Stevie Wonder (right) was the main attraction, and deservedly so, while delivering a feel-good message along with solid gold hits by himself, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and the Beatles on Sunday (May 19), the final night of the 2013 Hangout Festival.

At age 63, Wonder’s “Little Stevie” days may be long behind him, but that soothing, moving voice remains crystal clear as he broke out with…

The Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama, isn’t all about the headlining acts such as Kings of Leon and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

The pride of Gainesville, Florida, Petty had sort of the home-field advantage Saturday night on the Hangout Stage, playing just one state over and practically a direct Interstate-10 shot from Heartbreakers…

Delta Rae might sound like the down-home name of a backwoods country singer but it’s really just Greek to Brittany Holljes.

“I think there are a lot of ‘Delta’ bands out there, too, so we kind of get that ... people get confused,” said Holljes, the whip-smart singer of the North Carolina-based sextet (like Deborah Harry used to say about Blondie, Delta Rae is a group). “And I completely…

Professionally known as Lissie, Elisabeth Corrin Maurus identifies with another one-word pop-culture phenomenon not named Madonna, Beyonce or Pink.

The rock-pop singer-songwriter who was raised in the Midwest still has googly eyes for Annie, the spunky fictional character she played as a precocious 10-year-old at Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse in her hometown of Rock Island, Illinois.

More…

Ryan Bingham might look, act and talk like a cowboy, and maybe that’s where his crazy heart ultimately lies. But there’s more to the singer-songwriter’s backstory than the scratchy voice he can raise to eardrum-splitting levels and the hardscrabble past that’s impossible to forget.

The 32-year-old musician with a sense of adventure has a Los Angeles zip code (along with Hollywood-handsome movie star looks and an Academy Award to go with it).…

Bruce Springsteen and Mark Knopfler have influenced tons of artists over the years, but a sweet-sounding soprano who’s co-founder of the charming Canadian trinity known as the Wailin’ Jennys wouldn’t be the first to come to mind.

Ruth Moody, who possibly possesses the prettiest voice in all of North…

Jason Isbell doesn’t mince words while discussing his battle with the bottle.

“Man, I’m an alcoholic,” the Alabama singer-songwriter said of his addiction that involved a dangerously close friendship with Mr. Jack Daniel’s. “So I drank all the time. I used to think I didn’t drink in the morning, but my wife pointed out to me that I didn’t usually wake up in the morning.”

Isbell laughed, yet knows there’s nothing funny about…

Steve Earle was celebrating in Denver on Saturday night, and it had nothing to do with the Mile-High puff daddies hanging out near Colfax Avenue just two miles to the west.

No, the alt-country outlaw was enjoying his role in Record Store Day on the 25th anniversary of Twist & Shout, one of the city’s final vinyl landmarks.

Making an in-store acoustic appearance, Earle was friendly, animated and talkative during extended…

Paula Cole is a piano-playing poet and provocateur, a loving daughter and mother, a Grammy winner and seven-time nominee, a dramatic voice of affliction and affection, a risk-taker in a risky business.

These days, though, she is mostly a fighter. On and off four major labels over a 20-year career, Cole admittedly felt ashamed at first to try what most of today's independent-minded artists wouldn't think twice about doing — ask her…

One of the joys about covering music in my spare time is hearing a singer-songwriter or band for the first time, not having any preconceived notions or prior knowledge of their work. With mounds of sounds stacking up, for whatever reason you dig deep to find the one CD that arrived unsolicited in the mail. Before reaching the end of the opening song...

Eureka!

It’s like finding…

Don’t tell Holly Williams that the road is a lonesome place. To begin 2013, there’s nowhere else she’d rather be.

Of course, it took a while for the thoughtful singer-songwriter, a breath of fresh Americana heir within country music’s royal dynasty, to get back there. And while there are so many interests dividing her time — from fashion to cooking to blogging to deer hunting — she seems determined to avoid any dead ends and keep…

Carrie Rodriguez just might be the hardest-working woman in American roots music. The Austin, Texas-born-and-raised singer-songwriter plays the fiddle, but doesn’t fiddle around.

After finally taking a brief respite from the road over the holidays, when she was able to enjoy two of her favorite things — cooking and eating — Rodriguez was back at it this month.

Upon hearing that Ruthie Foster and Marcia Ball were among 20 Lone Star…

If anyone who’s listened to Trampled by Turtles’ most recent album wondered whether they were finally slowing down, fear not. As is their style, the Minnesota quintet quickly fingerpicked up the pace during the second of two nights at the Ogden Theatre in Denver on January 11.

Oh, maybe the string-speed demons who are celebrating their 10th year together as fast-breaking bluegrass-hoppers with more…

Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland weren’t even born when Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston teamed up for the Motown hit single “It Takes Two” in 1965. Two years later, they also missed out when Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty costarred in Bonnie and Clyde, the Academy Award-nominated film about a romantic but violent couple who became legendary for robbing banks throughout America’s…

The invitations were sent out months ago. Did you RSVP?

While a Denver bash to celebrate a phenomenal, breakout year was thrown by a most promising host, some of us waited until the final day of 2012 to get the party started. In the year of the Lumineers, did we miss anything?

With a…

While the rising popularity of Americana music in the past decade is an encouraging sign, watching one exceptionally well-grounded roots group sprout right before your eyes is truly a thing of beauty.

The Nashville tag team of two Cryar sisters and two Jones brothers, collectively known as the Vespers, grew from budding talents into a Family Tree of Life over only a matter of months during 2012.

Receiving an email at the end of last…

Torn between the group he founded 10 years ago and a chance to go his own way, Ben Kylepondered what choice to make, then prayed for help while cleaning his kitchen floor.

Whether it was divine intervention or just purely coincidental, his prayers were answered with two clear signs within a 12-hour period this summer.

The result of this appeal to a higher power is the November 13 release of…

A masterful musician and workmanlike writer who continues to connect — whether through allegorical tales of adventure or powerfully personal reflections that cut to the core — impressed the hell out of longtime devotees and some random disbelievers at the 1stBank Center on October 29.

And his name isn’t Bob Dylan.

While he was on the same bill as one of the most celebrated (and idiosyncratic) figures in American popular music,…

Lera Lynn has a penchant for writing, though it might not be what one would expect from an Americana artist who was born in Houston, grew up listening to George Jones, Ray Price and Conway Twitty, and trades text messages with R.E.M.’s Mike Mills.

Encouraged by her Southern parents to go to college and get a degree, Lynn did just that at age 19, enrolling at the University of Georgia, where she majored…

If the twenty-something woman strumming an acoustic guitar on the corner of 4th and Congress was singing for her supper Thursday, she undoubtedly went home hungry that night.

Folks, welcome to Austin, Texas, Live Music Capital of the World.

On the eve of the 11th Austin City Limits Music Festival, the hipsters and self-proclaimed music experts were frequenting clubs such as Swift’s Attic down the street or the Belmont a couple of blocks…