Every Wednesday, I feature a brief review of at least one album that has been submitted to me through the ReviewShine website. I have cleverly titled this recurring segment "ReviewShine Wednesday." The Greencards have been a staple of the progressive bluegrass circuit since their debut album Movin' On hit in 2004. Now they're back again with a slightly different look. Fiddler and founding member Eamon McLoughlin recently left the band, leaving mandolinist Kym Warner and bassist Carol Young to release the group's fifth [...]
I spent the weekend in Cincinnati watching my Reds retake first place in the NL Central from the St. Louis Cardinals. I was at Saturday's game that featured two home runs from Reds catcher Ramon Hernandez, an outstanding pitching performance from Johnny Cueto, and a three RBI day for Brandon Phillips. It was a great day at the ball park. Now... None of that means anything to most of you other than to say that I was out of town this weekend and didn't have time to work up an in-depth album review of any kind. [...]
Here's another, seemingly random, collection of videos for you to all enjoy. First, Hayes Carll and Bonnie Whitmore sing "Another Like You" from Carll's new album KMAG YOYO . The duo performed the same song live in the WDVX studio over a year ago when they joined me for an interview on the air. After he played it, Carll told me it was the first time he'd ever performed the song publicly. Of course, I had plugged the input cable for my audio recorder into the wrong jack and didn't record the first note. [...]
Sorry this is later than normal. Blogger's servers went down Thursday night, and I couldn't get back to it until now. We're going with a couple of Knoxville artists today. Matt Woods - The Matt Woods Manifesto We start with The Matt Woods Manifesto , the first true solo album from songwriter Matt Woods. Woods is known mostly as a rocker due to his time with [...]
Every Wednesday, I feature a brief review of at least one album that has been submitted to me through the ReviewShine website. I have cleverly titled this recurring segment "ReviewShine Wednesday." I've been excited about today's post featuring to highly regarded artists for a few days now. It's not often that I get to tackle established musicians in this ReviewShine space. Then I saw Ernie's post over at 27 Leggies on Monday . Now I'm a copycat. Oh well. Go read that post first (it's a little more in-depth than [...]
We first met Sarah Jarosz two years ago when she released her debut album Song Up In Her Head on Sugar Hill Records. At the time, Jarosz was an 18-year-old musical prodigy out of Austin who had just graduated from high school. The record was even released in the summer so Jarosz would have time to tour in front of it before starting college classes. Two years later, a 19-year-old (20 later this month) Jarosz is back with her sophomore effort Follow Me Down . Like her debut, this disc is loaded [...]
Time for more videos. We'll start with a couple of visual feasts from Ben Sollee. First is a video for the song I shared yesterday... "Electrified." And another tune from the new album... Here's a second video from Amanda Shires' new album Carrying Lightning . This video might be a little bit out there... but The King is Dead by The Decemberists is still probably the frontrunner for my favorite album of the year.
The Waifs - Temptation How is it exactly that I've never mentioned my favorite Australian folk trio on this site before? I fell in love with sisters Vicki & Donna Simpson and their compatriot Josh Cunningham several years ago when I first heard the sisters' harmonies and the band's inviting acoustic melodies on their 2003 release Up All Night . Recent offerings found The Waifs experimenting with more textured and expanded sounds, but Temptation sends [...]
Every Wednesday, I feature a brief review of at least one album that has been submitted to me through the ReviewShine website. I have cleverly titled this recurring segment "ReviewShine Wednesday." Mark Jungers is a songwriter from Minnesota who has spent most of his professional musical life in such diverse locals as Austin, TX and New Haven, CT. These days, Jungers lives in Martindale, TX, about midway between Austin and San Antonio. His proximity to Austin and reputation as a song writer mean he [...]
Had plans for a lengthier post this morning before being caught up in Sunday night's big news . Here's what I had written before the news broke... *** ...And let's start this post off with some live music from Brandi Carlile. Carlile's new CD, Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony comes out tomorrow, and is currently streaming over at Paste's website . Better hurry if you want to hear it... these things tend to go [...]
