So far it’s pretty much under the national radar, but of late Austin’s bluegrass scene has been exploding. Most of the bands involved are not playing your father’s brand of bluegrass, however. They prefer instead to take their cues from the likes of alt.bluegrass pioneers such as the Bad Livers and Split Lip Ray-field, using [...]

In spite of producer Jon Dee Graham’s tantalizing “it was a joy to work on a record that was about something” blurb, connecting with Steve Wedemeyer’s debut album took some doing. Early on, there were moments when I wanted to strangle the young Houston folk-rocker for his Bob-Dylan-irritating, frequently-intelligent-but-sometimes-unintelligible vocals. Read between the lines: acquired [...]

Chris Richards carries a torch for two significant elements of country music: honky-tonk and the ’70s troubadours. His dark-hued story-songs, such as “Hang On To The Moon”, the “Hickory Wind”-flavored “Belly Of Odilla”, and the Cold Mountain-inspired “One Foot”, evoke memories of such singer-songwriters as Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and, most particularly, Gordon Light-foot. [...]

Students of ancient American history will be thrilled to hear that Is This Progress? contains an artifact from a long-gone time. “PO Box”, the twelfth track on this self-confident debut, is an unreleased Replacements song that’s only ever surfaced on bootlegs. A B-side throwaway at best, the midtempo rocker won’t make anyone sorry there’s never [...]

Now, you might think that a record’s worth of slightly lesson-teaching songs about nature and the environment, with state arts council backing (even when the state’s Kentucky), and with some proceeds going to the Sierra Club and such, would be so officially Good For You that no living, breathing child in their right head could [...]

Bluegrass has long been dominated by older musicians, a trend that kept away younger audiences. This has been changing, thanks in part to a new crop of young performers that have helped make the music “cool” to audiences of all ages. One such artist is Josh Williams.
Williams first began playing the banjo at age 9 [...]

“You’ve got to ride on/Let the people say what they want,” Charlie Mars sings on “Gather The Horses”, the opening track on his self-titled major-label debut. Over nearly a decade’s time and through three independent releases, Mars has taken his own advice, persevering through poor sales and personal travails. But to what end? Truth be [...]

She’s the last artist you would think to do a cover of an L.L. Cool J rap song, but Texas singer-songwriter Terri Hendrix makes it pretty and catchy, hiding the beat behind the guitar and turning it into a romantic ballad with a couple of verses recited really fast. She sounds as if she’s having [...]

Difficult to label — tequila roots-rock? southwestern E Street? — Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers’ music marries Clyne’s instantly recognizable vocals to music that shifts moods, rhythms and textures among pop, rock, reggae, Tex-Mex, and more.
The impassioned narratives within that music involve criminals lethally ensnared by events spiraling out of control (”Switchblade” and the title [...]

Gina Villalobos’ music at first seems so simple and straightforward that it almost doesn’t fit anywhere in today’s rigidly-compartmentalized music world. She offers a singer-songwriter sensibility but a five-piece band sound. The music is too hard for folk-rock and too soft for hard rock. There’s an undercurrent of Americana in what she does, but only [...]