You're moving into a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition. It lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit…

1. Run Devil Run - Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins

2. Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down - Willie Nelson

3. Waitin' Round To Die - Townes Van Zandt

4. Devil Went Down To Georgia - Charlie Daniels

5. Friend of the Devil - Grateful Dead

6. The Devil You Don't - The Hit and Miss Engines

7. The Devil's Right Hand - Steve Earle

8. Me and The Devil Blues - Robert Johnson

9. The Silver Tongued Devil & I - Kris…

With the opening track "Chocolate Cake," band leader Seth Martin sets a tone and then proceeds…

Interview w/ Nathan, bassist of THE PEAR TRAPS

1.0 – How did the band come together? 

Bryant had written a number of songs before moving to Chicago and went to craigslist to find some bandmates. Within two months we were regularly playing in Billy’s basement, drinking, booking shows and recording.

With a style and an alcohol content somewhere between Jack Kerouac's On The Road and John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley,  Drew Kennedy's novel Fresh Water in the Salton Sea  (release date 11/1/11) follows singer/songwriter Dan Murphy on a solo tour across the Southwest.  Neither grim nor glamorous, Dan finds…

Touring behind the recent release of his latest album WELDING BURNS Rod Picott, a regular and welcome visitor to Brighton over the years, opened with the title track in front of a warmly receptive audience. In the course of conversations during the evening I discovered that some had already seen him more than once on his current 18-date UK tour and others were planning on seeing him again before the tour ended on the 30^th in Twickenham, London. That gives you a measure of…

Just a quick note to say Mose Allison did not disappoint in his SF Jazz Festival gig at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts this week.

At 84, the timeless one shows no signs of slowing down, entertaining the crowd with renditions of "Your Mind Is On Vacation'' and John Loudermilk's "You Call It Jogging, I Call It Running Around.''

The…

I was a 250 lb chunk o' tension,grit and gravy on the way to airport to be sure. What upside I had was neutralized  by the amount of gear I had in my dragging. To the airport I did arrive with 5 pieces on all sides; on back and under arms; in fingers and over shoulders they rode me til I was unceremoniously deposited by the shuttle at the mouth of the entrance to Alaska Airlines. 

Gentleman In Socks and Sandles: ( In sullen cadence with pompous tone) An airline whose lines at…

I caught Chelsea Crowell's show at The Slaughtered Lamb in London this past Wednesday.  She had just flown in from Ireland after a couple of weeks on the road with her dad, Rodney Crowell.  She was in London to play two shows, and from there she was set to go to Paris, then back to Ireland in November.  Eventually, she'll make her way back to the U.S. to tour in support of her new record, Crystal City.  You can read my advance review of that record…

Steve Earle and the Dukes and Duchesses

Sage Gateshead. 26 October 2011

Alan Harrison



Tonight’s concert, in the acoustically perfect Sage Music Centre was as good as I’ve ever seen and I’ve been to a lot of gigs in my time.

The Dukes and Duchesses were already on stage…

In the days of far too many dead notes based on far too few callouses while playing my Dad's 20+ year old Eterna, Townes Van Zandt was my main inspiration, as I'm sure he was for most acoustic musicians who felt a draw more toward finger-pickin', gritty singer-songwriters. While I could not hide my love for almost everything in at least the first half of Bob Dylan's career, I still was drawn more to that simple acoustic style with great…

Seattle-based Bloom, a former high school English teacher who not only tours extensively but also runs a rock and roll summer camp and lectures in schools on topics such as songwriting, the music business, domestic violence , anxiety, and sexual orientation.

Accompanying her throaty alto with clever  frantic…

Before you chastise me for writing a review of Steve Parry in an Americana/Roots website, rest assured this is a different Steve Parry. This Steve Parry’s voice carries a leathery grit that I could best describe as a cross between Guy Clark and Jeffrey Foucault.  In fact, this Steve Parry is in every…

Ry Cooder is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. He is using his guitar as a megaphone from his bully pulpit on his new release Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down.

Cooder, who is best known for his world music collaborations with musicians from Africa and Latin America, has once again gathered together a diverse group of players focused on a singular mission. The resulting collection of songs is a musical commentary on the succession of…