The passing of time has always struck me by its strange subjectivity and distortion. It's that warped sense of years that seem like eternities as a child, but the older we get, months blend into each other and the swiftness with which the years pass can be terrifying. I've done my best to avoid marking time, instead, opting to think that each month is only a continuation of the day before. But every June reminds me of another passing year, right when the cool summer evening breezes are…

October of 2012 my good friend Lezlie and I decided to take a trip to Mulberry Mountain, Arkansas. There, we attended the annual Harvest Festival, that was being hosted by Yonder Mountain String Band. I've been to many festivals and concert events of all types, but this one was special. Snuggled in on the top of a mountain everything I love about a good music festival was present, the smell of the festival food in the air, the good vibes coming off your neighbors that have come also for a…

The cover art of Phosphorescent’s Muchacho depicts a grittily lit scene with two topless women on a motel room bed - one on her back and the other upright and beaming, sporting a cowboy hat. Matthew Houck (aka Phosphorescent) laughs in the foreground, much of his face off to the side of the frame. Something about the photograph’s atmosphere – given one’s familiarity with the aching and forlorn terrain of Phosphorescent’s music – tells you the joy of the scene is likely…

There is a band that plays music as sweet as the Dead ever did.  The same songs,having Bob Weir and Phil Lesh as members truly helps, they were afraid to get a guitarist that sounded anything like Garcia in the Band they called the Dead, they had Warren Haynes, but it just didn't sound quite right, but with…

August - an important month for all us Leos for a variety of reasons. This year, August marks what would have been Jerry Garcia’s 70^th birthday. It also marks the 17^th anniversary of his untimely death. Celebrations have been held in his honor.  That’s all righteous. I couldn’t let the month go by without some words of tribute about Jerry’s playing of the instrument known as the Pedal Steel Guitar. The musical legacy he left behind after his short but fertile time…

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…

NOTE: This contest is now closed. Congratulations to our winner, Brady McClymonds and thanks to everyone who entered!

This week, the fine folks at SHOUT! Factory are releasing an enormous concert box set by the Grateful Dead, and we'd like to give a copy away!

All The Years Combine is a behemoth 14-DVD box set conceived as the ultimate tribute…

Reprinted from ModernAcoustic.com

http://modernacoustic.com

A recent story in the Washington Post brought to light that Bruce Springsteen was using a teleprompter on stage during his recent tour as well as his last one (read it HERE.) While the article didn’t flat-out deride him for using it, it did lament…

PRESS RELEASE:

Modern Jug Band SANKOFA To Release The Uptown Strut On March 27th Via Kingswood Records

Album Features Dom Flemons of Carolina Chocolate Drops, Professor Louie And John Sebastian of The Lovin’ Spoonful

New York, NY: In February 2006, Sankofa Strings, a progressive collective comprised of…

It’s that time of year where critics tend to roll out their annual best-ofs and the marketing machine gears up to pounce on unsuspecting consumers with their seasonal selections. That being the case, I figured why not get in on the action and share a few offerings that qualify for holiday consideration? Not a best-of mind you, but not a traditional Christmas fit either… rather a few recent releases that seem to fit the festivities nicely…

The question is however, where to…

by Cat Johnson

The fact that indie-roots band The Builders and the Butchers hails from Portland may not be anything to write home about. That its members are originally from Alaska thickens the story a bit. That it formed in Portland, its…

The Grateful Dead of 1976 was one of my favorite configurations. Back from a time off in 1975, the members went their own ways for awhile. They sounded refreshed and ready to play.

I am listening to the Dead's last Road Trip's Series which is my first one, it is the releases which followed Dick's Picks(Latvala), and now will make way for Dave's Picks (Lemieux). This is their Third show back of the small theater tour they did. They would play usually multiple…

By now the dust has nearly settled on the stunning 2011 Decemberists album, The King Is Dead. A rootsy, Americana turn-around that surprised their indie-lit core fans who were used to longer, more abstract songs, The Decemberists’ new sound dropped at a key time when…

I have had this set for about a week and I go back and forth on it. I loved "Europe 72" ,it turned me on to the Dead, back in the day. I have the '03 Rhino remastering of it, as I have gone from 2 sets of LPs in the Seventies, to a Cassette version, then to 2 versions on Compact Disc, the original in '91 and also the remaster by Rhino (which is done in HDCD),which I love , both CD versions are very good, but Rhinos' really opens it up and you can just hear everything in the recording,also,it…

New Razor & Tie-distributed label will debut in November with Grateful Dead “Dick’s Picks” albums, ? and the Mysterians 180-gram vinyl, David Rose,Ed Ames, Connie Stevens, Joanie Sommers, Shelby Flint, Cameo Parkway Holiday Hits and The Girls…

Rarely does contemporary music get as unpretentious and real as the WorkHouse Poets. Consisting of singer/guitarist James Manganello, vocalist/guitarist Larry Elrod, bassist Mike Doubrava, violinist Stu Wilson, drummer Gary Linnert, and keyboardist Jimmy “Flaco” Foley, the…

  This is a short interview I did through an e-mail conversation with Dennis McNally, longtime publicist and historian for the Grateful Dead, some info from his view about the highly anticipated release of the Europe 72 Box Set, which is easily the Group's biggest undertaking, containing 22 full shows performed on the Europe 72 Tour, in a format of 73 HDCD CDs, with the first 7,200 versions in a fancy trunk with extras and personalization's and the rest after that are music only, the 73 CDs…

FTB podcast #132 features the new album by ARTY HILL called Another Lost Highway.  Also new music from BOTTLE ROCKETS, MICHAEL O’CONNOR and CLAUDIA NYGAARD.  The full playlist is posted below.  Check the artist's websites…

Dead Man Winter is a full-band affair, in the alt-country sense of…

Richard Buckner

Our Blood 

(Merge Records)

Since recording and touring for his last record, 2006's Meadow, Richard Buckner seemed to have all but disappeared, leaving fans only to speculate what his next move would be. As time passed it wasn't too much to guess that the wondering by fans turned to questions of if there would be something else coming from the songwriter.

During this span of…