Loss and a search for meaning have long been the essential subject matter of Americana musical traditions. But on Her Crooked Heart’s album debut, To Love To Leave To Live, these themes are probed with an intimacy and musical daring […]
I was born in Gulfport, Mississippi and grew up in the West Texas panhandle in Amarillo and Lubbock. As a child I became familiar with the blues and country music popular on radio. In grade school my life was jolted by the explosive rock and roll of Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Buddy Holly. Since then various forms of roots American music have formed the foundation of my musical tastes and interests. I have written about music, politics, and poular culture for various newspapers and magazines including The San Francisco Chronicle, The Austin Rag, The Guardian, and Z Magazine.
Loss and a search for meaning have long been the essential subject matter of Americana musical traditions. But on Her Crooked Heart’s album debut, To Love To Leave To Live, these themes are probed with an intimacy and musical daring […]
Since their first meeting and musical bonding at age 15 in the streets of Mexico City, acoustic guitarists Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero have gradually evolved a stunning fusion of heavy metal and flamenco virtuosity to an array of folk, […]
Kenyan immigrant singer-songwriter J.S. Ondara’s debut release Tales of America (Verve) could not have come at a better time. Resonating race and class divisions of the historical moment while poking holes in the mythology of American exceptionalism, Ondara’s deeply poignant […]
Since coming up from New York’s avant downtown scene in the 1970s, guitarist Marc Ribot has played a wildly iconoclastic mix of free jazz, post-punk rock, Afro-Cuban dance music, and Americana roots. Over the course of 25 albums these kinds […]
Since his emergence from the Austin, Texas blues scene with his 2011 EP Bright Lights, Gary Clark Jr. has stirred his most impassioned and lasting impressions in live performance. His two studio albums, Black and Blu (2012) and The […]
When singer-songwriter Steve Young died in hospice care in Nashville on March 17 earlier this year, his son, Jubal Lee Young, issued a note of grace: “My father, Steve Young, passed peacefully tonight in Nashville. While it is a sad […]
Back in the summer of 1996, I had the good fortune of booking Townes Van Zandt for one of his last performances in the United States. Earlier in the year, Ed Pearl, the founder of the Ash Grove, the legendary […]
Jack Elliott is an extremely rare individual. As troubadours go, he is a legend. As a human being, he is an enigma. He represents many things to many people, but most of all he stands as one of the last […]
By Sandy Carter November 1997 In the past three decades, the turbulent era known as “the 1960s” has been so worked over by the mainstream media that its become almost impossible to recall that these were years in which all of […]
By Sandy CarterJanuary 1998 With his craggy, expressive baritone voice set against an earthy, broad strain of sonic Americana (blues, country, gospel, folk, rock, and jazz), Greg Brown delivers portraits of small town America infused with all the little telling details […]
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