Author: Glenn Cook

When I travel, I try to see if any of my favorite artists are playing in the city I’m visiting. Usually, my luck runs cold, as I miss shows by a day here or two days there. So imagine my surprise when I learned Josh Ritter and Amanda Shires were playing while I was In […]

The anniversary tour, in which artists perform a popular or seminal work start to finish, has become a solid moneymaker for musicians over the past decade. For the artists, who’ve seen the industry implode due to downloads and streaming that pays pennies on the dollar, it is a drawing card in a clouded and crowded […]

  For the first 15 years of his career, Dave Alvin was known for smoking guitar work and ability to cross genres with groups such as The Blasters, X, and The Knitters, and as a solo artist. But it was fourth solo album, 1994’s “King of California,” that proved to be a game changer. A […]

With a four-piece band, Lori McKenna kicked off her “Return to Bittertown” tour on Wednesday at City Winery to mark the 15th anniversary of the album “that changed everything.” Supported by opener Hailey Whitters, a McKenna acolyte who is gaining acclaim as one of the best unsigned songwriters you’ve not heard of, the tour was […]

I’ve long admired musicians who find it easy to collaborate, moving seamlessly (or so it seems) from group to group while maintaining their own careers. Neko Case and Emmylou Harris do this all the time, as do others, but Dave Alvin and John Doe are experts in the art of the side project. The longtime […]

This story is about the night Pearl Jam’s lead singer went Americana, singing a cover of a Jason Isbell song. And how, despite the odds, my wife and I were there to see it. On Sunday, closing out the Innings Festival in Tempe, Arizona, Eddie Vedder broke into “Maybe It’s Time,” the song Isbell wrote […]

The Brothers Osborne made a triumphant return to the Washington, D.C., area on Saturday, playing a 19-song homecoming set in front of a sold out, rowdy and boisterous audience at The Anthem. The Grammy-nominated duo, fronting a muscular six-piece band that is touring in support of their second album “Port Saint Joe,” showed their musical […]