Yasmin Williams – I Am A Pilgrim: Doc Watson at 100 On March 3rd, 2023, Doc Watson would have celebrated his 100th birthday. And the 2023 edition of MerleFest, the Americana festival he founded in 1988, took place eight weeks later, marking its 35th year. Unfortunately, about half of the scheduled performances this year were rained […]
Lonnie Holley photo by David Raccuglia Lonnie Holley: Who Am I? Who Am I?A Big Ears Festival 2023 Artist Preview “I got punished for not knowing what death was, and I got a whipping, and I didn’t know how to handle that, and I was sad.” Those are the words of a five year old boy, […]
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Photo: The father of electronic music, Morton Subotnick, is a featured performer at the 10th annual Big Ears Festival on Knoxville, Tennessee on March 30 – April 2, 2023. Big Ears 2023 Preview and 2022’s Song of the Year Back before Thanksgiving, I wrote a piece about Tommy Prine, son of the legendary singer / […]
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Tommy Prine photo by Neilson Hubbard “I Always Will RememberThese Words My Daddy Said…” “My style is a mistake.” With that simple admission, the legendary songwriter John Prine summed up a life in music that most artists would die for. When he spoke these words, he was in a vintage guitar shop in Nashville, holding […]
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Tami Neilson Lives Beyond the Stars by John Job It’s such a crutch when a record reviewer comes across a new voice and resorts to worn-out comparisons to describe the unfamiliar. “Her voice is as smoky as Janis Joplin’s, by way of Bette Midler.” Or maybe “It’s like Caroline Wonderland imitating Laurie Anderson after three days […]
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Molly Tuttle at Knoxville, Tennessee’s Summer Sessions by John Job One Woman, Many Wonders When you’re at the top of the pyramid in the live bluegrass concert business, the best venues and the best festivals in the country line up and beg you to accept their invitations to perform. You can spent your summers hopping […]
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It Takes the Right Cat to Dig You — Queen Esther’s Gild the Black Lily by John Job “Twang was inside me with a heart beat and a back beat that kept me out of step with the world.” (Queen Esther, in her 2018 TED Talk in NYC) After three decades of singing in bars and hotel […]
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Never Slow Down: The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys and The Eternal Importance of Bluegrass It’s stiff competition at the top of the heap. The IBMA’s Album of the Year will be decided in Raleigh at the end of September, and it’ll go to Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, Danny Paisley, or Bela Fleck. Renewal. Crooked Tree. Never […]
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Alex Leach Band — All The Way by John Job Want to hear a true story from Appalachia? The thing about life in East Tennessee is, the stories are all real. Can’t make this stuff up. I climbed into my truck this morning to meet my ex at our local elementary school to walk in […]
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Dan Tyminski “One More Time Before You Go” — review by John Jobs Only Love & Legacy Remain: Tony Rice and Dan Tyminski This is a review of Dan Tyminski’s new EP One More Time Before You Go on North Star Records. After one listen, I knew it was a certified timeless American classic. An audio […]
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