I’m a weird guy who fixates on things I can’t do a damn thing about. Lately, I’ve been wondering why it is that no record label can figure out a way to get Jerry Lee Lewis to put out a new record. I mean, it tortures me that the Killer is still out there poundin’ [...]

A friend once told me that she liked Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers because Petty had never written a rock opera. She was expressing her approval of a band’s artistic decision to stick to what they do best. On their latest album, Chicago’s Riptones don’t stray far from the musical recipe they’ve followed in the [...]

All the best salesmen have no-bullshit eyes. Forget what you see in movies and on TV, the slippery salesfolk who dazzle with flash and a line. The best deal-closers still rely on a firm handshake and a look square in the eye.
The music of Raleigh, North Carolina, band Big Joe, as rolled out on their [...]

After her teenage years singing in Chicago nightclubs, Lucy Kaplansky moved to New York City and fell in with a scene that included a veritable who’s who of folky singer-songwriters, including Suzanne Vega, John Gorka and Bill Morrissey. Just as Kaplansky shifted into primed-for-success mode, she traded the stage for college, eventually earning a doctorate [...]

It’s easy to get tangled up in this album’s tale of two families without ever getting to the music. A primer: Tangletown leader, Seth Zimmerman, is the nephew of Bob Dylan and cousin to Jakob. The album is the first released on ex-Prince & the Revolution drummer Bobby Z’s Zinc Records; the production credits include [...]

Formerly the guitarist for Seattle trio Sage, Marc Olsen recently earned notoriety for his work with Mark Lanegan on the Screaming Trees singer’s 1998 solo tour. Olsen’s second solo album reveals him as something of a kindred spirit to Lanegan, with songs of intimacy and drama that feel like confessionals. But whereas Lanegan’s voice is [...]

The Possibilities, fellow travelers in the quirky little Athens, Georgia, music scene intertwined with Jack Logan, deliver some good, dumb fun on this rawkin’ record. In fact, there may not be another record this year that delivers more exhilaration from such seemingly offhand, casual parts. In other words, folks, ain’t no brain surgery going on [...]

Red Star Belgrade’s Bill Curry may not live in the South anymore, but he carries a grudge as only a Southerner can. Before fleeing North Carolina for Chicago a few years back, he penned a rancorous farewell called “Hit 4 The Man (Chapel Hill)”, which shows up as the penultimate track on The Fractured Hymnal: [...]