Josh Tillman is a songwriter, guitarist, drummer, author, artist, and all encompassing renaissance man who, by boldly embracing his impulses, and bravely following his artistic visions, has crafted one of my favorite records of 2012. He has left his role as drummer for the Fleet Foxes, shed his singer-songwriter solo-moniker, J Tillman, and is now calling himself Father John Misty.

This week, Sub Pop delivers Mr. Tillman's first album as Father John Misty, called Fear…

C-Leb and the Kettle Black

Raw and Rockin’ right out of the gate! The self titled debut from Seattle’s C-LEB and the Kettle Black reaches right out of the speakers for your throat. Front man C-Leb is a force to be reckoned with on earth shaking bass, searing vocals reminiscent of a southern fried Chris Cornel and honky tonk harmonica. His comrades in arms ,Jesse “Hound-Dawg” Strasbaughon on…

It was a part of the deal for me, sometimes consumed before the music was even played. Vinyl had them. CDs had them. Even fricking cassettes had them. And in the pre-internet age when all of the information I sought was not gathered in one convenient location, it was a cornerstone on which I built my reputation as someone who knew too much shit about music.

Liner notes - sometimes stately and elegant, sometimes silly, sometimes anemic, I would pore over every word of them.…

Thanks to NPR's First Listen, we can hear Sun Midnight Sun, the new one by Sara Watkins, in its entirety.  Click here - you can choose to listen track by track or just listen to the entire record.   

This is the second solo record by Watkins, most known up to now for her work as a part of Nickel Creek.  But with music this strong and diverse,…

Talented singer-songwriter Chris Castle's Last Bird Home  (Dirtsandwich Music) is a collection of eleven folk-rock tunes recorded at Levon Helm Studios by Justin Guip with guest appearances by Garth Hudson, Larry Campbell, the Womack Family Band and Tommy Ramone.…

1.0 – Does the name ‘Hurray for The Riff Raff’ reflect a personal or band philosophy of sorts? I would say the name comes from my love and feeling of camaraderie for the underdog of all walks of life. Growing up in New York City exposed me to people who live on the fringes of society and sometimes go unseen yet they have so much unique energy they give the city. The homeless subway singers, the runaway teenagers from…

John Hiatt has no equal, at least to my ears, but M. William Helfrich is definitely on the path to becoming one of the next great Americana artists.

www.sixmilegrove.com

Welcome back to Six Mile Grove, the Minnesota band that makes a virtue out of staying put in the place they come from. This is the sixth album from these guys – maybe the third that I’ve heard – and I’ve been impressed in the past by the integrity that they exude. They have soulfulness to their work which largely springs from the plaintive quality in Brandon Sampson’s vocal, and they also have an…

True music lovers shouldn't really travel anywhere without sampling some local sounds. So it was that I found myself recently in the Rex Theater, Galax, southwest Virginia, listening to bluegrass courtesy of the Slate Mountain Ramblers. In many ways it was more than I could have imagined.

Family brought me on a visit to Galax from England (my niece is a local  teacher ), otherwise the chances of my showing up there…

FTB podcast #162 features the new album by TRAMPLED BY TURTLES called Stars And Satellites. Also new music from JASON EADY, GRACE EDELE and RAY WYLIE HUBBARD. Here's the iTunes link to subscribe to the FTB podcasts.…

by Sandy Carter

April 1999

In the last two decades, the image of Elvis Presley has been so thoroughly obfuscated by myth and parody, it is near impossible to recall his life and music without bringing to mind the ridiculous and tragic figure he had become by the time of his death.

With that in mind, Peter Guralnick's two-volume biography, Last Train To Memphis: The Rise Of Elvis Presley (Little, Brown, 1995) and the recently published Careless Love: The Unmaking…

Hank Cochran:

Living On A Song

Nashville Film Festival

People are bitching about the demise of country music, but they’re missing the point. At a time when everybody is overly styled, making the rounds and doing the marketing, they missed the point of what made the oeuvre great: people lived hard, put their hearts out there and harvested the pain and the passion with a ruthlessness that often left ravaged relationships in their wake.

Not that it’s about strafing…

Kevin Welch

Live Theatre Newcastle

22nd April 2012

Alan Harrison

These days George Welch only performs at festivals and the occasional folk club so it was a delight it was to see the ex-coalminer, local folk legend, Renaissance Man, raconteur and artist of some renown at such a prestigious venue as the Live Theatre.

Looking uncannily like a Mississippi plantation owner in a flat cap George regaled the captivated crowd with a mixture of his…

On episode 85 of the Taproot Music Show, Dave Willis from the Possum Jenkins band talks about how humbling it was to have their latest album Carolinacana fan-funded through a Kickstarter campaign, how they were able to keep the band together for 8 years even while everyone in the band was having lives outside of the band, and playing bards where they have…

Got a hot date Saturday night?  This is the album for it.  If things go well, it works for Sunday morning too...in fact just pause it around track four or five and you’ve got the perfect mood shift for waking up all swoony and ready for brunch.

I’m always looking for a Sunday morning record, and so far, nothing has replaced Joni Mitchell’s Blue; Like the Devil Does is a strong contender for that privilege.  Miss Quincy, a B.C. native, is joined by Calgarian music royalty…

On Mercyland: Hymns For The Rest of Us, producer and writer Phil Madeira set out to create a recording that would gather a variety of artists, celebrating and expressing their collective belief in the importance of faith.

Phil Madeira is a songwriter, producer, musician and singer. His songs have been recorded in all genres by such artists as Buddy Miller, Alison Krauss, Toby Keith, Ricky Skaggs, Bruce Hornsby, Keb' Mo', Garth Brooks, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Shawn…

The news coverage of Levon’s Helm’s death last week has been overwhelming – but not just the coverage. The online community responses of commentary, the continuous Facebook posts on those musicians’ pages who have been influenced by Levon were a constant stream of reminders of Levon’s musical and mythic legacy.  Wilco, alone, posted notes for nearly 24 hours after Levon’s passing – as though to remind us that they wouldn’t be here without The Band – without Levon’s voice, his backbeat and…

Heaven

Pinetop Perkins

Blind Pig

April 17, 2012 

By Grant Britt

Merle Haggard never had much use for piano players. “Can't get 'em to play what they're supposed to play,” he said in a ’95 interview. “They play everything on the goddanged keyboard.” Obviously he never met Pinetop Perkins. ‘Top plays what he’s spozed to - all the accents in place, the personification of boogie-woogie piano. On these previously unreleased sessions from 1986,…

James Maddock – CD Review - Wake Up and Dream - Casa del Fuego Release

While driving to work one morning I turned on the Centenary College FM radio station WNTI and was pleasantly surprised by the tune they were playing. The melody is infectious, the lyrical story is clever, sung in a voice that’s not that…