My Back Pages Archives • Americana Highways

Sarah Shook Writes Some Songs In “What It Takes: Film en Douze Tableaux” (DVD Review)

November 2, 2018November 5, 2018 Steve Wosahla0

Imagine if one of your favorite artists allowed you to watch them write a song. You’d probably jump at the chance. If you’re intrigued by the thought, then you’ll enjoy seeing the new documentary on DVD about Sarah Shook, What It Takes: Film en Douze Tableaux directed by Gorman Bechard (What Were We Thinking Films). […]

If It’s October, It Must Be Time For The Flatlanders

October 26, 2018October 27, 2018 Steve Wosahla0

In one line the Flatlanders tell you all you need to know about living in 2018. It’s the fearless who love and the loveless who fear

Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, From Lizard Lick to the D.C. Swamp

October 1, 2018October 7, 2018 Steve Wosahla0

The road in life does not always follow a linear path. As Teresa Williams stood onstage at Gypsy Sally’s, she admitted that as a girl from West Tennessee, she was somewhat in awe of being in the nation’s capital. Williams, who spent several decades in New York City, hails from the cotton country of Peckerwood […]

Robbie Fulks and Linda Gail Lewis Recount The Birth of Rock and Roll

September 28, 2018September 29, 2018 Steve Wosahla0

Showmanship and work ethic was on full display onstage at Jammin’ Java outside Washington, D.C. as Lewis joined Robbie Fulks for the beginning of a tour behind Wild, Wild, Wild the album largely of songs Fulks wrote describing her life history.
As the boogie woogie pianist thrashed the keys, Lewis’ fingers were moving so fast it seemed like they were suspended in a tremor, blurred in mid-air by some supernatural force

Americana’s Night To Remember

September 17, 2018September 17, 2018 Steve Wosahla0

As she accepted a Spirit of Americana Free Speech Award, Rosanne Cash admitted she was too old to care about the predictable insults that she’s endured for her views. “To quote Tom Morello,” she said center stage at the Ryman Auditorium during the 17th Annual Americana Music Awards, “I didn’t put down my first amendment […]

Kari Arnett’s State of the Union

September 7, 2018September 7, 2018 Steve Wosahla1

To this day Arnett says she has to reach for her voice recorder to put down all of the melodies that come to her.

For Jim Lauderdale, Time Is Relative

August 17, 2018August 17, 2018 Steve Wosahla0

At the Carter Fold in the Appalachian mountains where the Carter Family originated, Jim Lauderdale walked off stage where he was the night’s host and headed to the merch table. Standing alongside Junior Sisk and the Church Sisters, Lauderdale was mingling with the crowd when he handed me a new CD. It wasn’t just that […]

The Eagles Then and Now & The Ghosts of Americana

July 31, 2018July 31, 2018 Steve Wosahla0

I can’t say that I ever ran into Glenn Frey but he once ran by me. I was sitting behind the stage at the Yale Bowl during a July afternoon on the Eagles The Long Run tour. As the band finished its last encore, men were running up the steps following Glenn Frey. As the […]

“Woman Walk The Line”: Belmont Book Award Winner Gives Voice For Women In Country

July 2, 2018 Steve Wosahla0

You see them everywhere. Pictures keep popping up of artists holding and reading a book. There’s Steve Earle. There’s Miranda Lambert. There’s Emmylou Harris. And there’s Billy Gibbons peering out from behind his black shades glued to Woman Walk The Line: How The Women In Country Music Changed Our Lives (University of Texas Press), this year’s […]