Georgia born and Manhattan savvy, Robert Burke Warren is a storyteller of depth and complexity. Accessing heartfelt memories and elusive images like a dusty old scrapbook, Warren showcases a variety of American folk forms with clear-eyed enthusiasm and dutiful craftsmanship. …To This Day is filled with songs written from mature experience and authentic perspective, blending [...]

Ian Tyson has been writing great songs for more than four decades. Raised on a Canadian farm, Tyson first hooked up with Sylvia Fricker in 1959; the couple (under the name Ian & Sylvia) made a number of successful folk albums before going their separate ways in 1975. Since that time, Tyson has become a [...]

Originally recorded in Ohio in the early ’90s, this previously unreleased session is an informal get-together featuring the formidable talents of Dave Schramm, Jeb Loy Nichols, Ricky Barnes and Hank McCoy. While the four men had all recorded individually on the (now-defunct) Okra label with bands such as the Schramms, the Fellow Travelers, the Hoot [...]

In the liner notes to this disc, High Times editor Steve Bloom claims that much of the country-influenced music included here is thanks to a movement known as “No Depression” and that “seven of the songs will have you two-stepping around the room”. Whatever you say, Steve. The point is that a good number of [...]

For a lesser artist, a long-standing moniker like “The Voice” would be something to be quietly de-emphasized or downright forgotten. For Vern Gosdin, however, the auspicious title is cause for recurring celebration. A veteran musician and country singer of the highest order, Gosdin has traveled a long and winding road since he and his late [...]

Was it really way back in 1982 when Chip and Tony Kinman (along with a fresh-scrubbed young Alejandro Escovedo) helped pave the alternative-rock inroads toward country music with the album Sundown? Yes, and while subsequent efforts by Rank And File fell short of their initial cowpunk promise, it’s still nice to see Chip and Tony [...]

Well, somebody finally got hip and covered the 1971 Funkadelic classic guitar freakoff. They even properly dedicated the blessed thing to the late, great Eddie Hazel, who died of “ghetto causes” several years ago. The concept is fulfilled with a high lonesome version of the Hendrix-inspired original that makes for a noirish, spaghetti-western style instrumental. [...]

What differentiates a standard-issue folkie from an alternative-acoustic-Americana-artiste? Hard to say exactly, but Birddog’s Bill Santen falls into the latter category with his seven-song debut. This young Kentucky-bred minstrel spent most of his time drifting along the West Coast until settling in Portland, Oregon, a while back. It was there that he became friendly with [...]