Few can ride a groove like Canada-born, U.S.-raised Ray Bonneville. Peppering his deceptively easy-going blues with dollops of country and folk, the weary-voiced singer-songwriter digs into a hypnotic, propulsive rhythm on his fifth album that grabs hold of your collar from the opener, “Tomorrow’s Yesterday”, and lingers long after the closing track, “I Been A [...]

Depending on when one became aware of Alice Gerrard, she might be thought of as a bluegrass singer and guitar player, a singer-songwriter who crafted songs that blended country sensibility with feminism, and more lately, an avid supporter and performer of old-time string band music. Not surprisingly, Calling Me Home revisits many of these diverse [...]

Richmond, Virginia, musician Heath Haynes, the alliteratively named leader of the pure-popping Crying Shames, has been heard to say that his goal is to write songs as catchy as Rick Springfield’s “Jesse’s Girl”. That’s not the kind of mission statement you typically encounter in these pages — or, for that matter, in any pages. Still, [...]

A couple of blind listens to “Dead Roses” and you’re convinced Kasey Anderson is a middle-aged man from the south, a former rocker who got tired of the road and the band but can’t quit the music, and so he turns introspective and begins to express himself by singing mournful ballads about ghosts and the [...]

Joni Mitchell’s multifaceted Blue created the template for albums such as this. Exploring one’s identity in song, within and without relationships, can quickly separate the poseur from the real thing. Though it may not carry the heft and stylistic focus of Mitchell’s masterwork, there’s no tentative awkwardness in Sara Cox’s Arrive either. Cox demonstrates an [...]

In the 1980s, John Brannen was a Springsteen-esque rocker; his song “Desolation Angel” was even an MTV Hip Clip. In the ’90s he re-emerged as a country singer and Nashville songwriter; a 1993 tour for his self-titled Polygram album was a package deal with two other newcomers — Shania Twain and Toby Keith. With a [...]

Unless you’ve just entered a Polynesian restaurant with health code violations, any experience that begins with the sounds of marimba and steel guitar — as this disc’s opener, “Steady As She Goes”, does — can’t be all bad. But don’t be lulled by those timbres into a false sense of security, or the temptation to [...]

In the end, Warren Zevon is probably better known for how he lived, and the stubborn grace with which he died, than for the songs he wrote. Perhaps had his demons spoken with less force, he’d have written more enduring songs, or none at all. He wrote plenty, anyway. To his final record label, then, [...]

What makes the music of “outsider” singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston so singular is that unlike most outsider art, which is deemed such because it blows apart or bypasses traditional forms and structures, Johnston’s songs are in fact often remarkably solid models of classic popular song. He stands above those who would be weird just for the [...]

North Carolina born, Depression-era raised songwriter and singer Ola Belle Reed (who passed away in 2001) was one of country music’s best-kept secrets. This tribute from one of New York City’s best-kept secrets offers a moving argument for her artistic depth. Best known for writing “High On A Mountain”, Reed was both prolific and consistent; [...]