We're going to give our "Your Sister's (Record) Rack" series a rest for the time being. But we're starting a new weekly series, "Deep South," which focuses on artists who came up and in many cases performed almost exclusively in the southern United States. Why the South? Well, tell me if you can think of any other places that have produced music like New Orleans, and Memphis, and Nashville, and Austin. The list goes on and on. In this series we hope to spin a few records that originated from those places, and connect the dots by visiting [...]
It probably isn't that unusual for someone to turn in outstanding performances in several types of music and still fall short of sustained stardom. But it is a little surprising that someone as talented as Roy Head, who conquered everything from rock to traditional country to blue-eyed soul, topping the charts with his unforgettable "Treat Her Right," would pretty much miss the boat to long-lasting fame. The Texas-born Head was the leader of a group called the Traits, one of many rockabilly-themed outfits around in the late 1950s, but even in the early days the guys [...]
by Scott Schinder In its 23-year existence, the Austin, Texas-based South by Southwest music festival/industry gathering has always mirrored the mood of both the mainstream music biz and the alt-rock underground. So it wasn't surprising that the vibe at that this year's SXSW carried an undercurrent of unease over the perilous state of the recorded-music business, even as a horde of young and/or unsigned acts were in town attempting to launch their careers by bypassing traditional business models. While the seismic shifts in the music biz are undeniable, music continues to play as essential a [...]
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