Leanne Tankel, Author at Americana Highways

Healing From Inside: Trevor Hall, Rising Appalachia, Sahffi Lynne, on How Music, Mindfulness, and the Extraordinary Wisdom of Plant Medicine Will Guide Us Home

May 17, 2020May 19, 2020 Leanne Tankel0

“We have ALWAYS been in this together,” musician Trevor Hall responds emphatically to my question about the Coronavirus pandemic’s rallying cry for compliance, “but over time we have forgotten our connection and unity as a global family.” Hall’s point is a good one: We are all in this together implores an obvious truth recast as […]

Show Review: Bruce Cockburn Celebrates Eternity at the Birchmere

November 5, 2019November 5, 2019 Leanne Tankel0

“If I had a Rocket Launcher,” Bruce Cockburn’s anti-anthem of pure rage, was my introduction to the Canadian troubadour’s already established catalog. The year was 1989, and my older brother had sent me Cockburn’s song–a reaction to the United States’ interventionist politics in Central America–as I prepared to visit El Salvador. Midway through my senior […]

REVIEW: Bill Bloomer is “Bounty”-Full

August 17, 2019August 18, 2019 Leanne Tankel0

In the final section of Four Quartets, “Little Gidding,” T.S. Eliot writes: We shall not cease from exploration/And the end of all our exploring/ Will be to arrive where we started/ And know the place for the first time. Exploration and arrival are equally integral parts of a paradox, in which “knowing” happens only in the […]

Interview: Bill Bloomer Brings His Bounty on the Road

July 15, 2019July 15, 2019 Leanne Tankel0

“Just finished changing strings roadside,” Bill Bloomer texts, a few minutes past 6:00 p.m.; dinner hour for most people is driving time between gigs for Bill. “Chicago, IL for The Montrose Saloon at 8, and the club owner expects me there. Gotta fly — driving off into the sunset.” A warm and windy weekday evening, […]

Show Review: J.S. Ondara Inspires with His American Tales at Songbyrd Record Café and Music House

March 26, 2019March 25, 2019 Leanne Tankel0

Can the experience of a 26-year-old self described “old troubadour style” musician, born and raised in Kenya, who immigrated to the United States to live in his Aunt’s basement in the cold Minneapolis winter–because his folk-singer hero, Bob Dylan spent his late teens performing in the artsy Dinkytown neighborhood near the University of Minnesota–be described […]

Show Review: James McMurtry Burned All Night at the Birchmere With Bonnie Whitmore

February 27, 2019February 26, 2019 Leanne Tankel0

photos by Glenn Cook James McMurtry was one of the most important lessons I learned in graduate school. Having arrived in Boston, fresh from the revelatory oasis of my UC Berkeley undergraduate years, I was pretty certain the world had shown me what it could. Intellectual prowess, philosophical abandon, and mindful debauchery had been fused into a fledgling, yet purposeful, identity. […]

Show Review: Lucinda Williams and the Drive-by Truckers: Bright Lights on a Gravel Road at the Anthem

February 12, 2019February 12, 2019 Leanne Tankel2

photos by Glenn Cook photography Beguiling and blinding, The Anthem’s blazing light storm bore down Friday night as Americana icon, Lucinda Williams, burned through her classic ruminations about heartbreak and loss, and Southern rock powerhouse Drive-By Truckers took a decidedly direct American stand. First Lucinda. Her voice initially a bit sluggish, as if still tuned to the sea of her […]

TALES YOU WIN IN LUCKY PENNY’S LIVING ROOM: A Look at Americana Music’s Intimate Concert Trend

February 12, 2019February 12, 2019 Leanne Tankel1

click anywhere in bold to read more about that artist Mark Cline Bates is Lucky Penny’s latest living room troubadour. Hailing from Hurricane, West Virginia, a strong gust’s reach from DC, Mark prefers to embody the aftermath, and greets his assembling guests with a calm, and an appreciation, that belies both his youthful songwriter successes […]

Show Review: What It Means: Patterson Hood Drives Solo at Pearl Street Warehouse

December 14, 2018December 14, 2018 Leanne Tankel1

Today’s concert goers crave community and connection. They are getting their fix in a plethora of new or revitalized venues across DC. The Wharf’s Pearl Street Warehouse and Union Stage are two such examples. In music venues such as these, the fractured and divisive rhetoric so prevalent in the city as a whole gives way […]