Michael Feldman, host of Public Radio International’s popular quiz-and-interview show “Whaddya Know?”, isn’t someone you’d think of as a musical artist. Apparently he feels that way, too. While the other left-of-the-dial funnyman, Garrison Keillor, croons away week in and week out, Feldman contents himself by parodying the national news, quizzing audience members on minutiae of [...]

Great title for the third full-length offering by this brilliant, pickled peckerwood denizen of the Minnesota northwoods; he ain’t quite a Canadian frostback, but he’s so far afield of the usual Twin Cities semi-sophisticates that he may as well be ensconced in the foothills of the Ozarks (or Nepal, or Appalachia, or the Canadian Rockies).
Long, [...]

The South Austin Jug Band won the new band contest at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in the summer of 2002. But, as they like to point out, they don’t really play bluegrass. And they’re not a jug band, either.
They are, however, currently one of the hottest bands in Austin (north or south). This self titled, [...]

Except for a few notable exceptions — the Hackberry Ramblers, Chuck Guillory and Harry Choates being a few obvious examples — artists working the Cajun circuit have seldom been models of eclecticism. The Red Stick Ramblers, whose members include Joel Savoy, the son of Marc and Anne Savoy, can be added to this select group.
The [...]

Church Point, Louisiana, native Rosie Ledet has become one of the hottest zydeco artists in her home state, and beyond, in recent years. Now’s The Time is her seventh album for Maison De Soul since 1994; Ledet wrote eleven of its twelve tunes, which is about par for the course for her.
As with most zydeco [...]

Little Joe Washington isn’t a studio musician. Just like his life, his blues guitar playing is a reaction to the moment. For Houston Guitar Blues, Washington recorded over three dozen songs in one marathon session, playing until bleeding fingers made further recording impossible.
Revisiting his classic 1960s Donna Records sides “Hard Way 6″ and “Last Tear” [...]

Austin transplant Elizabeth McQueen has garnered a lot of friends and fans in the three years since she relocated there from suburban Washington, D.C., and it’s easy to see what they like. Unassuming, self-assured and a splendid interpreter, McQueen has a little of Kirsty MacColl’s vocal appeal, particularly in the galloping “I Know I Cross [...]

Evangeline’s sophomore outing is drenched in Americana romanticism, covering plenty of classic country-folk territory. Big Choice opens with “Little World”, a song of wanderlust that nods to early-’70s Jackson Browne. The fleeing-hometown theme is a well-traveled one, but vocalist Jennifer Potter’s soprano is crystal enough to steer it away from cliché.
When guitarist/songwriter Chris Cline takes [...]

The Greencards are an Austin trio composed of two Australians, mandolinist Kym Warner and bassist Carol Young, and an Englishman, fiddler Eamon McLoughlin. Warner and Young made names for themselves Down Under for their instrumental prowess and vocal abilities; McLoughlin has worked with Ray Wylie Hubbard, the Austin Lounge Lizards, Bruce Robison and others.
Together they [...]