Todd Snider photo by Melissa Clarke The Lyrics Only Todd Could Write When we lost Todd Snider, we lost one of America’s most important writers. Though he never gained the mainstream recognition or fame that other top-echelon lyricists amassed in their lifetimes, his influence on the now-mature class of Americana songwriters that followed him by […]
Wilco’s latest album Cruel Country was released about 2 months ago now, and I finally feel I’ve listened to it closely enough write about it. I took my time because my relationship with Wilco is a long one, at times bordering on obsession, and I didn’t want to jump into writing without truly absorbing the […]
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photo by Melissa Clarke Sonny Landreth put a rock band together for the first time at age 13. It was a 3-piece outfit with two guitarists and a drummer, and they brought the hits of the British Invasion to weekend parties thrown by his parents and their friends, who were in a tight-knit community of […]
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“Ever get the feeling we’re all vampires?” Loudon Wainwright asks the sold-out audience in the small performance venue at HopMonk in Novato. He’s referencing the streaks of sunlight squeezing into the room around the edges of the blackout curtains that cover the windows. It’s a matinee show with a 1pm start time, which must be […]
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Todd Snider on Returning to the Devil’s Backbone Tavern, Cash Cabin Vol. III, and Life Imitating Jerry Jeff Walker The singer will return to his old Hill Country haunt for shows on February 13th, 14th, and 15th; Photo by Dave Nowels Like a Todd Snider song, Todd Snider in conversation can slip effortlessly […]
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Last year, in a review of H.R. Gertner’s Two Dimes for a Nickel, I called the Florida singer-songwriter’s dirtbag brand of folk poetry “Trailer Park Shakespeare.” In his newest release Sink or Swim, we see a gentler and more refined Gertner – one who isn’t singing about meth head ex-girlfriends or apologizing for waking up […]
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One could imagine that in Lubbock, Texas, a voice like Bob Simpson’s could be seen as a bit of a curse. It doesn’t fit the stereotype of a hard living musician playing gigs in honky tonks punctuated by cartons of cigarettes and shots of whiskey. Instead, his voice is pretty, and it accompanies his guitar […]
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In the most famously prolific period of his career, Bob Dylan released 11 albums between 1962 and 1970. There’s a lot of speculation about how he did it, but most historical accounts point towards lots of amphetamines and little sleep. It’s a good gig if you can get it, and if you can turn it […]
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Flynn’s Cabaret and Steakhouse in Felton, California not far from San Francisco is a good place to see a show, but it does take effort. If you’re from out of town, it takes a windy drive through the Santa Cruz mountains just to get there, and once you’re inside, you’ll face a cacophony of interruptions […]
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