Outlaw country three years before RCA named it

There may never have been as iconoclastic a country artist as David Allan Coe. Though his rejection of Nashville norms drew parallels with the outlaw movement, he always seemed a notch wilder and less predictable than Waylon, Willie and the boys. Reared largely in reform schools and prisons through his…

DATC: Gary, tell us what Document Records is and what makes it special?

Gary: It is rather unique! I was a CD reviewer when I first encountered it. From the 1970s onwards there were labels that were reissuing pre-war country blues. Artists’ works…

The Pistol Annies' Ashley Monroe shines brightly in the solo spotlight

As part of the Pistol Annies, Ashley Monroe's star power was obscured by the outsized shine of her bandmate, Miranda Lambert. Though the Annies share lead vocals, they present themselves as a trio, with only Lambert's fame standing out individually. But stepping out for her…

GRAMMY winner Steve Earle is one of America's greatest living storytellers, but he's not stopping there. Earle's 15th studio album, 2013's The Low Highway, is a road record written about what he experienced from the window of his tour bus while traveling across the United States. His latest tour stop landed him in the heart of one of the United States' emerging music neighborhoods,…

Although José González may be best known for his acoustic solo albums (2007's In Our Nature and 2003's Veneer), his band Junip is not to be mistaken as a "José González and friends" kind of project. Instead, the trio has from the start,  always been equally composed of José Gonzaléz, Elias Araya, and Tobias Winterkorn.

The Swedish group put things somewhat on hold for Mr. Gonzaléz's success as a solo artist, but in 2010 finally dropped their…

It’s 2013, and most of the blues and R&B performers who once recorded for labels like Vee-Jay, Specialty, Chess, Aladdin, Duke and Peacock have departed for hopefully happier shores. However, the music that once emanated from these vintage labels – by Larry Williams, Louis Jordan, Wynonie Harris, Gatemouth Brown, Memphis Slim, Mama Thornton, Lightnin’ Hopkins and many more – seems to have become part of our DNA. 

That’s why, when we hear, say, The Cash Box Kings’ (CBK)…

For what it’s worth; long may they run.

Crosby, Still, Nash and Young have been a part of my musical life since my early teenage years with my brother wearing out his first copy of DÉJÀ VU on the family radiogram. Subsequently I’ve become a tireless fan of Mr. Young and adding tracks from the others to VA recordings for sunny days in the garden. So; it was with some trepidation when I agreed to review this tribute album; as I know CSN&Y…

It's dark, gritty and personal, and perhaps the clearest glimpse yet into the imagination of a brilliant singer-songwriter who just gets better and better. Southeastern, Jason Isbell's fourth studio record, listens like a collection of musical short stories.  Isbell's characters speak with clear voices, and generally in first person.  In several songs, they bring us face to face with death.  There's Andy, whose woman friend dies of cancer in Elephant.  "One thing is clear to me, no…

Last June, with what felt like a last breath of grief, my brother, sister-in-law and I drove down the Abilene Highway that runs between Dallas and Abilene, Texas. With the hot summer wind on our backs, we rolled toward a small town, Winters, where my mother’s casket waited for burial between my 46 year-old brother and 34 year-old dad. It was a lonely trip.  At one point, these words came through the car stereo:

 ”Yes I understand every life must end, uh…

Professionally known as Lissie, Elisabeth Corrin Maurus identifies with another one-word pop-culture phenomenon not named Madonna, Beyonce or Pink.

The rock-pop singer-songwriter who was raised in the Midwest still has googly eyes for Annie, the spunky fictional character she played as a precocious 10-year-old at Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse in her hometown of Rock Island, Illinois.

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