Yesterday, I told you about Horse Latitudes , the new CD from Jeffrey Foucault. This is a tremendous video from something called the Sound Pass Sessions featuring a couple of new songs and a couple of classics. In order, the songs are... "Starlight & Static," "Last Night I Dreamed of Television," "Cross of Flowers," and "Train to Jackson." And here's another Foucault classic... the title track from 2006's Ghost Repeater .
Jeffrey Foucault - Horse Latitudes Jeffrey Foucault's Horse Latitudes (May 3) is his first non-collaborative collection of new material since 2006's Ghost Repeater . In five years since, Foucault has released a collection of John Prine covers to go along with collaborations with Mark Erelli , Redbird , and poet Lisa Olstein . Horse Latitudes finds Foucault once again practicing his own particular brand [...]
Every Wednesday, I feature a brief review of at least one album that has been submitted to me through the ReviewShine website. I have cleverly titled this recurring segment "ReviewShine Wednesday." First up today is Chicago songwriter Melanie Budd and her debut album Beyond the Trees . A native of Kansas, Budd has been living in The Windy City since the early 1990's. Budd says she's been immersed in music all of her life but only recently started writing [...]
Whether you realize it or not, odds are that you've seen Amanda Shires somewhere in the past few years. Shires is featured as the cover model on Justin Townes Earle's The Good Life CD ( buy album ). She also made her feature film debut last year as the fiddle player in Gwyneth Paltrow's band in the hit movie Country Strong . She even found her way into the syndicated comic strip Hi & Lois last year after giving cartoonist Greg Walker a CD at one of her shows. [...]
Israel Nash Gripka - Barn Doors & Concrete Floors Israel Nash Gripka's sophomore record Barn Doors & Concrete Floors is named after the rustic rock tone of its songs as much as it is the setting of its recording (an actual barn in the Catskills). Gripka says he wanted to record in a studio that wasn't a studio to capture "sounds no other place could create. One listen to this record draws easy comparisons to Ryan Adams and Neil Young while also [...]
Every Wednesday, I feature a brief review of at least one album that has been submitted to me through the ReviewShine website. I have cleverly titled this recurring segment "ReviewShine Wednesday." My first (and to this point, only) encounter with David Mayfield came just over a year ago when he came to Knoxville with Cadillac Sky to play Tennessee Shines. Cadillac Sky had a new record on the way in Letters in the Deep , and they were kind enough to allow [...]
On Friday, I told you about the thousands and thousands of CDs I got to sort through in my Program Director's office last week at WDVX. I shared a few of my finds with you then, and I'd like to share a few more of them here today. Rebecca Pronsky - Departures & Arrivals As I mentioned here last month , Brooklyn native Rebecca Pronsky's new [...]
Songwriter Rod Picott will be at WDVX Wednesday to play on The Blue Plate Special. Here's a video of my favorite Picott tune. It was the title track of his 2001 debut, Tiger Tom Dixon's Blues . And one from his sophomore effort Stray Dogs . These days... when Picott comes around, he's usually joined by Amanda Shires (don't know if she'll be there Wednesday or not) on fiddle and vocals. I've really been digging Shires' new record Carrying Lightning [...]
As of this week, I now carry the title of Music Director at WDVX. It's still a part time gig, but I'm now working a few more hours and carrying several more responsibilities. I get to receive and catalogue all the new music that's coming in to the station, take calls and emails from the music promoters, and prepare our reports for the Americana Airplay Chart. Yesterday, however, I got started by sorting through a few thousand CD's in my Program Director's office to help make space for the new stuff that keeps coming [...]
Every Wednesday, I feature a brief review of at least one album that has been submitted to me through the ReviewShine website. I have cleverly titled this recurring segment "ReviewShine Wednesday." I've had a few connection issues while working on this late on a Tuesday night. Because of that, we're just going with a couple of super quickies today. If the Reds weren't playing extra innings on the West Coast, I'd be in bed already. Here's a track from Portland's Mighty Ghosts [...]
A Fifty Cent Lighter & A Whiskey Buzz
Azealia Banks - '1991' [Listen]
Metric Debuts Album via Synthetica Hide+Seek, Tickets On Sale Now For Fall Tour
