(Jessica Lea Mayfield plays the Shindig) It’s so easy to hate on South By Southwest… Too big, too corporate, too much, too too too… And it’s true, kind of. But not really… The energy in the streets of Austin is palpable. Music everywhere. Aging hipsters not nearly as hip as they used to be tragically [...]

MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER Come On Come On (COLUMBIA) Rating: Mary Chapin Carpenter had been every smart country fan’s favorite “oughta happen” for going on three records, and with the radio momentum of Shooting Straight in the Dark, anticipation was high for Come on Come On. Thankfully, the folk-steeped, intellectual take on life across this nation [...]

“I’m honestly pretty beat and haven’t had a lot of time decompressing,” Drive-By Truckers singer Patterson Hood confesses after the thump ‘n’ bump rockers finished a three-day stand at Athens, Georgia’s legendary 40 Watt Club. Never mind that he’s in full promo grind for DBT’s The Big To-Do, Hood is producing “some music for these [...]

STEVIE WONDER Innervisions (MOTOWN) With Talking Book, soul hit-machine Stevie Wonder created a modern album to be reckoned with: “You Are The Sunshine of My Life” and “Superstition” topped the r&b and pop charts, earning three Grammys in the process for the song cycle outlining his romance with singer/songwriter Syreeta Wright. But following Talking Boo’s [...]

I used to wake and run with the moon I lived like a rake and a young man I covered my lovers with flowers and wounds My laughter the devil would frighten The sun, she would come and beat me back down But every cruel day had its nightfall I’d welcome the stars with wine [...]

RAY WYLIE HUBBARD A. ENLIGHTENMENT B. ENDARKENMENT (HINT: THERE IS NO C) (BORDELLO) With a mouthful of gravel, rusty nails and busted glass, Texas grit-monger Ray Wylie Hubbard is more potent now than when he was lobbing the hippie/biker/redneck standard “Up Against the Wall (Redneck Mother),” which grew to anthemic proportions as the cornerstone of [...]

John Prine John Prine Rating: When the owner of a Chicago folk club asked the mailman who’d come into open mic night if he’d like to come back and play on his own set, the postman asked how many songs he’d need—and went home and wrote enough to take the job. And when his best [...]

ALLISON MOORER Crows (RYKO) Rating: When Allison Moorer stepped back after three years of almost constant touring behind the shiningly pop Getting Somewhere and the heroine-invoking Mockingbird, she exhaled and considered the colors and tones being drowned out in the go-go, now-now world of blare and bravado. Crows, with melodies that conjure more than drive, [...]

ROSANNE CASH The List (MANHATTAN) Rating: From the first luxuriant notes of “Miss The Mississippi and You,” it’s obvious that The List—culled from 100 songs Johnny Cash gave his teenage daughter Rosanne—is imbued with tremendous life force. Though obviously a look at the genre’s past, the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter interjects a sensuality and noir currency into [...]

MIRANDA LAMBERT Revolution (SONY) Rating: Country once sizzled with desire, drink, done-wrong and other sundry treasons—and that rub between “shouldn’t” and “can’t stop” packed the blunt force of a 2×4 with a nail in it. While vocal firebrand Miranda Lambert’s positioned as “the crazy ex-girlfriend,” who sings of guns and arson with unfaltering bravado, she’s [...]

No singer/songwriter freezes moments in amber with the delicate detail and emotional frisson like Kris Kristofferson.