Author: Bob Townsend
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #75 May-June 2008
Blue Mountain – Muscle memory
“It was so different back then, with the word-of-mouth thing. People weren’t looking it up on the internet, but were actually reading a magazine.” – Laurie Stirratt You can feel a joyful yearning wash over the Atlanta audience as guitarist Cary Hudson and his Blue Mountain bandmates — bassist Laurie Stirratt and drummer Frank Coutch [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #72 Nov-Dec 2007
Steve Earle – Love and death
More than a decade on, most features about Steve Earle still recall his darkest days, when drink and drugs ruined multiple marriages and nearly killed him, finally landing him in jail. Earle says he understands how that sort of knee-jerk sensationalism comes with “the job” of being a well-known musician, actor and activist. But he’d [...]
Bound - Book Review from Issue #70 July-August 2007
As Far As You Can Get Without A Passport
Anyone who has met Peter Case may be familiar with at least one of the tales he tells in the first installment of his heartbreakingly beautiful memoir, As Far As You Can Get Without A Passport. But, as John Doe points out in the intro, you don’t need any knowledge of who Case became to [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #62 Mar-Apr 2006
Shawn Mullins – 9th Ward Pickin’ Parlor
In 1998, Shawn Mullins emerged from the same Atlanta folk club scene that spawned the Indigo Girls (and current hitmakers Sugarland) with a platinum album, Soul’s Core, and a chart-topping pop single, “Lullaby”. Later, he joined with Pete Droge and Mathew Sweet in the Thorns, a group that released an album of sunny harmonies that [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #56 March-April 2005
Vic Chesnutt – The life you save may be your own
Fate has been good to me You may not understand how I can be thankful to be where I am To be where I am. – Vic Chesnutt, “Ignorant People” Vic Chesnutt wheels himself into the room, gliding over the wooden floorboards with a sudden whoosh. “Hey,” he says, stifling a stray yawn under his [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #53 Sept-Oct 2004
Drive-By Truckers – The Dirty South
The Drive-By Truckers established themselves as the fiercest contemporary incarnation of southern rock in 2001 with Southern Rock Opera, a sprawling, 20-song, two-CD opus that weighed in on what they referred to as “the duality of the southern thing.” Last year they followed up with Decoration Day, a step forward in musical sophistication that pointed [...]
Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #51 May-June 2004
Grant-Lee Phillips – Echo Lounge (Atlanta, GA)
Appearing self-effacingly bemused as ever, Grant Lee Phillips, the former leader of 1990s alt-pop cult band Grant Lee Buffalo, showcased his considerable talents as a songwriter and singer, keeping the guitar players in the crowd scratching their heads as he coaxed whispers and screams from his electrically-charged acoustic 12-string, all the while never seeming to [...]
Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #49 Jan-Feb 2004
Tell Us The Truth Tour – Variety Playhouse (Atlanta, GA)
At an afternoon press conference for the Tell Us The Truth Tour, Steve Earle told reporters that the concert at Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse would be a combination of “show business and activism.” Those words proved true from the start, as Lester Chambers, of the ’60s-’70s psychedelic funk band the Chambers Brothers, led Earle, Billy Bragg, [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #42 Nov-Dec 2002
Jason & The Scorchers – Still Standing
Produced by Tom Werman (who made records with rock bands from Mötley Crüe and Molly Hatchet to Cheap Trick and Blue Oyster Cult), 1986′s Still Standing was a move toward the mainstream for Jason & the Scorchers. But in retrospect, it seems more like the beginning of the end of the band that epitomized hard-rocking [...]
Town and Country - Shorter Artist Feature from Issue #39 May-June 2002
David Barbe – Learning the curve
Relaxing on a cozy couch in the control room of his studio, Chase Park Transduction, David Barbe is doing his best to recall the twists and turns of his musical career. But after 30 minutes, he’s talked almost as much about his love of baseball, his hatred of the corporate record industry, and his current [...]
Shop Amazon by clicking through this logo to support NoDepression.com. We get a percentage of every purchase you make!
