Joe Martyn Ricke – Little Clarissa and Other Stories “Our Road” is a standout on Little Clarissa and Other Stories by Joe Martyn Ricke. It’s one of those movie credit songs that really generates an atmosphere for the longing expressed in this album. Katie Shore provides a fiddle breakdown on this track that’s perfect for […]
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Abraham Alexander at Antone’s There’s a line of people stretched past the shoe shine chairs into downtown. Antone’s famed blues club sits in the heart of the entertainment district in Austin, and it’s fourth location has seen the most diverse line-up of styles. The memorabilia spread throughout the interior pays tribute to the blues legends […]
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Billy Strings at the Moody Center Tour shirts and tie-dyes were chic as I made my way towards the ticket box at the brand-new Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Billy Strings and his five piece band took the stage at the modern arena without an opening act, ready to perform traditional bluegrass for over ten […]
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Brian Beken – New Geography When opening track “The Weekend” jump-starts with rich, overdriven guitar and layered vocals on Brian Beken’s self-produced album New Geography, I was instantly transported back to my childhood bedroom, reliving the experience of running in the door with a shrink wrapped disc and scrambling to cue it up on a […]
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There’s a feeling one gets under the spotlight that makes you shake in your boots, where the hardwood floor squeaks with every step in the silence and every breath you take projects into the darkness in stereo. The Redbird Listening Room in New Braunfels has a way of producing that vulnerable feeling for more artists […]
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Old Settler’s Music Festival 2023 — review by Andrew Blanton, photos by Keith Michael Kallina Dark clouds hover above my sedan as it shakes along the crumbling country roads outside of Lockhart. The heavy construction gear does a number on the country roads that wind around Dale, Texas and the soft ground can sink in […]
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You get a strange sense of vertigo as you drive directly toward the mesas in West Texas. Their land mass seems frozen in time and they can leave you in a trance while you wind through the Chisos Mountains. The Goat Pens, the site of the first Big Bend Songwriters Festival, is a beautifully barren […]
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Bruce Robison — One Night in Texas: The Next Waltz’s Tribute to The Red Headed Stranger It’s a beautiful stretch of land out on Highway 71 from the skyscrapers of Austin to the Hill Country in Spicewood. Last May some of the finest songwriters were hand-picked to celebrate Wiliie Nelson’s 89th birthday at his infamous […]
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On the eve of South by Southwest the hippies are about. Camping stoves sizzle on the busy sidewalk outside the Moody Theater in Downtown Austin. For the past 50 years, a caravan of bohemians, hitchhikers, bikers, soul-searchers, music obsessed fans and vendors have followed Bob Weir around, setting up mobile cities in the parking lots […]
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Keith Kallina and the Ghost of Etta Place On a vast southwest landscape as the bright sun starts to rise Keith Kallina pulls into a traveler’s outpost. He fills up his SUV for a busy weekend of touring as he tells the legend of Etta Place, one of the most compelling members of Butch Cassidy’s […]
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