Michael Ubaldini – ‘The Rock n roll Poet’ – is a singer songwriter of Raw Folk & roots music w 21st century words- the songs sound old and new at the same time -songs filled with Protest ,Social rebellion,sex,romance ,poetry […]
Michael Ubaldini – ‘The Rock n roll Poet’ – is a singer songwriter of Raw Folk & roots music w 21st century words- the songs sound old and new at the same time -songs filled with Protest ,Social rebellion,sex,romance ,poetry […]
The region of East Tennessee should be proud to boast that it hosted arguable two of the most important recording sessions in country music history in the late 1920s. Located merely 25 miles apart, Johnson City, Tennessee and Bristol, Tennessee, […]
Bluegrass music spent about four decades doing its best to try to establish a unique genre fully separated from country music. The origin came, as this column has often pointed out, on Dec. 8, 1945, with the addition of Earl […]
Last weekend we attended our first Florida bluegrass festival of the season. The YeeHaw Music Fest, approaching its 25th anniversary as a festival next year, has a noble history. Like many festivals, it owes more to fandom than professional polish. […]
Nearly a year ago two long established singer-songwriters from either side of the Atlantic, Billy Bragg and Joe Henry, made a train journey from Chicago to Los Angeles via Texas. On the way they recorded a series of railroad songs […]
There’s almost a sense of culture shock moving from IBMA week in Raleigh, North Carolina, to the Tennessee Fall Homecoming in Norris, Tennessee, about 30 miles north of Knoxville. IBMA provided an eye- and ear-popping musical feast. There, cutting edge bands explored […]
My brother and I sat on the front stoop, with impressively out-of-tune plastic guitars in our hands. With sibling harmony decades removed from the Louvins, we proudly proclaimed, in front of god and everybody, things we couldn’t possibly have understood. […]
In March 1938, WBAP Radio in Fort Worth, Texas, broadcast a new show over the airwaves: Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls. The program featured musicians from the Huntsville unit of the Texas State Prison and brought inmates — men and […]
Three weeks ago — on April 6, 2016— Merle Haggard died. His unmistakable voice wound its way into our lives in drinkin’ songs (“I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink,” Barroom Buddies”), family songs (“Grandma Harp,” “Daddy Frank,” “Mama […]
Branded Man. Outlaw. Okie. Poet. The Working Man. Hag. Merle Haggard defies labels. But he has been tagged with many. Kris Kristofferson namechecks him in the superb song “Wild American,” a tribute to people who show courage, conviction and individualism […]
FRESH TRACK: Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore – “We’re Still Here”Check it out
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