When twentysomething Californians find country music, it’s generally through identifiable local heroes such as the Byrds and Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers. That must have seemed like the long way to get to the country for the Weary Boys, who preferred to draw a straight line to Hank Williams and Bill Monroe and [...]

Bill Mallonee has worn a number of musical hats in the Vigilantes Of Love over the past decade, from electric folkie to Christian guitar slinger to jangly roots-rocker. Mallonee’s success throughout his now extensive catalog has been his instinctual ability to incorporate the various sonic phases he’s gone through without discarding any of them along [...]

There is more than a hint of what lies within Little Pink’s debut in its counterpointed title. On Cul-De-Sac Cowgirl, singer-songwriter Mary Grace Battiata and her wild east posse of Washington, D.C., alt-country regulars have fashioned a suburban roots-rock pageant that shines with the scuffed sophistication of Carly Simon fronting the Blood ­Oranges. Little Pink [...]

There was a time when Lloyd Cole, along with his Commotions, inspired anticipation with each new release, and rightly so. Cole’s cool smooth vocals, supple guitar and smoldering pop songs made him the pouting post-new-wave poster boy for brainy rock ’n’ roll. Cole broke up the Commotions after just three albums, an indication of the [...]

Clem Snide formed in New Jersey in the early ’90s, a full-bore punk band that gradually eased toward an edgy roots/country sound. By its 1998 debut, You Were a Diamond, the band’s transformation from Replacements-tinged howl to Wilco-esque whisper was complete. With their third album, The Ghost Of Fashion, guitarist/songwriter Eef Barzelay and company mature [...]

It’s nearly impossible to reconcile Paul Brady’s long career outside of his native Ireland, where he’s been a household name since the mid-’60s as a member of legendary traditional Irish groups the Johnstons and Planxty. Brady went solo and turned toward the poppier end of the spectrum with 1981′s Hard Station, a momentous change in [...]

Although singer-songwriter Doug Hoekstra is based in Nashville, he is as removed from that music scene as a Green Day tribute. While Hoekstra is comfortable in the folk/blues/pop niche he’s been hammered into, he exhibits a depth and range that goes beyond those genre tags. On his fourth album, the subtle and startling Around The [...]

It’s now been five years and a pair of remarkable albums since Paul Austin and Robert Fisher road-tested their home studio and spawned Willard Grant Conspiracy. Following the duo’s particularly non-formulaic equation from its first two releases, the cast of characters that help create the sonic environment on Mojave, the third WGC album, comprise a [...]

The triumphs and travails of Sara Hickman in the music industry are the stuff of minor legend. The budding folk-pop diva established herself with her 1989 debut Equal Scary People and was musically aligned with rising artists such as Tracy Chapman and Michelle Shocked, but her focus on the politics of the heart placed her [...]

After her teenage years singing in Chicago nightclubs, Lucy Kaplansky moved to New York City and fell in with a scene that included a veritable who’s who of folky singer-songwriters, including Suzanne Vega, John Gorka and Bill Morrissey. Just as Kaplansky shifted into primed-for-success mode, she traded the stage for college, eventually earning a doctorate [...]