There’s a race of men that don’t fit in,
A race that can’t stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
- Robert Service, “The Men That Don’t Fit In” (ca. 1907)
After the loneliness passes – and it does, three or four days on – long drives resolve into [...]

Those of you who are still hungry after devouring Just Rockin’ & Rollin’, Ronnie Dawson’s excellent new album for Upstart, are directed immediately to Crystal Clear’s new CD issue of his 1989 album for the British label No Hit Records, Rockinitis. While not as stylistically varied as Just Rockin’ or as powerful track-for-track as 1994’s [...]

The debut album from this Chicago band is a sometimes spirited affair. Peter Houpt’s off-kilter vocals are an acquired taste, but these string-driven folks can pick up speed once they get going. The sound is reminiscent of country-rock stylings from the mid-seventies. With guitars, mandolin and fiddle battling in the mix, there’s hardly enough room [...]

Katy Moffatt’s latest is fairly straightforward singer–songwriter music: The words are clearly the focus, though her thin voice wears them well and the Spartan playing provides a solid foundation.
Her previous album on Watermelon, Hearts Gone Wild, was all about love: five of its 12 songs had the word “heart” in the title. Midnight Radio looks [...]

The premiere perpetrator of the laid-back Oklahoma country-blues shuffle is back in fine form on his 12th outing. It’s the strongest body of work J.J. Cale has offered in years.
The title track opens with a lovely, speaker-bouncing, twangy fade-in, reminiscent of the Byrds’ “Wasn’t Born to Follow”. A nice steady [...]

Imagine Ted Nugent deciding he needed to form a country band, and he might create something that resembles the Reverend Horton Heat. This psychotic rockabilly trio from Dallas features the percussive guitar work and vocals of Jim “Reverend” Horton Heath, the fiery, double-bass playing and vocals of Jimbo Wallace, and the rollicking rhythms of Scott [...]

Perhaps my hopes are just too high for Martin Zellar, given that his former band the Gear Daddies seemed ultimately one of the best (if most underappreciated) bands the mid-late ’80s Minneapolis scene produced. Lost in the shadow of their harder-edged brethren such as the Replacements, Husker Du and Soul Asylum, the Gear Daddies quietly [...]

First thing you should know about this record is that we’re talking country music here. Leave your “insurgent” at home, check your “alternative” at the door, tug on them boots, and hit the hardwood, son.
The Bum Steers are fronted by singer/songwriter/guitarists Mark Fosson and Edward Tree, and are backed by the rhythm section of Taras [...]

Rico Bell is a Mekon and you want to collect them all, right? You may also want this record for the trademark space-age victrola raspiness of a David Trumfio production. Or to hear what may be the least known most respected rhythm section in Chicago, David Trumfio on bass and Harry Trumfio on drums and [...]

There was something wrong with the soundtrack on my recent cross-country drive. We were listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd instead of the Haynes Boys debut album. There’s a little more wisdom and lyricism in the Haynes Boys stanzas than what Skynyrd distilled out of their J&B-soaked rehearsals. Somehow the lyric “Neil Young should remember / A [...]