There are two kinds of people in this world: true believers who know Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb to be the country/pop equivalent of Lennon & McCartney and non-believers who've yet to see the light. For the latter, the brilliance of Campbell's voice and the dynamism of Webb's compositions presented in this tastefully produced session should be enough to convert even the most stubborn of the realm. For the former, "Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb In Session..." serves as…

For those who believe real country music has fled Nashville, the recent CMA Awards would do little to ease your notion. Bombast, smoke, lasers and lots of the arena rock are the anti-thesis of steel-soaked, fiddle-laced songs built on melody, submerged in big emotions and turned with hooks that can’t be forgotten.

But for the true believers and in-the-knowers, a handful of insiders and old school players have conjured 45 RPM,  a last Wednesday of every month celebration of classic…

If you know anything about the Boston music scene, you have undoubtedly heard Jimmy Ryan’s name mentioned.  He’s one of the most in-demand session players in town and plays a mandolin like there’s no tomorrow.  His song “John Brown” is often covered by Session Americana and Pesky J. Nixon.  It’s a show-stopper of a song.  Anyone who can write a song about a nineteenth century abolitionist and give it so much soul is someone who earns my respect.

Jimmy has recorded with Warren Zevon,…

ALL THE LABOR is the definitive documentary about Austin, Texas roots/Americana legends, The Gourds.  The film will introduce viewers to the energy and excitement of the band’s live performances while painting an intimate portrait of these talented songwriters and musicians at the top of their game. Production began in August 2011 with an expected completion date of January 2013.  ALL THE LABOR is a production of Big Sky Pictures, LLC, in association with High Plains Films.…

This week, The Steep Canyon Rangers released their new album, Nobody Knows You, via Rounder Records. New listeners may recognize the band's name as Steve Martin's touring bluegrass band, who also recorded with him on his latest album, Rare Bird Alert.

I would guess that there are many hardcore bluegrass fans who have been listening to the band's records over the years, as well new listeners who may be looking to explore the…

Silos' front man Walter Salas-Humara’s hair is now laced with silver, but the Florida ex-pat has lost none of the romantic tendencies that marked the Cuban songwriter/singer’s songs from the Silos’ earliest days. Also, a visual artist specializing in dogs, the appropriate place to decamp for South by Southwest was the backyard of Yard Dog Gallery, who’d hosted some of the week’s best parties.

Like the dBs, who had fans clogging the sidewalk outside their BD Riley’s  Friday night show…

This Land Is Your Land

Jimmy LaFave + Eliza Gilkyson’s Woody Guthrie Dream

Nora Guthrie’s father would’ve been 100 years old this year, yet somehow the music he left behind remains timeless and timely. It’s a notion she savored at the Prelude Music: Woody Guthrie Tribute – which served to warm-up the audience for Bruce Springsteen’s keynote address at the 2012 SXSW – telling the crowd, "These days are exciting times … My Dad would’ve loved to been here for this. This is a very…

You sneak up on Session Americana. Oh, not literally, as you can discover them in an ever-widening circle of clubs and festivals, three studio records and one live set, and on a new, as-yet-untitled 10-song release due this spring (listen to early mixes of "Easier " and "Goldmine" below). But, after…

The Grand Ole Opry on a Saturday Night

Good Bye To Ghosts, 63 Year Members + One Very Special Debut

There are very few things as American as the Grand Ole Opry on a Saturday night. Once upon a time, beamed across the middle of the country on the powerful WSM-AM 650, it was a unifying force of entertainment for the have-littles and down-homes. Today, for all of its controversial changes, it’s more…

By 1942 he’d been…

 by Terry Roland    (Reprinted with permission of FolkWorks  )

Oral traditions have long been the way we've handed down our stories, our characters, the dreams we've dreamed and our tragedies. Even in the end, with technology being what it is, it still may come down to one person talking to others with something urgent to tell them, some lesson learned, some human comedy. I think…

    Greetings from South By Southwest

Missive Two    

            The G&S Lounge is not a pretty place. Not even close, Ceilings too low and in the pre-happy hours, they don’t even engage the myriad neon signs to extract that buzzing crayola light to deaden the pressboard ceiling and beat-up alternating black and white industrial tile floor. This ain’t anywhere a poseur’s gonna go, but it’s about as real as it gets, a bar that time and poseurs forgot.

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ROOTS ON THE RAILS HOLIDAY DISCOUNTS ON

JANUARY AND APRIL 2011 WEST COAST MUSIC/TRAIN TRIPS…