
(Note to the reader: This is an epic tale, long in the telling. If you doubt your mettle, please at least scroll down and check out the respective headliners, who were both rad). Sometimes the music options in this town present such a tasty dilemma. Friday night saw The Ferocious Few at Fort Mason, Cap'n Jazz at Bimbo's, and down in Polk Gulch, two shows too good to pass up. I'm set to cover Kelley Stoltz at the Hemlock , while some of my familiars have committed [...]

This Friday the murdergrass outfit out of San Francisco, The Pine Box Boys, will make their triumphant return to the stage at Dave's Aqua Lounge. The last time these guys came through town I partied a little too hard with my good buddies Beam and Ginger and was unable to write a decent review of the show...which is a good sign I had one hell of a good time, and I did. The interplay of the band members as well as their faux-arguments even makes the between song innerband banter a complete riot. You're asking, what does the [...]

Sometimes the best part of going to a show to see a band you know and love is discovering the band that opens. On Friday night I visited The Independent in San Francisco to see the Trainwreck Riders , one of our favorite bands and performances from SXSW 2007. I was standing at the bar ordering a Sierra Nevada, when I noticed a tall, bearded man in a cowboy hat ordering a dark, iced beverage at the bar. Judging from appearances, I assumed it was not a Diet Coke. [...]
Shannon Wright's new album, Let In the Light , is due on May 8th on Quarterstick Records. I don't have a free and legal track to offer (yet) from her new album, but here are two older tracks. Shannon Wright : "Hinterland" [mp3] from Dyed in the Wool Shannon Wright : "Within the Quilts of Demand" [mp3] from Maps of Tacit @myspace other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype [...]

Is there no pity for the lonely ladies of the American Murder Ballad? Buried in unmarked graves, their ghosts have been called out to in song for more than two centuries. No face, no form, only lonely names - Polly, Sally, Maggie, Eleanor. The Pine Box Boys are Lester T. Raww- guitar, vocals; Alex "Possum" Carvidi - banjo, vocals; Col. Timothy Leather - bass, and S. "Your Uncle" Dodds - drums. A sinister group of San Franciscans brought together by Arkansas exile (on the run for killin' an ex-lover no doubt) Lester T. Raww, [...]