I was living in Holland in 1977 when my younger brother, who had attended Wayland Baptist University on a track scholarship until booze and girls were discovered in his dorm room, came for a visit. While living in Plainview, his stomping grounds had been the gin joints of Lubbock. Upon arrival, he immediately opened his suitcase and pulled out an album he said I had to hear. It was some guy he had seen play in Lubbock who had just put out his first album.

It was what is…

Photo by Jason Wolter

Dayton performing as Friedman at the Mucky Duck last year.

Over the weekend we learned of at least one high profile 2012 recording project that involves Houston at least peripherally: local arts patron and charity fundraiser Carolyn Farb will be the executive producer of a Jesse…

Photo by Jason Wolter

Jason Isbell (left) and Amanda Shires (right) are both more deserving than Chorney

The small world of Americana music is all a-twitter over New Jersey woman Linda Chorney's nomination for a Grammy in the Americana category. In case you haven't been following…

Reprinted from Houston Press music blog, Dec. 20, 2011

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One of our favorite albums of the year is Fred Eaglesmith's 6 Volts. Like the Le Noise project from Neil Young and producer Daniel Lanois, 6 Voltsis decidedly lo-fi. The main technical challenge for Eaglesmith and…

As if the Grammys didn't have enough credibility issues, NARAS, the organization that controls the process, has left a loophole large enough for a complete unknown to manipulate her way onto the final ballot in the Americana category.

The news broke two days ago in Variety that virtual unknown Linda Chorney had employed the organization's interactive Grammy 365 site to connect with voting members and get her music…