It’s a measure of Caroline Herring’s empathy for her subject, not to mention her skill with pen and guitar, that she can hand us the key to the heart of Susan Smith and let us decide for ourselves if Smith deserves condemnation, understanding, or perhaps both. Smith (how could we forget?) is the South Carolina [...]

At 60, Bill Staines relies a little more on his lower register than he once did, but he still makes some of the friendliest folk music around. This time out, the Massachusetts native dips into a musical grab-bag that includes well-traveled tunes such as his own “Sweet Wyoming Home”, Guy Clark’s “Lone Star Hotel Cafe” [...]

File this one under “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” With their hearts doubtless in the right place, fifteen acts from Gordon Lightfoot to Jennifer Warnes interpreted classic and lesser-known songs by Canadian folk/cowboy legend Ian Tyson. The results work about half the time. Hard to say what went wrong, but The [...]

Some may find Texan Terri Hendrix a little perky for their taste, but it’s hard not to feel well-disposed to someone who, in her liner notes regarding her cover of “Pastures Of Plenty”, writes “I wish it was mandatory that before you could hold public office you had to learn to play guitar and learn [...]

Don’t go looking for lyric sheets on albums by Ottawa’s Jim Bryson. Without being coy, he’d simply rather leave it up to you to piece together the stories — if indeed there are any narratives lurking about in there — from the compelling snapshots of emotion, characters and events that populate his vaguely alt-country/folk songs. [...]

When you can find a fresh, enticing way to cover the Lowell George/Little Feat warhorse “Willin’”, you’re doing something right. John Starling & Carolina Star — featuring Mike Auldridge and Tom Gray, Starling’s former bandmates in the Seldom Scene — burrow to the song’s plaintive heart without a lot of fuss and bother. In fact, [...]

Lynn Miles’ music could teach you a bunch of stuff about life and love that you need to know — or at least it’ll articulate, in potent language and eloquent melody, what you’ve already figured out but haven’t quite formulated yourself. Stuff like how fragile hearts are; how long nights can be; how, over time, [...]

Best known for writing “Daydream Believer” and other hits, and for his own 1979 top-5 hit “Gold”, John Stewart has been making solo records for decades since his Kingston Trio days. “Baby, It’s You”, the pop-flavored opening track on The Day The River Sang, proves 18-year-old hearts can still pound inside sexagenarian chests. The jazzy [...]

Woodyboye is Joel Rafael’s second toast to Guthrie, following 2003′s Woodeye; it includes several complete Guthrie compositions, four songs of Guthrie lyrics that Rafael has set to music, and one original Rafael tune. There’s also “Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key”, with lyrics by Guthrie and music by Billy Bragg. All the familiar but [...]