FTB podcast #215 features 2 fine new independent albums from THE WARREN HOOD BAND and RED TAIL RING. Also new music from KATHY GREENHOLDT, QUIET HOLLERS and WAITING FOR HENRY.

Here's the direct link to listen…

By Ken Paulson

Like Kris Kristofferson’s recent Feeling Mortal, Guy Clark’s  My Favorite Picture of You reflects the years.

On the new album,  due July 23 on Dualtone,  Clark’s voice is softer and weathered. But if time has  taken a physical toll, it’s made the music matter more. This…

I hate large stadium arenas but I adore Bruce Springsteen. I’m with the purists who argue that shows in such venues are much less satisfying than in smaller, intimate venues but, but, but….Springsteen is one of those artists who make a large venue seem small. For him it’s all about the music and the energy of the performance – no laser beams, no pyrotechnics, no circus – just a blacked out stage with three huge video screens and an E Street Band, most of whom have been playing with him since…

Ever since his 1986 debut (and, in some ways, even before that), Steve Earle has been one of the most prolific and distinctive singer-songwriters on the Amerciana/alt/country/rock scene. His 15 studio albums have encompassed political protest music, bluegrass, rock and roll, Townes Van Zandt covers, and just flat-out, darn-good genre-defying music. His work was covered by no less than 20 articles in…

One of the pleasures of being of a certain age is that you can literally rack up decades of seeing great musicians and attending gigs of all shapes and sizes. A recent BBC documentary about The Eagles jarred my memory about one such event in (gulp) 1976. 

I was a Brit newbie in America and was taken to a political fund raiser for then (and now) California Governor Jerry Brown. It was at the Capital Centre outside Washington DC , which is now called something odiously…

The Human Experience, an artist I’ve come to know much about recently, will be releasing a new album on Monday, featuring sisters Leah and Chloe Smith of Rising Appalachia. The album is called Soul Visions, and, upon listening, truly resonates as the vision of three creative souls collaborating to produce something highly elevated.

David Block, the mind behind The Human Experience, is a classically trained, multi-instrumentalist who has…

I've always remembered a great line from a wonderful little film called The Commitments, which tells the story of a ragtag assortment of Dubliners who form a soul band. A character named Jimmy Rabbitte says, "The Irish are the blacks of Europe." To me, that says a lot. Like African Americans, the Irish have lived The Blues for centuries. And it shows…in their soul-fire poetry, prose, and music. So, you're probably thinking "Van Morrison." But today I want you to think…

Really, all is need to tellyou is that for the second encore Billy Bragg played the whole of his debut album LIFE’S A RIOT WITH SPY VS SPY for you to understand what an amazing show this was!

In thirty years, Bragg has travelled the path from angry young man, to political activist to national treasure and his live performances are among the best you’ll ever experience.

Yes, he’s still political,that campaigning mind-set is written in his DNA but he juxtaposes hard-hittingviews…

Australian Blake Noble moved half way round the globe to Seattle just ten months ago and the self professed “Underdog,” found many a kindred spirit to help him release his second solo album. The eight track ,mainly instrumental album draws upon Noble’s unique percussive guitar style that picks up where long lost legend Michael Hedges left off; but don’t be fooled this is not “New Age,” music rather a funk rock, jazz, world music fusion for this century.

The opening track…

Well it's only June, but I'm going to call it and say that the award for Weirdest/Most Gonzo Roots Music Recording of 2013 will be a tie between the madcap sea chantey compilation Son of Rogue's Gallery and the unprecedented collaboration The Uncluded, which joins the anti-folk of Kimya Dawson with motormouth hip-hop MC Aesop Rock. Here are a few thoughts on each of these strange releases and why they're so oddly compelling.

Son of…

“Aw shucks! Go on!” coos Ellen Foley when I recall the occasion wherein she jumped on stage at My Father’s Place on Long Island, New York on a hot summer evening in 1979 to duet with Ian Hunter whilst guitar god Mick Ronson pumped out riffs as only a platinum-haired ex- Spider from Mars could. I assured her that all the young dudes in the club (myself included) fell in love with her on that starry, starry night.  

At that particular moment in time Hunter and Ronson had…

Another Americana Star is Born

Three weeks ago I’d never heard of Bonnie Whitmore; but a positive review of the Mastersons; of which Bonnie’s sister Eleanor is 50% meant I received this delightful surprise through the post yesterday.

Sometimes it can take me several plays of a record to get a taste for it; but with THERE I GO AGAIN it was during the first spin that I decided that I was now an unashamed fan.

Even without an array of songs that are…

This is the weekend where we examine the impact great fathers have made upon history.  From the Bible, where the landscape is littered with the actions of fathers.  Who could forget the long walk Abraham and his son took in Genesis?  Adam, the first father, raised a fine bunch of stand-up children.  And what about the Big Father himself -- Jesus' daddy -- who sent him on an all-important mission?

Charlie Lawson of Stokes County, North Carolina, probably never got his fair…

Most people who have been in the music industry for a longtime are typically very skeptical and critical of music and new musicians who hit the scene today because fore the most part a good majority of the new music out there is undeniably manufactured.   The well-polished country pop sound is not popular with most musicians and songwriters in my circles, so it was refreshing on my first run through of Jerry Castles’ CD, to find a genuine musician who has a real singer-songwriter…

You won't find Richard Pryor's name on any musicians' Who's Who list. Yet Pryor's compositions are as lyrical, moving and funny as anything ever set to music. Pyror's music was the sound of the streets, expletive studded and often crude, but usually possessing a common truth or insight. Pryor's “act” was a stream of consciousness outpouring that had no boundaries. Anyone and anything was fair game.

Pryor didn't lecture. He told stories, character…

For 70 years, Eddy Arnold churned out the hits, establishing himself as one of the most famous and influential country and pop music singers of all times. When he died at age 89, he left behind a legacy which is still being discovered, explored, and embraced by artists of every ilk.

Now, the folks at Plowboy records - a label founded by Arnold’s grandson - have put together a…

Texas songwriter Emily Herring's new album, Your Mistake, came over my desk about a month ago and I fell for her ice-cold honky-tonk songwriting almost immediately. She sings with such confidence, and nails hard-lived country songwriting like nobody's…

Blues with a taste of cream that’s fit for a King or two.

The CD cover wasn’t very inspiring – three teenage black kids and a not very good band name; then I turned it over to see a picture of two very funky homemade electric guitars that Bo Diddley would have been proud of; but still…

When I hear the word “Texas”, I immediately think of “big” or “oil”, or “Longhorns” or “Lone star”, or “rich”. When I hear “Texas fiddle”, Texas dance music or “Swing” comes to mind, like the twin and triple fiddles of the Texas Playboys with Bob Wills calling out behind the vocals of Tommy Duncan singing “San Antonio Rose”, something like that. Well when I received The Old Texas Fiddle by Austin based fiddler/artist, Howard Rains, I sort of expected to hear some of the bouncy…

The first four bars of opening track “Wash My Hands,” announce the return of Too Slim and the Taildraggers with a muscular one, two, three punch of gritty guitar, snapping snare drum and thundering bass. Recorded in his new home of Nashville, Blue Heart is the follow-up to Shiver ; the 2012 Blues Music Association nominated Blues Rock Album of the Year and his much lauded solo album Broken Halo. The eleven song collection produced by Tom Hambridge feature his skills on both sides…