A classic “songwriter’s songwriter” (he’s been covered by Joe Ely, Steve Young, Dave Alvin, Nanci Griffith, Peter Case, Suzy Bogguss, Doug Sahm, Katy Moffat, Tom Paxton, Ian & Sylvia Tyson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Bob Neuwirth), Tom Russell has assembled an uncompromising body of work exploring the American mythos. Employing a sturdy, no-nonsense vocal delivery [...]

After spending most of the 1990s on Hightone Records, Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys have jumped to a new label, Yep Roc. The change seemingly hasn’t affected them one bit, though; It’s Time is another solid collection of western swing and old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll from a group that is foremost among all [...]

After 33 years of driving Asleep At The Wheel and nearly single-handedly keeping western swing alive, Ray Benson has built up a considerable amount of good will. This disc — remarkably, his first solo collection — cashes in on a lot of it all at once. Apparently a little constrained by the Wheel repertoire, Benson [...]

In the early ’90s, Hear Music’s mail-order catalog introduced me to Alejandro Escovedo and Michael Hall when I read about, and instantly purchased (the writers were nothing if not persuasive), Escovedo’s Gravity and Hall’s Love Is Murder. In that same period, Hear introduced me to another guy who’s now also seven albums into a solo [...]

Top ‘Dog Matthew Grimm is a small-town Iowa expatriate who embraced and, in short order, rejected Wall Street, choosing instead to channel his energies into a decidedly leftist, NYC-based combo of no fixed genre. As with the Hangdogs’ previous recordings (Same Old Story, East Of Yesterday, Beware Of Dog and the live Something Left To [...]

Think of your favorite sad-sack album, the one that should come packaged with a prescription for Paxil and stickered with a warning against operating heavy machinery while under its influence. Now behold that album’s polar opposite, the aural equivalent of a party in a can, The Electric Version. The New Pornographers exploded out of nowhere [...]

Initially, Soft Spot seems very much in sync with Clem Snide’s quizzically gorgeous, chamberesque efforts, Your Favorite Music and The Ghost Of Fashion, but the differences are no less striking for being subtle. Cello, prevalent on those records, appears on only two tracks here; instead, Jason Glasser’s lollipop licks on synths and organs pour down [...]

Given our current administration’s slash-and-burn foreign policy, it’s tough to believe there are still folks in other lands who would gladly sell their grandmother for a shot at U.S. citizenship. But judging from their Stateside debut, London quartet Grand Drive fits that category. Considering the high quality of their wares, the Department of Immigration would [...]

It’s hard to believe Joe Pernice once stood around in muddy farm fields threatening to burn down silos and shoot the livestock. On Yours, Mine & Ours, the former Scud Mountain Boy sounds, more than ever, like someone who’s never set foot in rural America. He does, however, seem to have a newfound love for [...]

Consistency is a strange quality — so esteemed in some careers (say, designated hitters or stock portfolio managers) and so undervalued in music. Artists who achieve creative summits or tumble into the bad record abyss are inclined to snatch our attention, for better or worse. Meanwhile, acts that reliably, quietly deliver quality work without the [...]