With a voice of a soul singer and country instrumentations, 23 year old Marcus King showcases his skills on El Dorado (Fantasy Recordings) with streamlined songwriting and precise performance. Recorded at Nashville’s Easy Eye Studios and produced by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, El Dorado is available now. Album opener, “Young Man’s Dream” paints a […]
Possessed By Paul James is the project of multi-instrumentalist Konrad Wert. After two vocal surgeries, he took a break from music. On the new album As We Go Wandering, Wert shows that even after a break, he’s still as good as ever at crafting thoughtful Americana songs. In just the first three songs, you hear […]
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When one door closes another door opens – I’ve heard that for decades. In Dec. folk singer Norma Tanega passed away. She had a minor hit in 1966 with a song that’s become iconic: “Walking My Cat Named Dog.” It’s been covered many times. Songs from her LP “The Street That Rhymes With 6 a.m.,” […]
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“In the same way the Bible is divided into the Old and New Testaments, Marty Stuart’s musical career is divided into everything that came before 1999 and everything that came after. The dividing line is The Pilgrim, Stuart’s 10th studio album.” So writes music historian Scott Bomar in a preface to the book that accompanies […]
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When you read Eliza Meyer’s bio, one of the first things that catches your attention is that she is a junior in high school. You don’t have to listen to a lot of her debut album Hello Stranger to know that she isn’t a typical high school junior. Not many people her age are recording albums […]
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There’s an old school approach to this music on Waylon Thibodeaux’s Here We Go Again. But it’s refreshing when an artist is wise enough to put a modern spin on the tunes. Louisiana’s Waylon Thibodeaux has a thin voice but it’s loaded with enthusiasm & moxie. Wayne’s other-world fiddle is quite appropriate for 2020 (it […]
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Last year, in a review of H.R. Gertner’s Two Dimes for a Nickel, I called the Florida singer-songwriter’s dirtbag brand of folk poetry “Trailer Park Shakespeare.” In his newest release Sink or Swim, we see a gentler and more refined Gertner – one who isn’t singing about meth head ex-girlfriends or apologizing for waking up […]
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Influence. That’s the word Philly-born Vance Gilbert doesn’t mind hearing when anyone describes his music. He says he’s black but plays an acoustic guitar but not the blues. One reviewer said he was “a folkie trapped in a vaudevillian body;” I agree. Gilbert also admitted he wanted to be a “5’5 white woman,” after he […]
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With the timely 2020 release of Is It You, Is It Me?, Dustbowl Revival sharpens their genre blending sound, while simultaneously mastering a defined message for the turning of this uncommon era. Recorded in a flash two-week studio session, Is It You, Is It Me? looks deeply into the seminal, collective consciousness of today. And […]
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Eleven Hundred Springs is a band that has been making country records for more than 20 years. The band’s website describes the band’s sound as “indigenous country,” which is a good way to differentiate it from the often-bland country music that comes out of Nashville. On the new album Here ‘Tis, the band shows that […]
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