Archive for October, 2011
Video Premiere: Madi Diaz, “Time”
Madi Diaz’s full-length debut, Plastic Moon, isn’t due until January. But you can watch a live video of the Nashville songstress performing the anthemic new album track “Time” right here. Want more? Check out our recent interview with Diaz, and watch her sing a song with The Silver Seas backstage before her SoundLand gig here. [...]
Vince Gill’s Guitar Slinger Puts Positive Spin On Dark Moments
Vince Gills’ The Guitar Slinger is his first album since These Days, a four-CD box set that was released in 2006 and won a Grammy Award for Best Country Album. Since his last release, Gill built a recording studio and the Nashville home he shares with his wife Amy Grant and their children. The much-honored artist [...]
CMJ Music Marathon: Day 4
Metronomy Opening the afternoon at the Fader Fort, Metronomy performed an abbreviated set of highlights from their acclaimed latest album The English Riviera. Though not technically a part of CMJ, smoothly executed renditions of “The Bay” and “She Wants” from the UK-based synth-pop project were welcome additions to the week’s live music. Grimes Although admittedly [...]
Video Review: Santa Cruz 1929-00
Jake Kelly reviews Santa Cruz’s 1929-00, which looks like it came from the Dust Bowl era.
Review: Santa Cruz 1929-00 Guitar
The Santa Cruz Guitar Company’s solid reputation is built on producing high-quality instruments shadowing the designs from the golden era of guitar manufacturing. But rather than churning out instruments in a production line manner, each individual instrument is finely tuned as it’s being built. We recently took possession of one of their 1929-00 models for [...]
Steve Martin, Gillian Welch, Ed Helms Make Fun Of Noam Pikelny
Get ready to have your funnybone tickled. The Punch Brothers’ Noam Pikelny, who earned the first annual Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass Music, is the subject of this new bluegrass mockumentary, starring Martin, Ed Helms, Gillian Welch, Bela Fleck, Earl Scruggs and more. Should banjo prodigies be allowed to sing? The [...]
Merle Haggard: Working in Tennessee
Merle Haggard Working in Tennessee Vanguard Records Rating: Forty-two years after he released his hit song response to Vietnam protestors, “Okie From Muskogee,” Merle Haggard has lost none of his ability to deliver complicated, controversial musical statements. What do you make of a guy who suggests that you beat your troubles by getting some “Humboldt [...]
Inside SoundLand: The Low Anthem Strip Down
At the Shure Studio in Nashville last month, American Songwriter hosted performances by The Low Anthem, Justin Townes Earle, and Rich Robinson. If you were lucky enough to be there, you were treated to a one-of-a-kind performance — each artist delivered their set sans amplification, or au natural if you will. Sure, they sang into [...]
SoundLand Sessions Presented By Shure: The Low Anthem
The Low Anthem perform the song “Ghost Woman Blues.” Video produced by Gold Sounds Entertainment. Shot by Patrick Ritchie and Houston Mathews. Edited by Houston Mathews.
Tom Waits, “New Year’s Eve”
[Photo Credit: Danny Clinch] At 61 years of age, Tom Waits is still as ornery, mischievous, and lovable as he was when he quipped “I’m so God damn horny that the crack of dawn better be careful around me” on 1975′s Nighthawks At The Diner. His twentieth studio album, Bad As Me, comes out on [...]
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