Patterson Hood and John Moreland at the Ram’s Head in Annapolis Patterson Hood and John Moreland write very different kinds of songs. Hood looks outward, telling stories about the world around him, while Moreland looks inward, tracing the quiet fault lines of his own life. Sunday’s double-bill at Ram’s Head On Stage in Annapolis demonstrated […]
Ray Weaver Brings Anger, and Hope, to Ram’s Head for “One Night, One Room” Angry young men get the headlines. But underestimate an angry old man at your peril. Earlier this week, Annapolis favorite Ray Weaver returned from Denmark for a special “One Night, One Room” show at the Rams Head On Stage, built around […]
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The Garrett Boys It Runs Deep “It’s a funny thing about humility,” songwriter T-Bone Burnett once wrote. “As soon as you know you’re being humble, you’re no longer humble.” The same is true for authenticity. Essential to great roots music, it works best when it’s felt rather than announced—like hot sauce in a pot of […]
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The Nude Party Look Who’s Back My wife says I listen to depressing music. She’s not wrong. Next time she reminds me of that, I’ll put on The Nude Party’s Look Who’s Back — nine songs that dare you not to smile. In a moment when much of the Americana scene leans inward — often […]
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Jay Buchanan Weapons of Beauty Jay Buchanan has built his reputation on force. As the lead vocalist of Rival Sons, he’s long been associated with volume, swagger, and forward motion. Weapons of Beauty, his solo debut, moves in the opposite direction — and the result is a record that feels powerful in entirely different ways. […]
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Emily Scott Robinson Appalachia On Appalachia, Emily Scott Robinson’s clear voice rings out with grace, passion, and power. Both as a singer and as a songwriter, she has rarely sounded more grounded, making this album feel less like an artist getting better over time and more like someone working at a new, higher level. That […]
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Lucinda Williams World’s Gone Wrong Lucinda Williams is pissed off. And now she’s given us World’s Gone Wrong, the protest album I have been waiting for, a set of songs that speak plainly and forcefully to the dark moment we are living through without hedging or nostalgia. Political songs are notoriously hard to pull off. […]
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Various artists Keep Me in Your Heart: the Songs of Warren Zevon There’s a profound irony in Warren Zevon’s work: a songwriter fixated on mortality who left behind songs that continue to outlive him. More than twenty years after his death, Keep Me in Your Heart, a new multi-artist tribute album, suggests why that may […]
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David Huckfelt I Was Born, But… Americana music—and folk music more broadly—is as much about inheritance as it is about originality. What gets handed down, what endures, and what still feels worth singing matter. On I Was Born, But…, David Huckfelt leans fully into that idea, offering fifteen songs he didn’t write but somehow owns. […]
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Jonathan Bernstein What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome Fathers and sons. It’s always fathers and sons. But in What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome, his carefully researched and sensitively written biography of Justin Townes Earle, author Jonathan Bernstein is careful not to make Justin’s lineage the whole story. Bernstein acknowledges inheritance without letting […]
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