The first time I heard of Tyler Childers was after he opened for Margo Price during her multi-night Ryman run in Nashville this spring. The excitement and over-the-top enthusiasm for they way he supposedly tore the roof off the place and upstaged Price (at least on the first night) definitely caught my attention. I made […]
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I have always had a love/hate relationship with new Christmas music. I typically appreciate the effort but usually find myself cringing at how awful it turns out. I tell you that because I had a massive sense of avoidance when my editor asked me to review a new Christmas release by a prominent Americana artist. […]
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photos by Lisa Davidson I walked out of the cold, rainy Nashville night into The Basement East just as Colter Wall started to sing. He stood there on stage, alone, with only a guitar between him and the audience. You could have heard a pin drop between notes and verses as he instantly held the […]
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photos by Jon Cameron It was a prematurely freezing night in Nashville when the Drive-By Truckers rolled into The Cannery Ballroom for the first show of their two night stand in Music City. The venue was packed and the uber talented Lilly Hiatt opened the show with fire and passion. By the time she finished […]
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There those who listen to music and they are content hearing the popular songs off of hit albums and then there are music lovers who seek out and hunt down every note ever played by the artists they like. I fall into the latter category and for this reason I was beyond excited to hear […]
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In 1978 or so my relatives in Germany sent me a budget Byrds compilation lp. I didn’t know anything about the band as I was nine years old but I was immediately taken by their harmonies, the intricacies of the melodies and how they seemed to effortlessly move into and out of various styles of […]
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In the early 90’s I had heard of John Hiatt but I had never listened to him. I saw Perfectly Good Guitar on the shelves at Turtles Records & Tapes (RIP) so I plunked down my $14.99 and purchased it, hoping it would be good. Upon first listen I was knocked on my ass. It […]
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Last year I went to a voter registration benefit in Nashville. The bill included Amanda Shires (Isbell unannounced, accompanied her), Margo Price, Todd Snider, Kacey Musgraves a couple of other singer song writers and a guy named Ruston Kelly, who I was not previously familiar with. Imagine my surprise that in such exalted company the […]
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Shooter has everything you would expect from Jennings but it never rests on its laurels.
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I have spent the better part of the last five or six years catching Kevin Gordon at various venues in Nashville and once in Seaside, Florida just to keep things interesting. Each time Kevin played solo with only guitar for accompaniment and I walked away impressed. He is one of the great storytellers working in […]
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