Zac Brown Band played the Merle Watson stage Thursday night. photos by Jamie Younger and Caine O’Rear. Zac and the boys played several songs from their upcoming album. Taj Mahal shined like a mansion on the hill Thursday night. A versatile performer, Taj’s tunes leaned more toward the countrified variety. The Belleville Outfit, out of [...]

“Songwriting gets harder and harder, unless you just want to try to write a better version of what you’ve already done,” said Merle Haggard, 73, sitting in a Middle Tennessee studio and making clear that he wants much more than that. Meanwhile, hundreds of nearby Nashville songwriters worked in vain to write even passable versions [...]

1st Place “THIS OLD HEART” WRITTEN BY GARY BLACK MESA, ARIZONA Lyrics 2nd Place “CONFEDERATE ROSES” WRITTEN BY MAC LEAPHART CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA Lyrics WWW.AMERICANSONGSPACE.COM/MACLEAPHART 3rd Place “COME FIND ME IN THE WILDERNESS” WRITTEN BY MYLA SMITH MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE WWW.SONICBIDS.COM/MYLASMITH Lyrics 4th Place “THE GALLERY” WRITTEN BY BRUCE JOHNSON ROGERS, ARKANSAS Lyrics WWW.AMERICANSONGSPACE.COM/BRUCEJOHNSON HONORABLE MENTIONS [...]

One of the Interweb’s most popular music streaming sites, Lala, begins to wind down operations today. The site is no longer accepting new users and plans to officially close on May 31, 2010. Reports by engadget and other sites were confirmed early this morning as Lala users were greeted with the ominous news as they [...]

How’d you get started writing poetry, music…? The first things I ever wrote, that was serious, were song lyrics, and I just gravitated towards them. When I was about twelve, I started writing… I got crazy about that; got all kinds of different stuff from Sarah McLachlan to Marilyn Manson. I just was drawn to [...]

    Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river You can hear the boats go by You can spend the night beside her And you know that she’s half crazy But that’s why you want to be there And she feeds you tea and oranges That come all the way from China [...]

As home and project studios begin to take an equal share of the market from professional facilities, one of the tools that they’re using to compete with is digital amp modeling. While large studios often have a large assortment of amplifiers, effects, and spaces at their disposal, these smaller studios are relying on digital emulations [...]

Money—specifically, not having any—is classic subject matter for blues, r&b and rock songs. “Money” is also the title, and being broke the subject, of a springy, percolating Memphis soul-style cut that Grace Potter co-wrote for her rock-and-soul band’s fourth album, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. It feels like it’s inspired by a classic era, as [...]

SHELBY LYNNE Tears, Lies & Alibis (EVERSO RECORDS) Rating: Shelby Lynne took a long time to connect with her muse. But when she finally did, and shouted it out in 2000 with the musical announcement I Am Shelby Lynne, she was answered with a Grammy. Though she had the audacity to point out the irony [...]

“CONFEDERATE ROSES” WRITTEN BY MAC LEAPHART CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA WWW.AMERICANSONGSPACE.COM/MACLEAPHART CHORUS Confederate roses And thorns on the vine That young man he took What once had been mine When I found them together They couldn’t be saved Now confederate roses Grow wild on an unmarked grave When we stood at the altar I had lived [...]

VARIOUS ARTISTS Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour: The Best Of The Third Series (CHROME DREAMS) Rating: In 2006, Bob Dylan’s career took a strange turn. Though he wasn’t hurting for money, acclaim, or the spotlight, he signed up for a gig as the host of Theme Time Radio Hour, an action-packed collection of old-timey [...]

[Taylor T3 pictured second from right] TAYLOR T3 Taylor’s foray into semi-hollowbody electric guitars is an impressive one. The T3 semi-hollowbody thinline is an electric guitar with the same attention to detail and playability that you’d expect of a Taylor acoustic guitar. The T3 has a 21-fret ebony fingerboard, and a quilted maple top, available [...]