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ND INDEX: WHAT'S NEW ON THE SITE

  • by peter blackstock

ADDED TUESDAY, JANUARY 6Record Review: Earl Scruggs with Family & Friends, The Ultimate Collection: Live At The RymanADDED MONDAY, JANUARY 52008 ND Critics Poll: All the voters' individual ballots Record Review: Various Artists, Titan: It's All Pop!ADDED SUNDAY, JANUARY 4Live Review: Avett Brothers in Charlotte, North Carolina ADDED SATURDA...

How they voted:

Ballots are listed in ranked order from top to bottom; the number is the total points they received. Ballots submitted unranked were scored at an average 5.5 points for each entry.Peter Blackstock, editor/columnistBasia Bulat, Oh My Darling – 10Ben Sollee, Learning To Bend – 9Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet, self-titled – 8Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal – 7Col...

And the winner is....

NEW ADDITION! See all the voters' individual ballots here Turns out that Barack Obama wasn't the only runaway victor Bruce Springsteen made it his personal business to champion and support in 2008. The winner of our sixth or seventh annual critics' poll (depending on who's counting) – and by a margin of exactly twice as many points as the closest contender – is Alejan...

Photo by Jake Moon

Judson Claiborne's journey to his own roots

In the suh-un, the group harmonizes, In the su-uh-uh-un. Dollops of sweet guitar bend to the floor, like a Stax house band fatigued after recording until dawn but not yet ready to call it a night. The music lazes as if drifting from a front porch in August, the only shade across a horizon of golden farmland for miles.On "Bloody Holiday In The Sun", Judson Claiborne si...

"You can kill him with words":
A conversation with Charlie Louvin

In 1956, the Louvin Brothers released their first long-playing album on Capitol, Tragic Songs Of Life. The collection of murder ballads and songs of lost love would become their best-selling album and an influential aesthetic document of country tragedy. The Louvin Brothers always sang of so much more than doom and despair, but no country group ever found more beauty ...

Photo by Tuan Lee

Magnolia Summer's
midwinter contentment

A quick drum roll, two slashing guitars in lockstep on a simple but propulsive riff, then a bouncy vocal melody sung with distant backing harmony, and lyrics having something to do with the moon and the sun. It's all over in 1:56, a basic rock song with passion, conviction, and the pleasures of four guys in a room bashing out the changes. (And yet, hidden underneath t...

Photo by Jim McCrary

"It's all heart-driven": A conversation with Chris Hillman

Chris Hillman is a rarity among popular music performers – a world-famous rock star (from his work with the Byrds and other rock bands) who has also enjoyed top-of-the-chart success in country, notably with the Desert Rose Band. But for all he has been asked about and has talked about regarding those aspects of his 45 years as a songwriter, musician and singer, what s...

Photo by Sandy Dyas

25 years at home in the Red House

There are a number of stories about how it all began, and exactly when. But, more or less, Red House Records was founded a quarter-century ago on a concert ticket and a handshake.About a year after MTV launched, a high school business teacher in Minnesota named Bob Feldman wandered into a coffee house to check out a relatively unknown singer-songwriter from Iowa named...

Photo by Maggie Moore

Michael Franti's message of hope

Thoughtful Americans will always remember where they were last Tuesday night when the presidential returns rolled in. Michael Franti, musician and social justice messenger, certainly will."I was on an airplane from San Francisco to Chicago to Montreal," he explained this past Sunday afternoon as his band, Spearhead, did their soundcheck for a show that evening at the ...

Photo by Danny Clinch

"That's what's already in me": A conversation with Lee Ann Womack

Texas-raised Lee Ann Womack has been a leading light in country music since her self-titled debut album of 1997. With one ear on country history and another on contemporary sounds and themes, she's won respect in mainstream country and in Americana as well. Her albums frequently have been highly praised, and the latest, Call Me Crazy, is no exception.NoDepression.com ...

Lambchop still believes in the old, weird Nashville

Kurt Wagner has led a life in music for a couple of decades now, but one thing he had never tried was something most songwriters do after learning their first three chords: Perform solo."I steadfastly tried to stay away from that," he said.Understand the reason: This is the lead singer of Lambchop, a rotating collective of southern musicians which performs under the d...

It's hardly strictly bluegrass, but it's a guaranteed good time

Warren Hellman had been tossing around for years the idea of putting on a bluegrass festival when he mentioned that fantasy to his friend Jonathan Nelson, former soundman for Bill Graham Presents. "Well, why don't you do it?" Nelson asked. "I don't have any idea how," said Hellman. But when the throngs return to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park this weekend for Hellma...

Bobby Bulat

Basia Bulat's brave new old world

[Editor's note: The following piece appears in No Depression #76, the first in a new "bookazine" series edited by No Depression and published by University Of Texas Press.]The first thing that impresses about Basia Bulat's music is its…maturity. Which is not to suggest she's overly serious; indeed, a YouTube viewing of her video for "In The Night," a song on her debut...

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ND#10 July-Aug 1997 {Whiskeytown}
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