Favorite Albums of 2025 – Editor’s Pick What defines a great album? When you’re several songs in and your mind is still exploding, you’re still groovin’, or turning it up and leaning in to listen closer? Lots of albums have that one incredibly great song, or two, or three. But for a favorite album you’ll […]
By the mid to late 1960s, England and California had become the world’s most-talked-about musical hotbeds. However, earlier in that decade and in the latter part of the 1950s, Philadelphia was a much bigger disseminator of rock and pop. Besides being home to Dick Clark’s influential American Bandstand TV show, the city housed a handful […]
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James McMurtry at the Birchmere September 18 with Betty Soo It was Thursday night at the Birchmere with a hint of fall already in the air and the quality music lovers filled the hall early. James McMurtry is touring on the heels of the release of his exceptional new album The Black Dog and the […]
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James McMurtry – The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy James McMurtry has never been one to pull punches, and on The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy, he makes it plain: aging isn’t for the faint of heart. While 2021’s The Horses and the Hounds struck a bittersweet tone about growing older, his latest […]
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photos by Allison O’Brien / AOB A Master Class in Lyrical Precision and Bare-Knuckle Truth—James McMurtry at The Ram’s Head in Annapolis, MD • March 6, 2025 Last Tuesday night, Donald Trump delivered the first State of the Union address of his second term. Two nights later, James McMurtry took the stage at The Ram’s […]
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James McMurtry is a master — at storytelling, as a songwriter, and as a musician. All three were in abundant evidence during his annual late summer/early fall tour of the East Coast, where he performed a series of dates with fellow Austin musician and collaborator Betty Soo. Performing last Saturday at The Birchmere in Alexandria, […]
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WoodyFest 2024 – Part 3 WoodyFest 2024 Day 3 was a Hit After another soul filling afternoon and evening of music the previous day and a half or so, I was back in Okemah Saturday morning excited about what the day offered. The Saturday line-up is always a busy one, and with the weekend day, […]
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James McMurtry Makes His Case – Annapolis Songwriter’s Festival Rams Head on Stage, Annapolis, MD, September 18, 2022 by Mark Pelavin Closing out the Inaugural Annapolis Songwriter Festival, James McMurtry made a powerful case for being recognized as the premier songwriter of this generation. It’s as if he looked at the 65 or 70 songwriters who performed […]
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At midnight all the agents and the super human crew go out and round up every one that knows more than they do . . . —Bob Dylan, from “Desolation Row” Dr. Fauci has an unenviable position. He knows more than Donald Trump. He knows more than most any of us about infectious disease. And […]
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