"You don't make music for immortality, you make music for the moment, capturing the sheer joy of being alive on planet Earth... Everybody should live it that way."    Ray Manzarek  

In the summer of 1967 The Doors played the Anaheim Convention Center. I was 12 years old. I was completely transfixed by the band. Having an older musician brother, playing the Sunset Strip, signed to United Artist Records and playing frequent live gigs, made me no stranger to live…

With a career as diverse as the emerging genre we call ‘Americana,’ Jim Lauderdale continues on the same track toward collaboration, generosity and an imagination fused with the influence of Country and Bluegrass traditions. His December, 2012 release with musical cohort, Buddy Miller, is a collection of songs, some covers and some originals, that focuses on the tight harmony vocal approach eschewing style over the feel and soul of the song. It’s a…

Last June, with what felt like a last breath of grief, my brother, sister-in-law and I drove down the Abilene Highway that runs between Dallas and Abilene, Texas. With the hot summer wind on our backs, we rolled toward a small town, Winters, where my mother’s casket waited for burial between my 46 year-old brother and 34 year-old dad. It was a lonely trip.  At one point, these words came through the car stereo:

 ”Yes I understand every life must end, uh…

From the earthy opening fiddle strains on White Swan to the final song's sweet homage to Appalachian singer-songwriter Jean Ritchie, it's clear this is not an album to listen to once and put away.  Susie Glaze and The Hilonesome Band have made an album that is a ride through a wide range of Americana meadows and valleys. From skilled instrumentation bluegrass jams, Appalachian vocals, sweet high lonesome harmonies and old-time folk influences, White Swan sings with the…

There are those voices that ring in our memories. Some are singular and scream with passion that demands to be heard. Elvis, Jim Morrison, and Bruce Springsteen can be counted among these. Then there are the interchangeable harmony singers whose voices weave around each other in a way so seamless, the voices carrying each strand of harmony and melody become one. The Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel are just a few who…

To the Gypsy for Willie 20 years later

When Carla Olson was a young girl growing up in Austin, Texas her musical role models were Mary Travers and Jackie DeShannon.  It's not hard to imagine why.  With her rich vocal talent, long blond-hair and the music of the golden era of folk, rock, and country breezing through the Texas airwaves there would be little else to captivate her. But, her own musical vision would not be complete until she heard the folk-rock of The…

It was announced earlier today that folksinger Richie Havens died of a heart attack in New Jersey. He was 72.  In 1969, when he sang out, "Freedom," to a half-million people at the historic Woodstock Festival, it was more than just a moment of musical tribalism, as it has often been characterized.  It was a…

The results of the bootlegged ND Unofficial reader's poll for the best ten songs of the last century by the most acclaimed songwriter of any genration are in.  One remarkable thing is how close No Depression's readers came to Rolling Stone's critics poll. But, there's not need to labor the point except to say, "Like A Rolling Stone," wins hands down on every best Dylan song poll around.  Perhaps in a moment of personal weakness, the allowing of ties in votes allowed…

When Brittni Paiva was gifted with her first ukulele at age 11 by her grandfather, she had no idea the musical tapestry and magic that would unfold over the next 12 years of her young life.  It would lead her from her native homeland, Hilo, Hawaii on the Big Island, to international success, awards and recognition by music industry legends like Tom Scott and Carlos Santana as a one of the most gifted instrumentalists of her or any generation.  At 23, her career is only beginning.…

The Fishtank Ensemble have history. Not only as a band, but they have also successfully blended hundreds of years of music, tracing a heritage rich with substance, style, and a near overdose of hot-blooded passion. On first listen, the term “gypsy-jazz” will be among the genre labels that come to mind. It is hard to mistake the clear guitar and fiddle once mastered by Django Reinhardt and his peers in 1920s Paris. But, today the common term' gypsy' is thought of as a kind of…

“There were other lonely singers

In a world turned deaf and blind

Who were crucified for what they tried to show

And their words can be found scattered

Through the swirling winds of time

Cause the truth remains no one wants to know.”

From Kris Kristofferson’s “To Beat the Devil 

Nashville’s Music City Row is strewn with the memories and broken dreams of songwriters who have…

Sometime in 2007, Louisiana native, Rod Melancon flew into L.A. determined to launch an acting career.  But, the Gods of roots music were looking out for him and had other plans. They reached down into his small-town Louisiana soul and shook out his love for his home, his family and friends. What followed became the stuff Americana music is made of.  He had a country music Damascus road vision when he gifted his…

Some losses in the culture of music are immeasurable simply by the silence that falls in the aftermath of their absence. For Richard Manuel, who lost his struggle with addiction and depression on March 4, 1986, the silence was all too real and too loud.   

All five members of The Band were major forces in popular music giving a distinctive voice to an indefinable collaboration of music, which today many call Americana.  Richard was equally…

As the Rod Melancon's music-train keeps rolling along, it seems the much needed track falls into place making for some major visibility in the Americana world. At least that's how it seems to be going for the 24 year-old L.A. based singer-songwriter.  He recently traveled to Nashville where, with Jamey Johnson/Jason Isbell producer Dave Cobb, he recorded a new 50's retro-rocker called, "Mad Talkin' Man."  It's a departure from the Springsteen meets Haggard honky-tonk approach of…

(Reprinted from December 2007)

I (John Gorka) was honored to be a part of the celebration of Woody Guthrie’s music entitled “In Woody’s Words” at WXPN’s World Cafe Live in Philadelphia yesterday.  The cast also included, Tom Paxton, Jonatha Brooke, Cathy Fink and Marcie Marxer, Sara Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion. Nora Guthrie and Gene Shay were the hosts.   It was big fun.  There was a short but moving film…

About halfway through this interview with veteran singer-songwriter John Gorka, a clear image started to emerge. For centuries holiness has been kept behind the walls of monasteries where the monks’ primary vocation is to hold the world outside in prayer through direct communication with the divine. There’s a sense, when talking with Gorka, that he’s a kind of singer-songwriting monk on the loose out in the world. His…

Carrie Newcomer Reaches Out For Kindred Spirits

“You should never journey farther in a day than your soul can travel.”     A Native American saying

On what has become an annual phone conversation with singer-songwriter, Carrie Newcomer, she sighed and laughed when asked what one…

An Interview with Roy Zimmerman

by Terry Roland

With all of the voices that come out of our television, computers and radios demanding our attention to buy their point of view, whether that is “spin,” distortion or blatant lies, it's easy to feel the need to just turn the radio off, shut down the computer or blow up your TV (in the words of John Prine.

But a song can make all the difference. A single…

During the 60’s Southern California’s Manhattan Beach was not known for its country music. But, along with the surf culture that formed in earnest in the 50's, music was as constant a pre-occupation as baseball or football was to the youth of other towns. Early in the 60’s surf bands would compete in what was termed Battle of the Bands. Dick Dale and The Ventures ruled the day. In 1963 with the British Invasion that swept The Beatles ashore in America, most of the bleach blond…