Robin & Linda Williams have been together for more than 35 years and have been featured on A Prairie Home Companion for almost as long. This disc featuring nineteen of their country-flavored folk performances on the show demonstrates that besides helping them to garner a following, Prairie Home has fostered their artistic growth. As they [...]

As their three studio discs have demonstrated, the combination of Chip Taylor’s earthy vocals and from-the-heart compositions plus Carrie Rodriguez’s folksy Texas twang and fiery violin can produce magic. Because they project strong, appealing personalities and interact so well, you’d expect a concert album to be a particular treat. You’ll indeed find treats on this [...]

Benson Ramsey, half of the Pines, is the son of Bo Ramsey, longtime producer and sideman to Greg Brown, Red House’s most important act. This atmospheric second album and label debut, however, leaves no doubt that the duo didn’t need Dad’s help to get signed. Benson and partner David Huckfelt are talented singers and acoustic [...]

Packed with blistering anthems and effusive ballads, Elliott Murphy’s 29th album ranks among his best, but you may have to play it several times to realize that. Nothing here seems likely to grab listeners as quickly as, say, 2002’s hook-laden “Come On Louann”, and none of the rockers pack the immediate wallop of early gems [...]

Self-titled albums tend to be debuts, but this is in fact the twelfth release from Chris Cunningham and John Hermanson, the acoustic folk duo known as Storyhill. In their case, the eponymous title signals a fresh start, a return to basics and, probably, a hope that this will be the release which introduces them to [...]

“Miss Fortune”, a song from John Wesley Harding’s 1998 album Awake, inspired him to flesh out its character’s story in the novel Misfortune, which he published earlier this year (under his real name, Wesley Stace). That led to this collaboration with three friends — Kelly Hogan, Nora O’Connor and baritone Brian Lohmann — for an [...]

Soundtracks often suffer from their heavy reliance on a visual context; remove that and you’re left with anything from awkward segues to a schizophrenic mess. But music is at the heart of PBS’ The Appalachians documentary, which may help explain why the accompanying disc hangs together so well. Its cohesion is impressive, considering that the [...]

Conceived by the Austin instrumental outfit Screen Door Music on the day the Iraq war started, 13 Ways To Live features the guitar/keyboards/cello trio backing the likes of Patty Griffin, Alejandro Escovedo, Richard Buckner, Jack Ingram, Abra Moore, Will Sexton and Terry Allen. The aim was to raise funds to help war victims, and to [...]

The Subdudes have been pretty subdued for years — their last album came out in 1997 — but they come back strong on this live-in-the-studio recording. While the band now includes two newcomers plus three of the four original members, they pick up right where they left off stylistically. Soulful harmony vocals remain front and [...]