The first Honky Tonk-A-Rama, held in February 1996, was a storm-ravaged affair, with the bad weather outside leading to some interesting lineups — John Howie and Ryan Adams sat in on drums and bass, respectively, for Jolene’s snowbound rhythm section — and a real sense of community inside. Community was also an appropriate keyword for [...]

“Can I get a page number?!” bellowed David Rawlings with all the sweaty fervor of a Pentecostal preacher at a tent revival.
“128!” barked a man from the bar.
Rawlings obediently opened the Bob Dylan songbook, thumbed to that page, placed the hefty tome on the music stand and lay a small chain in the seam. “It’s [...]

Depending on your outlook, the small theatre behind John Cleere’s pub is half full or half empty for tonight’s show. However, in a venue this snug, there are no wide open spaces in the crowd to dampen the atmosphere. In fact, it’s the perfect size for a guy with an acoustic guitar and a few [...]

Mountains contained a wide, gray sky; gunshots echoed faintly from the shooting range down the road; the wind sang atonally, unwelcomely, through the microphones. But the several hundred people who camped out, and the handful more who were able to find hotel rooms a few miles away, enjoyed a rare weekend of bluegrass community at [...]

Back from an exhausting few days of industry schmoozing in Austin at the South by Southwest Festival, Marah returned to the city of the Mummers for their “official” Kids in Philly CD release party.
Marah seemed as if they were going to blare into Springsteen’s “E Street Shuffle”. Over the years, Marah’s main attraction has been [...]

It seems like a long time ago, but I can remember it vividly: the righteous sense of outrage I felt after learning that Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould had written most of his band’s material on little more than an acoustic guitar. (The horror! Nothing is more of an affront to a teen’s rebel-punk sensibilities than [...]

Music has the power to distract us from crises. The afternoon of this show, as I worried about quarterly tax payments and set about responding to the never-ending tide of e-mail, I inserted Alison Krauss & Union Station’s outstanding 1997 Rounder release So Long So Wrong into my computer. Soon, things were starting to get [...]

The first annual Sacred Steel Convention at Rollins College was a two-day affair filled with a powerful sense of family and tradition. Since this event took place outside the confines of the church environment, the steel players were free to focus on the history and the future of their craft. Not only were modern Arhoolie [...]