)
Kentucky native DWIGHT YOAKAM blazed out of the Los Angeles club scene in 1986 with his debut Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc., which went on to score double-platinum status. Since then he has won two Grammy’s, garnered 21 nominations and sold more… (Read More)
Ferraby Lionheart, a Los Angeles transplant from Nashville,Tennesse, lives in a studio apartment in Korea Town. He owns a guitar and a piano. He idolizes Shel Silverstein and Judy Garland. Ferraby recorded his self-titled EP in the living room of his… (Read More)
I’ve been writing songs for over thirty years. I don’t write hits. I don’t send out demos to famous singers. I just write songs. They’re my diaries. I had everything I’ve ever written in this big, black notebook. Some… (Read More)
Jesse Dayton’s brand of country music has been labeled “turbo country”, a nod to his rockabilly roots with the Road Kings and the Alamo Jets. Dayton was raised on a diet of blues, cajun and punk, but graduated into full-flown rockabilly… (Read More)
Photographed by Pamela Martinez John-Alex Mason attributes his love of music to two central people from his childhood in Colorado. First, his older brother, Stephen, who rocked out to music of the 60’s and 70’s – Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead… (Read More)
With Justin Townes Earle’s pedigree come mixed blessings. As the son of legendary singer/songwriter Steve Earle, high expectations are the name of the game, and he’s shown that he is up to the task on The Good Life, crafting stark portraits… (Read More)
3 years less 3 days ago I put out my last record. The night before I spent 13 hours on a Greyhound bus going from Canada to New York City for an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. As… (Read More)
Like the Black Hills of songwriter Darren Jackson’s native South Dakota, alt-rock duo Kid Dakota is a creature of extremes: Whisper-quiet vocals explode into searing guitar riffs and crushing drumbeats in a single breath. Loneliness and beauty go hand in hand… (Read More)
Leslie Stevens and the Badgers
Country-rock band Leslie & the Badgers were formed by singer/songwriter/guitarist Leslie Stevens, a Missouri native transplanted to Los Angeles, with her bandmates including guitarist Glenn Oyabe, violinist Charlene Huang, bassist Ben Reddell, and drummer Travis Popichak. Playing around L.A., the group… (Read More)
Mary Chapin Carpenter has always chosen her own path. From her first gigs as a rising star on Washington D.C.’s folk scene in the early 1980s, she has made a reputation as both a singer and songwriter with a mind of… (Read More)
Unlike the previous three albums by alt-country five-piece band Micky and the Motorcars, the group — this go-around — had plenty of time to prepare for NAIVE. During recording sessions on the past discs, says front man-lead vocalist Micky Braun, "if… (Read More)
Photo Credit: Walter Urie Mike Ness was born in 1962 in Lynn, Massachusetts. His family relocated to Orange County, California later that year and he grew up roaming the streets of Fullerton. As a boy his heroes where not athletes or… (Read More)
Music has the power to transport us: to carry us to mysterious places and explore new worlds. On Flood, Moreland & Arbuckle’s debut release on Telarc International, a division of Concord Music Group, the rootsy, hard-driving group from Kansas takes music… (Read More)
Alternative singer/songwriter Neko Case (also of The New Pornographers) won a steadily growing cult audience for her smoky, sophisticated vocals and the downcast beauty of her music. Born in Alexandria, VA, Case moved around often as a child, spending the largest… (Read More)
The North Mississippi Allstars were founded in 1996; a product of a special time for modern Mississippi country blues. RL Burnside, Jr. Kimbrough, Otha Turner and their musical families were at their peak; making classic records and touring the world. Brothers… (Read More)
The band was formed in 1993 by singer/guitarist Rhett Miller and bassist Murry Hammond; Miller had previously played around the Dallas area as a folksinger and a British-style pop devotee and actually earned a creative writing scholarship to Sarah Lawrence College… (Read More)
- Fresh out of Mitch Easter’s studio (Co-producer of REM’s Murmur and Reckoning albums) and armed with an arsenal of new songs, Atlanta-based, Outformation is ready to rock. Outformation is guitarist Sam Holt (guitar tech for the late, great, Widespread Panic…
Pat Green commands a position in the music world uniquely his own. He sells out stadiums like the Houston Astrodome and Dallas’ Smirnoff Center as well as the Nokia Theater in New York City as a headliner, yet he also gets… (Read More)
When the Randy Rogers Band’s last project debuted as the most-downloaded country album on iTunes, plenty of the industry “insiders” on Music Row were left scratching their heads: Who are these guys? The Nashville elite may not have known about the… (Read More)
Reckless Kelly’s roots reach back to Idaho and Oregon, where brothers Willy and Cody Braun paired their state-required education with a musical school of learning taught by their father. Muzzie Braun and the Boys (that also included other members of the… (Read More)
Rodney Crowell is one of country music’s most successful songwriters (for Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Bob Seger (“Shame On The Moon”), The Oak Ridge Boys and many others. While Rodney Crowell first gained widespread recognition as a leader of the new… (Read More)
