Banjo player and bandleader Sammy Shelor has had to cope with yet another lineup change in the Lonesome River Band, and as the group nears its 25th anniversary, there’s both good news and a little not so good to report. Start with the good: The addition of singer Barry Berrier, who brings not only a [...]

One cannot help wanting to like Joe Grushecky. There’s the agreeable simplicity of his major-chord rock, his day job teaching special-ed classes, his personal and sonic ties to Bruce Springsteen, and, of course, his name, a phonetic 16-lb. bowling ball that couldn’t denote his working-class interests more if it were Punchclock McWastewaterplant. Such goodwill benefits [...]

It was an epiphanic moment. A dozen years ago, while I was browsing with intent to buy at Poindexter Records in Durham, North Carolina, a song about a Chevy Nova accelerated from the store speakers. Storming the counter, I asked what was playing and bought the CD, the Figgs’ Low-Fi At Society High, on the [...]

Every band wants to stimulate your brain in some way, but the Honeydogs are a little more overt about it on Amygdala, a title that refers to an almond-shaped bundle of neurons in the brain believed to govern emotions such as fear and pleasure. The Minneapolis group emphasizes the latter on its sixth album, as [...]

Elvis Perkins’ debut album comes with enough back-story to overwhelm a lesser talent. He bears a striking resemblance to his late father, actor Anthony Perkins, who died of AIDS on September 12, 1992; and his mother, photographer Berry Berenson, was on the plane that hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower on September 11, 2001. [...]

Since his breakthrough production of Cassandra Wilson, producer Craig Street has established a reputation as a master of mix-and-match with artists, material and supporting musicians. Here he teams with the Holmes Brothers for the most audacious accomplishment of either of their careers, one that applies their gospel harmonies to an eclectic selection of songs that [...]

Acoustic guitar god Tony Rice and bluegrass vocal stylist Peter Rowan teamed with mandolinist Sharon Gilchrist and bassist Bryn Davies — Rowan’s longtime touring partner — to create an album that sounds at once ancient and timeless. Contemporary material from Patti Smith (“Trespasses”) and Townes Van Zandt (“To Live Is To Fly”) blends seamlessly with [...]

Dale Ann Bradley was raised on unaccompanied church hymns in rural southeastern Kentucky near Renfro Valley, home of the Coon Creek Girls — the first all-female string band on the radio in the 1930s. Bradley’s uncle, who’d migrated to Detroit, brought country music tapes back to the Appalachians. One song from those tapes — the [...]

On their fourth studio album (their second secular release), NewFound Road is developing an identifiable sound, with crisp picking, compelling harmonies, and solid songwriting. Though they’re still largely unknown, this may be the record that carries them to the fore. Rob Ickes’ production underscores the band’s instrumental prowess. Aside from Jim Van Cleve’s spirited fiddling [...]

Getting dropped by the Nashville majors may be the best thing that ever happened to Mark Chesnutt’s music. After a promising start as an early-’90s neo-traditionalist on MCA, Chesnutt steered toward the middle of the road, and a one-off for Columbia in 2002 followed suit. But 2004′s independently released Savin’ The Honky Tonk revived Chesnutt’s [...]