Obviously, musical styles develop and change over time. But just as obviously, to establish a style is to establish a permanent possibility of expression. If you really want to play like Bob Marley, or the Rolling Stones, or Elmore James, or the Ramones, or for that matter Beethoven, you can.
That is of course not to [...]

No, not really at the Astrodome, but captured quite live, at New York’s Rodeo Bar, this two-year-old rock and twang band has been pulling in crowds in the big city with raucous shows in the ragged-but-wrong Beat Farmers style. Their sound, anchored by Earl Pickens’ smooth and strong vocals, can range between Blasters-style frantic rockabilly, [...]

Imagine stepping off a subway and hearing an amazing version of Paul Simon’s “Stranded In A Limousine” being played by Peter Mulvey and Chris Smither, for free, right there on the subway platform. You’d be late for work.
For Boston commuters, this wakeup performance is a daily occurrence, as Mulvey has fashioned a career in the [...]

After more than three decades as a recording artist, Tom Pacheco has finally released an album that’s available both in North America and in Europe. In the late 1980s, Pacheco moved to Europe, where he released eleven recordings (including two double albums). Although Pacheco’s body of work is impressive, There Was A Time, his first [...]

Max Stalling resides at the quieter, thoughtful, less cliché-ridden end of the much-ballyhooed “Texas Music” spectrum. On One Of The Ways, Stalling’s pairing with producer Bruce Robison proves an excellent one. No stranger to literate, highly personal songs, Robison is genuinely sympathetic to Stalling’s introspective musings and plaintive, arid voice.
Stalling is more in tune with [...]

Bethany Dick is only 21, but she’s already a veteran, performing respectably at fiddle competitions in and around her home state of Montana and releasing a more-than-decent debut CD that showcased her singing two years ago. The difference between 19 and 21 is considerable in most young people’s lives, and Dick is no exception; while [...]

Otis Gibbs is apparently an institution of sorts in the rock clubs of central Indiana, having spent equal time making music with his band the Lost Highway onstage and making sure you were 21 at the front door. As of late, he’s become an institution around my CD player thanks to this appealing solo debut, [...]

Hayden’s voice is as light as an angel’s kiss, and his songs creep up on you slowly, cozily unfolding like the half-remembered pieces of a waking dream. His blissed-out, lo-fi acoustica has won him fans from Steve Buscemi, who hired him to help score his directorial debut Trees Lounge, to Neil Young, who once signed [...]

If Colorado “Zen cowboy” Chuck Pyle’s music is an example, yoga, tai chi and meditation should be daily requirements for singer-songwriters. This is a mature but playful work by someone who crafts his songs over time. Employing what he calls his “Rocky Mountain Slam Pickin’” style of finger-picking, Pyle puts forth a crisply produced album [...]

Could there be a less likely time for an album of baseball songs? What with strike threats, an aborted all-star game, and endless talk of steroid cocktails, the national pastime circa 2002 hardly inspires faith or devotion. Unless you’re amiable troubadour Chuck Brodsky, whose new album (a compilation of new and old material) displays a [...]