“The reason these songs are so cool, and have lasted so long, is that the people who originally sang them were telling what was true for them,” explains Rachel Gold of the Flat Mountain Girls’ fascination with the old-time sounds of the 1930s and ’40s. “They’re like a gift from the past; a musical time [...]

Stacie Collins’ life would make a good country song. She’s been a stunt double, model, actress, ballroom dance instructor, courier, flower arranger, and caterer. She’s an actual Okie from Muskogee whose father was a musician. Her parents split when she was little; Stacie and her mother lived over the bar where Mom worked as a [...]

Though the Steep Canyon Rangers earned the coveted IBMA Emerging Artist of the Year award in September 2006, the fact is that they’d been emerging — albeit very slowly — for nearly a decade. Banjo player Graham Sharp met Woody Platt (guitar and lead vocals) and Charles Humphrey III (bass) at the University of North [...]

Glance around the website of the group United Steel Workers of Montreal and you’ll find a “dead members” page devoted to mock missing-kid milk cartons, each container adorned with the name of a departed band member. Fourteen names are listed there, and band spokesman Gern f. (with a small-F, that’s how he prefers to be [...]

Cary Brothers doesn’t mind his reputation as a savvy businessman. “You have to take advantage of all the opportunities around you and make the most of it. No one has any excuse not to get their music out there,” he says. Blessed with natural musical talent and a knack for finding the right people, he [...]

Portland may have been Casey Neill’s home for the past two years, but the heart of his new, career-defining record, Brooklyn Bridge, belongs to New York City. “Some of it is my history as a kid there,” Neill says. “And some of it is my recent history there. The first gigs I did in New [...]

The whole notion of rambling is a lost American art. Writing songs and singing about it in a believable, meaningful way — well, that, too has pretty much gone the way of the brakeman. But 28-year-old singer-songwriter Eilen (pronounced EE-lynn) Jewell is showing she can wander with the best of them, and write riveting song-stories [...]

Tim Duffy is backstage at one of John Dee Holeman’s concerts, showing him a copy of his new album. And he’s trying to jog the septuagenarian bluesman’s memory about the musicians who accompanied him on the record. “Remember them?” Duffy asks, pointing at the cover. “They had kinda English-sounding accents? Band from Australia with two [...]

It was through his extended association with Van Morrison — which began with 1970′s Moondance and has continued, off and on, through this year’s tour — that guitarist John Platania discovered his musical identity. “My role is to serve the song,” he says. “Listen to the song, and let it dictate what it wants. You [...]

Lately, Pegi Young has been experiencing a number of firsts, not the least of which is releasing her self-titled debut album. But perhaps the most surprising is this: “I picked up the electric guitar for the first time the other day and I had never played one in my life. It was so much fun,” [...]