Music
Wilco, Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch)
After years of doing things the hard way to brilliant effect—Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was the masterful afterbirth of very public labor pains, while A Ghost Is Born burrowed under the […]
Lucinda Williams, West (Lost Highway)
Lucinda Williams has always worn her heart on her sleeve, but on West it’s a mourning band. Written after the death of her mother and a painful romantic breakup (is […]
Van Morrison, Pay the Devil (Lost Highway)
There’s a reason why Robbie Robertson dubbed Van Morrison “The Belfast Cowboy.” For four decades, the Irish soul balladeer has drunk deep from the well of the American South, inspired […]
The Gourds, Heavy Ornamentals (Eleven Thirty Records)
The Gourds are to Austin what the Morning 40 Federation is to New Orleans – a hellbent krewe of carnival hucksters and word-besotted street punks who play sloppy-smart party music […]
Patty Hurst Shifter, Too Crowded for the Losing End (Evo Recordings)
There something bracing about good old-fashioned, straight-ahead, Rolling Stones-style rock, and this young Raleigh, North Carolina outfit has it in spades. The band tips its hand on the first track, […]
Obituary: Chris Whitley (1960-2005)
Chris Whitley always played as if his life depended on it. Sometimes, as in his 2004 manifesto War Crime Blues, the emotion was so raw you could practically taste the […]
the subdudes, Behind the Levee (Back Porch)
The very first piece of mail I received when I came home to New Orleans after two long months away was the new subdudes album. Talk about good omens! Recorded […]
Jay Farrar of Son Volt
“I’ve committed well spent days driving parts of Highway 61 from New Orleans to Minneapolis,” says Jay Farrar. He roars up “Afterglow 61” again on Okemah and the Melody of […]
