From deep within the underbelly of Seattle’s lesser-known musical subcultures comes an unexpected homage to Johnny Cash. The brainchild of label head/Kill Switch…Klick leader dA Sebastian, Americana reinterprets Cash’s music in a variety of settings.
Sometimes it’s a good notion. Dead Leaves Rising’s opening goth reworking of “Ballad Of A Teenage Queen” begs the question why [...]

In all the hoopla surrounding the dedication of the new home of Chicago’s legendary Old Town School of Folk Music, no tribute will be more personal, nor more illuminating, than this fourth release by one of the school’s veteran guitar and banjo teachers. The Streets Of Old Chicago archives the music and personalities of the [...]

Matt Sever really is a regular blue-collar type of guy. An electrician by day and a singer-songwriter at night, he’d been knocking around the Austin scene for a couple years when he struck up a friendship with up-and-coming young singer-songwriter Ana Egge. Like almost everyone else who has heard him, Egge was impressed with Matt’s [...]

Fronted by singer-songwriter-guitarist Frank Padellaro (who used to play bass in the Scud Mountain Boys’ road band), Boston’s King Radio debuts with a mercurial set of pop-rock that rolls easily from tune to tune and style to style. Whatever they’re up to, though, this five-man outfit always seems to couple rousing images with an unfettered [...]

Let’s hear it for the over-70 generation! On this rare solo recording, dobro master Josh Graves, along with fellow septuagenarians Kenny Baker (longtime fiddler with Bill Monroe) and Curly Seckler (former mandolinist and vocalist with Graves in the Foggy Mountain Boys), show that the old folks still know how to boogie.
Graves is the man who [...]

With a pure snowfall of distortion, bending, swirling chords, and a cool, clear voice that rises into the stratosphere like a singular, heavenly choir, Edith Frost’s second album, Telescopic, walks the line between tradition and innovation. Teethed on old country standards, this 34-year-old Texas native, who now lives in Chicago, marries her soft vocals with [...]

Just a simple question: Why sign artists if you’re going to insist they play away from their strengths?

Stepping out as a bandleader for the first time, Tom Rozum has produced one of the better surprises of the year with Jubilee. Although best-known for his mandolin and guitar work with Laurie Lewis & Grant Street, here his talent shines with an all-star supporting cast and a tasteful collection of songs and styles.
Leading off [...]

Anders Parker’s work, under the solo/group appellation Varnaline, has always been a study in contrasts, regardless of his decision to work alone as an acoustic act, or in tandem with his bassist brother John Parker and drummer Jud Ehrbar. Varnaline’s 1996 debut, Man Of Sin, was Parker, a four-track, an acoustic guitar, and a notebook [...]