Pete Seeger flunked out of college because of his banjo obsession, and along with Earl Scruggs, he became one of the instrument’s most influential pickers. Unlike Scruggs, however, he wasn’t devoted to virtuosity; music always had, for Seeger, a political utility. But he was a craftsman, and his legacy in the folk revival is second [...]

Only once, among my honestly countless number of jobs, did I quit loudly and vitriolically. I had been indirectly ordered (i.e., walk in one morning and find a shiny red binder and a cowardly note) to begin a daily count and weekly total of my work output (what I was doing was irrelevant; come to [...]

The follow-up to 1994’s Blue Divide, Richard Shindell’s Reunion Hill is understandably overdue, as he took time off after the birth of his daughter to take stock and play a little Mr. Mom. Larry Campbell, multi-instrumentalist on Blue Divide, has been promoted to full-fledged producer while still playing various instruments, and selected harmonies are once [...]

“Everybody’s Doing It”, the leadoff track on Neilson Hubbard’s debut solo release, is a pop plum. The tongue-in-cheek lyrics combined with a juicy musical hook whet your appetite for the remaining 10 tracks. Unfortunately, not all of the material is as tasty. The lyrics of many of the songs are a bit simplistic and the [...]

Before there was country as we know it, there was old-time, the sound that had developed in the hollers and farms, a hybrid of English, Irish and Scottish folk styles, heavily peppered with the music of other countries. It was, really, the first real American music, and it developed a long way — think of [...]

Hailing from the tiny Michigan town of Chelsea, the Holy Cows are living proof that you don’t have to grow up in the big city to have metropolitan proportioned aspirations or difficulties. The Cows sport a big rockin’ groove that never overwhelms the little tales of despair they’re telling at any given moment.
Blueberrie is a [...]

On the one hand, Louisiana’s Neutral Milk Hotel seemingly can’t decide what kind of band they wants to be. Their new CD alternates between confessional singer-songwriter paeans, aching folk-rock textures, improvisational buoyance, and bewildering psychedelic epics marked by kitchen-sink instrumentation.
On the other hand, it’s the group’s recombinant rock scope that makes it so engaging and [...]

With this debut comprising vaguely twangy instrumentals (Shadowy Men On A Shit-kicking Planet?) and catchy, rootsy rock songs, central Michigan trio the Deans position themselves as another band with two, maybe three, toes inside the “alt-country” border (wherever that is).
Four of the ten songs on this brief but spirited outing (it’s all over in 27 [...]

Danielle Howle is that most unique and elusive of musical performers, one who refuses to be bound by convention or genre, choosing instead to exorcise her musical demons in whatever form they elect to emerge. She has released solo acoustic albums, has a spoken word album in the works for another indie label, was the [...]