The legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has been reticent to grant interviews in recent year, but in the lead up to the release of a box set featuring her earliest recordings (check out Doug Heselgrave’s review here), she spoke candidly on […]
The best way to review one of Peter Guralnick’s books is simply to listen to his words. He’s a mesmerizing storyteller who captures the reader’s attention not only with the details of the stories of the musicians he’s met, interviewed, […]
Right on the heels of Jerry Jeff Walker’s death last week comes news that fellow outlaw country icon and Texan Billy Joe Shaver has passed away. He died in Waco, Texas, at the age of 81, reportedly from a stroke. […]
EDITOR’S NOTE: Front Country is No Depression’s Spotlight band for October. Read our interview with the trio here, and hear from the band’s members themselves on what they see in music’s future, and their own, in these essays. […]
When October rolls around, some of us at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress start to think about the rich stores of supernatural lore that exist among our discs, tapes, and manuscripts. Among the great singers […]
Singles — whether on 78 rpm records or “cassingles” or digital downloads — are nothing new. However, recently there has been an uptick in one-off tunes released by roots musicians. In this time of coronavirus, many folks may not have […]
EDITOR’S NOTE: “The New Normal” is an occasional series of stories that look into how the coronavirus has affected artists, listeners, and the music business. Find other stories in the series here. “All I do now is cancel gigs,” […]
Growing up when every true music nerd read the liner notes of an album top to bottom, I noticed that the number of people who were listed as having played on the album was always a lot larger than […]
Jerry Jeff Walker, one of the most colorful figures in roots music and an inspiration to a whole generation of storyteller/songwriters who came after him, died Friday at the age of 78. A family member who confirmed the news […]
Independent venues are vital to the roots music scene, connecting fans and musicians face to face and creating lifelong memories. For me, The Handlebar in Greenville, South Carolina, was home as I started discovering roots music in college. On […]
