(Photo by Erick Anderson) “You gotta be from the South to know about boogers,” Charlie Daniels cracked. When Daniels strapped his guitar on five years ago at a show in Manassas, Virginia, he derived great suspense as a storyteller, recalling the mysterious holes in the ground that attract bugs, skeeters and boogers in “The Legend […]
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Back in the days of live music (which was actually in January but feels like a decade ago), onetime nominee for Washington Music Association Best Roots Rock Vocalist Lauren Calve stood onstage at Pearl Street Warehouse with a message of hope. Calve sited Abraham Lincoln for inspiration and promises of “Better Angels” to get us […]
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If you’re familiar with nautical maps you may notice a point on the Cumberland River called “Hartford’s Bend.” The late famed songwriter John Hartford who was best known for penning “Gentle on My My Mind” had a house overlooking the river. Captains of boats would often blow their whistles when they passed in tribute to […]
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I’ve been enamored by Ratso’s Stubborn Heart (Lucky Number) since I first heard it. By year’s end, I called it my favorite album of 2019. Flash forward to the present, I am delighted that Ratso is the subject of a short film documentary. The film, I Want Everything, now playing at the virtual Brooklyn Film […]
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“Never has the mundane seemed so longingly attractive.” So declared Bruce Springsteen on his own E Street Radio radio show and series From His House To Yours. Springsteen has occasionally called into the radio station built upon him by SiriusXM. But In recent weeks, Springsteen has taken to the mic of E Street Nation playing […]
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“No, I didn’t travel with any snakes or candelabras,” Scarlet Rivera was telling me. I had brought up the film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorcese in which she plays a starring support role. When I asked her about her reaction to the film, the first words out of her mouth […]
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The cover is positively West 4th Street. Willie Nile, in shades, standing underneath the iconic sign of the subway station that runs through the heart of New York City and his Greenwich Village neighborhood. He’s been a fixture here and has had the same apartment approaching fifty years. Nile’s new album and it’s cinematic title […]
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Right now the Chuck Wagon Gang should be on the road playing churches, fairs and festivals as they have over two centuries. The perennial touring gospel quartet is used to meeting fans who regal them with stories of how earlier generations of their families gathered around the radio to hear “I’ll Fly Away.” Instead singer […]
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Maps don’t always tell the whole story. No doubt you’ve seen images of dots and colors filling the country to show the incidence of Covid-19. But maps don’t reveal all of its ripple effects. If you see Kansas City, you might not know that all of the Mastersons tour merch is stuck there in a […]
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“Hi Nora. This is one of the best verses ever.” Jeff Tweedy was four songs and a couple of verses into his set at Town Hall in New York when he audibled during “Christ For President.” The shout out was to Nora Guthrie, the daughter of Woody Guthrie and the curator of his archives. On […]
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