by Terry Roland

In Greek mythology, fairy tales and folklore there are stories told of figures of wood and stone that come to life. In familiar stories, told and retold in so many forms, from Pinocchio to Pygmalion, beneath the outer shell is a miraculous soul that emerges into the world. It’s the same with the stories of redemption and resurrections. Mystery religions and gospel tradition often…

Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires - There’s a Bomb in Gilead (Alive, 2012)

Alabaman Lee Bains III debuts with an album that deftly blends blues, soul, country and rock. Bains’ bio mentions the conflicting inspirations of church music and punk rock, but he draws most directly from the southern rock and soul of Capricorn Records and Muscle Shoals. Though…

When I moved to Los Angeles in 1980, I worked just down the street from the Columbia Drug Store on the southeast corner of Sunset and Gower in Hollywood. With a soda fountain that served up good burgers, fries and malts, it stood next to a room where giant jars of pancake makeup sat on the counters for the actors and artists that still came in from the Hills and Valley to shop. On the walls were giant black and white photos from earlier and more prosperous times, the early thirties…

Here's the best Americana and roots-type music releases for the week of May 22nd, from the Americana Boogie blog. Click the artist or album links to find out more. The artist's names link to their websites and the CD title links go either Amazon or…

Nell Bryden     

Shake the Tree

157 Records NY/Warners

*****

AH

Imagine a 21st Century Dusty Springfield without the lush string and orchestral arrangements.

Album opener, Mercy On Me instantly caught my attention as the National Steel and Nell’s husky tones simply oozed out of the speakers as she appears to compare an illicit love affair to a ‘smoking gun’ and darn sexy it is…

We've been waiting to post this review for a while, but with rain pouring down on our roof in Seattle and a roaring fire in the hearth, there's no better time for some deep, dark British folk music.

Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker. The Seas are Dead.

2012. self-released.

It's no secret that British folk traditions laid…

As I slowly wind down from the excitement of seeing the legendary Glen Campbell perform his fabulous hits last night at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh, I think back to those days when his "Goodtime Hour" was the hot show on prime time TV, and the time he made a surprise visit to a tiny village not far from my hometown. Hey, when you're growing up in a rural county on the fringe of Pennsyltucky, the visit of a big celebrity creates quite a stir.



In 1971 Glen was at the…

All Jams on Deck

Various Artists

Legendary Rhythm And Blues Cruise LLC/Mug Shot Productions

By Grant Britt

It's the cheapest cruise you'll ever take. You don't have to leave the comfort of your easy chair to take in some of the biggest names in blues jamming after hours on this 96 minute DVD shot in 2010 on a week long Blues Cruise from San Diego to the Mexican…

Ryan Adams

iTunes Session

(iTunes)

 He may not be releasing new albums at the fast and furious pace he did just a few years ago, but that doesn’t allay the suspicion that Ryan Adams may be the most prolific artist of this generation bar none. So instead of getting a new LP every six months, our man Adams has resorted to other mediums to get his music out, among them iTunes, which released this gem of a collection as an exclusive offering a short time back. Those that…

Looks like we're the first on No Depression to review the new soundtrack to the hit Hollywood movie, The Hunger Games. Sure, we've all been hearing about it, especially the much ballyhooed Taylor Swift/Civil Wars collaboration and the production by Americana icon T-Bone Burnett, but the album itself is a musical wonderland. Burnett's off the leash with this one, gleefully quoting Appalachian tropes while shoving…

Since releasing their new album, The Clearing, in March on the Dead Oceans label, Bowerbirds have been on the road wooing audiences and refining their adventurous, full band performance. The band recently wrapped up their three-week European tour and will begin playing more shows in the Midwest and…

Natasha Haws      

Sunderland Minster

Saturday 12th May 2012

Alan Harrison

     I love discovering new venues but never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see a gig in a Church; so, with a lack of mid-sized concert halls in Sunderland, the curators of the Minster in the city centre have volunteered to put on some acoustic concerts across the Summer and several local musicians have grasped the opportunity to play in…

FTB podcast #165 features the new album
 MARTY STUART & HIS FABULOUS SUPERLATIVES called
 Nashville 1: Tear the Woodpile Down. Also new music from 
GRANT PEEPLES,
RANI ARBO & DAISY MAYHEM and a track from
Mercyland. Here's the
…

Turnstyled Junkpiled's

How To Write A Hit Country Song

Tractors, Trucks, Fishing, Beer and Jesus

by Courtney Sudbrink, Editor

Many of today’s young,up-and-coming Country 
songwriters may be scratching their heads, wondering why Nashville isn’t biting. Bobby Bare once sang of the “Sure Hit Songwriter's Pen,” but unless that pen bleeds…

For all the bittersweet twang and folksy melodies on singer/songwriter Keith Betti’s latest album,
Company Loves Misery, the ghost of George Harrison haunts the premises like no other. Harrison isn’t named-checked on Betti’s biography and nor is he mentioned on his store page.


Nevertheless, the soaring melodies of “Found a Love” and the sunny warmth of “It’s a Long Way Down” are marked with Harrison’s fingerprints. Being compared to one of the Beatles is certainly…

It is always dangerous to claim the birth of a particular genre of music, but a case can be made that 45 years ago on May 27 there was a major delivery -- the arrival of British 
folk rock.

The midwives at this event were the members of  Fairport Convention, a group that is still wildly popular among aficionados of the genre and which spawned many others from 
Steeleye…

I first started going to live gigs in my early teens. I was underage. I lied about my date of birth so that I could become a member of Friars, a music club based in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. Life membership was 25p. I still have my member’s card. Wild Turkey in June 1971 was the first live band I saw and some forty one years later I am still occupying live music venues but not pretending to be older than I am!

In my early concert going years one of the bands I saw was…

Bonnie, Johnny & Tom Visit Opryland, USA — an interview-article by W. Conrad for Buddy Magazine (March, 1976)







Backstage and on stage at Nashville's Opryland, Ben Fong-Torres, rock journalist from 
Rolling Stone, was shadowing Bonnie Raitt, the star of the evening's attraction. In the shadows, lurking inside his cheap suit and a cloud of tobacco smoke, was Tom Waits, an up-and-coming beatnik pianist-poet .




I was there to interview John…

By Bill Conrad (His Prep School Pal)



Summer of 1969, I was in London when I saw a flyer advertising the Byrds at Royal Albert Hall. Melody Maker, the local music news, suggested that a few Beatles and Stones might attend. That was incentive enough for me.


 The Byrds took the stage and launched into "Turn, Turn, Turn."  Other than band leader Roger McGuinn, I had no idea who was in the band. What happened next became one of my life's unforgettable moments. Applause for the…

The Cluny, Newcastle

Thursday 17th May 2012

Alan Harrison

One of my greatest pleasures is discovering new music any of its shapes and forms and tonight was a bit of a revelation as I had only ventured out of the house because there was nothing on TV. As the support act finished there were only about 30 people scattered around The Cluny and perhaps 75 were scattered around the room when the band made their way onto the stage in their black…