The Last Bison Inheritance (Republic) Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars With folksy fervor and acoustic eclecticism, The Last Bison charge onto the Americana scene with the release of their excellent, second full-length record, Inheritance. The seven member-group, based outside of Chesapeake, Virginia, blends rootsy arrangements with classical sensibilities to offer their unique spin on [...]

Tommy Stinson One Man Mutiny (Done To Death Music) Rating: With a new-found focus and confidence in his songwriting, Tommy Stinson, Mr. ex-Replacement, has released One Man Mutiny , probably the most consistent record quality-wise of his solo career (aside from Bash & Pop’s classic debut, Friday Night is Killing Me, of course, still a [...]

Facing down Alzheimer’s, Glen Campbell bows out gracefully.

Hard Ground Tom Waits and Michael O’Brien University of Texas Press Rating: In a gritty but affecting collaborative book of photographs and poetry, Michael O’Brien and Tom Waits offer up a compassionate portrait of America’s homeless. Between O’Brien’s black-and-white pictures and Waits’ boho nursery rhyme verse, this collection aches for the plight of the indigent, the [...]

“I saw sinners making music/And I’ve dreamt of that sound,” Sam Beam declares in “Walking Far From Home,” the epic opener on Iron & Wine’s latest album, Kiss Each Other Clean. With help from his bandmates, Beam spends the record defining that sound, shaping it, until the quicksilver light that beckons in his poetry pulses [...]

There’s a lot going on underneath that hat.

Just in case his original, obscure pseudonym, Grandpaboy, was not enough to keep him semi-anonymous and at large anymore in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Paul Westerberg has taken on a second pseudonym, Mr. F, as the persona behind his new 7 inch single. Though not quite retired, the ex-Replacement’s last official release, Folker, on Vagrant [...]

Currently on hiatus from his solo acoustic tour, Jay Farrar spoke with American Songwriter from his home in the greater St. Louis area. The longtime Son Volt bandleader released two different projects last year, Son Volt’s return to vintage form, American Central Dust, as well as a documentary soundtrack with Ben Gibbard, One Fast Move [...]