In the spirit of John Plymale’s song-by-song commentary in the Songs for Sixty Five Roses liner notes, we decided to hit up the contributors for a few words (albeit not as many words as most would have or did share) on the songs they covered. We got in touch with most of them. Superchunk’s “Mower” […]
Rick Cornell
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Tres Chicas
Tres Chicas Bloom, Red & the Ordinary Girl (Yep Roc) All the Shade Trees in Bloom” is one of several songs on this second release from harmony-rock trio Tres Chicas that makes a strong case for centerpiece status. Among many other virtues, it has a chorus that pleads “I want something beautiful, I want something […]
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Jeffrey Dean Foster
Jeffrey Dean Foster Million Star Hotel (Angel Skull Records) When a songwriter compares a lost love to a “perfect three-minute song on the radio,” as Jeffrey Dean Foster does in the sparkling “Don’t Listen to Me,” you know you’re dealing with a musical lifer. Winston-Salem’s Foster is one of North Carolina’s most famous should-have-been-huge stories, […]
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in cool American roots
The 2006 American Roots Series rolls on in impressive fashion with Nashville’s DAVID OLNEY on Saturday, Jan. 28 and a triumphant return from RICKIE LEE JONES and her band on Tuesday, Jan. 31. Olney’s penetrating work has earned him a reputation as one of the most literate and craft-conscious songwriters in the Americana/folk world as […]
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Have mercy
“I don’t care what it sounds like, as long as when we’re done with every track, we’re beating our hands on our chests like ape men. Like hell yeah! Like football players!” Kenny Roby clearly remembers Justin Faircloth of Charlotte’s Houston Brothers saying that when the two first talked about working together on Roby’s fourth […]
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Tragic tune
The shocking and devastatingly sad news reached me, as so much does these days, via a music listserv. Richmond, Va.-based musician Bryan Harvey and his family–his wife Kathryn and his two young daughters, Stella and Ruby–were found murdered in their home on New Year’s Day. Fifteen years ago, I did an interview with Bryan Harvey, […]
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500 and counting
We’ve received more than 500 responses so far by e-mail, letter and Web surveys for our annual Indy Music Awards Call for Nominations. And as you might guess, three categories–rock, hip hop, country–have receive the most attention. But since we’re keeping the nomination process open for another two weeks, we’d like to see more people […]
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in original flavor
There could not have been a better choice to kick off 2006’s American Roots Series at the ArtsCenter. The CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS‘ name is a nod toward the Mississippi Mud Steppers, the Tennessee Chocolate Drops and other black string bands of the 1920s and ’30s, and the quartet’s banjo- and fiddle-driven tunes honor those roots […]
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Tres Tangled Truckers II
A guitar pull or, less folksy and more to the point, a song swap involves a handful of musicians taking turns playing tunes and often sharing the stories behind them. (It’s said that the late, great Roger Miller figured the term “guitar pull” originated from there typically being only one guitar to be shared when […]
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in american roots music
Rosie Flores was born in San Antonio, began her professional music career in Southern California, moved to Austin, Texas, in the late ’80s, and has spent the last eight years in Nashville. At each stop, Flores has absorbed what those music-rich regions offer, developing a style that calls on Buck Owens, any number of Texas […]