Singer-songwriter Chris Cline blames “Country” Mick Jagger, the singer of “Faraway Eyes” and “Dead Flowers”, for introducing him to country music. Thank goodness it wasn’t Kenny Rogers, or Evangeline would be playing killer riffs on “The Gambler” instead of composing the richly textured roots-rock on “Felt Like Home”, the Seattle quintet’s debut disc.
The marvelous album, [...]

There is more than a hint of what lies within Little Pink’s debut in its counterpointed title. On Cul-De-Sac Cowgirl, singer-songwriter Mary Grace Battiata and her wild east posse of Washington, D.C., alt-country regulars have fashioned a suburban roots-rock pageant that shines with the scuffed sophistication of Carly Simon fronting the Blood ­Oranges.
Little Pink is [...]

What does Ol’ Yeller frontman Rich Mattson know about hard-hitting country rock? Well, a lot. For over a decade, Mattson fronted the Glenrustles one of the toughest roots-rock bands in the Twin Cities. With Ol’ Yeller, though Mattson tends to keep some of that gritty, classic rock sound, everything feels like a much mellower, more [...]

The texture and variety of One Fell Swoop’s playing — especially Andy Ploof on mandolin, fiddle, and dobro, and Cheryl Stryker on piano and accordion — is reminiscent of The Band, their obvious spiritual godparents. An instinctive singer in the Van Morrison tradition, Stryker belts and purrs in equal measure, her cashmere-coated voice moving between [...]

Minnesota native Stuart Davis has thus far shrugged off major-label overtures, selling nearly 30,000 copies of his eight discs almost entirely from the stage and online. The last two, Bright Apocalypse and this eponymous effort, have been released on Post Apocalyptic Records, a revolutionary venture entirely funded by his dedicated fan base.
His indescribably charismatic delivery [...]

For six weeks at all times of day, in every weather and circumstance, Viewfinder has made me feel good, and still does. I like it best driving along I-10 through the desert among distant rings of navy, red and smoke-colored mountains, with fluffy clouds covering a good third of the sky. I imagine a Pullman [...]

On their debut disc, Aussie inner-city-country types the Spoils map a failed relationship in a gracefully structured album that’s worthy for its sense of restraint and understatement. Although the songs deal in the trappings of heartache — morning drinking sessions, half-smoked cigarettes, ripping the ex-girlfriend’s photos off the wall — there is a sense of [...]

When a couple attends a Hollywood tearjerker on their first date, they run the risk of enduring an awkward silence following the film. Nobody wants to blubber and sniffle in front of a near-stranger. If tears are shed in the dark theater, somebody better make a lighthearted joke on the way out, to transform the [...]

Katy Moffatt was supposed to be a big country star. Back in the early days of country rock, she recorded two albums for Columbia (her 1976 debut was produced by the legendary Billy Sherrill). Despite good reviews, Moffatt was considered too eclectic for the mainstream, and Columbia dropped her. Since then, she’s carved out a [...]

Some may know Karen Poston from her role as one of Ted Roddy’s Tearjoint Troubadors, or from “Lydia”, a song she wrote that was recorded by Slaid Cleaves on his last CD, Broke Down. Her debut, Real Bad, features ten originals and two choice covers; it covers a lot of musical territory with a great [...]