Michael Rank's KIN (review/interview/video)

Snatches of Pink frontman Michael Rank steps into and shares the spotlight on KIN (Louds Hymn Records) his most personal, emotional and impassioned disc to date. The album cover featuring a photo of a seated Rank looking at an empty chair hints at the subject matter: love and loss. The...

An interview with Kevin Gordon: Americana's Poet Laureate

The late great Townes Van Zandt oversimplified the issue when he declared “There’s only two kinds of music, Blues and Zip-a-dee-doo-dah.” Kevin Gordon's fan funded Gloryland (Crowville Media) may not be the blues but it certainly is not Zip-a-dee-doo-dah. With a poet's eye, a storyteller's ear and a rock and...

Bradley Wik and the Charlatans / Burn What You Can And Bury The Rest

Bradley Wik and the Charlatans' Burn What You Can And Bury The Rest (release date 1/17/12)  proves that rock and roll is not dead but it is in fact alive and well.  Bucking the recent trend of popular bands that don't rock Fleet Foxes, Vampire Weekend, The Decemberists, etc.  Wik saw...

The Coloradas / Review and Interview

Roy Davis and the Dregs' alt-country flavored Deadweight (2008) was one of those nuggets that make listening to all the "free" music worthwhile. Davis and company (some old and some new) shift gears on The Coloradas' self-titled debut swerving into the bluegrass lane while retaining much of what initially made me a fan....

Why didn't I like these discs?

The discs by these well-known artists just didn't click for me: Lucinda Williams, John Hiatt, Ryan Adams, Steve Earle and Wilco. It isn't that I don't dig these artists. I've seen them all live multiple times. I have every official release from each artist as well as a slew of...