For all the kudos and award nominations that the Buddy & Julie Miller album of 2001 has notched to date, Mr. Miller remains, curiously, a restless artist. So much so that on his fourth solo record, he genre-skips with enough perverse glee as to suggest he’d rather torch his rep as an alt-country statesman than [...]

John Doe’s latest solo record has a palpable, live-in-a-room vibe. Doe, Joe Henry and Dave Way jointly produced it, coaxing down star-shine from the Los Angeles skies to set the sessions aglow. For that matter, the X vocalist has said he was aiming less for something alt-countryish and more toward an intimate, acoustic-based Elliott Smith [...]

While Chris Cacavas’ long solo career has played peek-a-boo in the States, he’s issued a slew of records overseas, every one worth tracking down. (In addition to this one, newly out is Kneel, a limited-edition mail-order-only item on Normal subsidiary Return To Sender.) Far less rock-oriented than much of Cacavas’ prior output, Bumbling Home From [...]

This San Diego threesome’s third long-player unfolds like a fever dream where everything seems wrapped in thick gauze and movement is aquatically hindered. Which is not to say it lacks sonic clarity or feels detached; rather, it envelops you, leaving you feeling drugged but thrilled, immediately in need of more. Reference points are numerous, if [...]

Third song in and you’re nailed: The clumsily (but wonderfully) named “Sometimes I Wish I’d Never Heard The Rolling Stones” swaggers and throbs like its titular archetype, all sirloin riffs, pounding 88s and serrated leads. Lyrically, the tune’s equally inspiring, as universally autobiographical as some of Ian Hunter’s paeans to the muse; Hall, reflecting on [...]

Everyone’s favorite satellite from Georgia, Dan Baird, has recently been serving up twang and thunder in the refreshingly blue-collar Yayhoos. Here, via a 2000 concert set recorded in Switzerland, he tugs that collar down and proudly shows off his farmer’s tan line. And then some; the Sofa Kings’ treatments of AC/DC (a Bon-tastic stomp through [...]

A talented North Carolina songwriter and a twang-pop vet from the ’80s (with Right Profile) and early ’90s (Carneys), Jeffrey Dean Foster made a splash in 1998 with the Pinetops and their disc Above Ground And Vertical. This acoustic live EP is a solo stopgap between studio records; as such, the lo-fi, clinking-beer-bottle ambiance conveys [...]

Tucson’s Rich Hopkins has finally matched the remarkable open-spaces expansiveness that characterized his major-label efforts with the Sidewinders/Sand Rubies. My Lucky Stars has more going for it than just an atmospheric-yet-gritty “desert rock” vibe, however (not the least of which is the elaborate hardback-book format of the limited-edition packaging). Key among the disc’s appeal is [...]