Various Artists The Great Gatsby Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Interscope) Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars Motion picture soundtracks seem to either be attention-grabbers of the highest order, or, even if they’re decent, fail to land any sort of punch. Adding to the soundtrack’s enigmatic nature is the manner in which many great soundtracks are [...]

Dallas native and newly-touring troubadour Ronnie Fauss has been garnering a good bit of rightful acclaim thanks to his New West-imprint Normaltown Records debut; I am the Man You Know I’m Not. On the strength of a handful of self-released EPs over the past four years, the raspy-voiced Fauss has honed his writing to the [...]

Kopecky Family Band Kids Raising Kids (ATO) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars In the years since Arcade Fire began headlining festivals, groups cramming as many members and instruments onto the stage as possible has become rather common. For a while, many of the acts that employed such tactics were rightfully written-off as Polyphonic Broken [...]

There’s little use in trying to get around the general coolness of Dawes. The quartet, led by Taylor Goldsmith has buddied up with Jackson Browne and they’ve produced and played with young, insurgent country acts such as Johnny Fritz. Indeed, the group has been a laid-back stud in the midst of irony-filled indie-acts for a [...]

Townes Van Zandt Sunshine Boy: The Unheard Studio Sessions and Demos 1971 – 1972 (Omnivore Recordings) Rating: 5 stars (out of 5) The Colin Escott-penned liner notes for the newly released collection from Omnivore Recordings, Townes Van Zandt – Sunshine Boy: The Unheard Studio Sessions and Demos 1971-1972, needs but a few words near the [...]

Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside Untamed Beast (Partisan) Rating: 4 stars (out of 5) Before the Alabama Shakes became the rock ‘n soul outfit with a powerfully dynamic female singer that turned 2012 on its ear, Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside got a similar vibe rolling really well in 2011 with Dirty Radio, [...]

Frontier Ruckus Eternity Of Dimming (Quite Scientific) Rating: 4 stars (out of 5) Eternity Of Dimming, the new double-album from Michigan’s Frontier Ruckus is a great sample from the growing number of Anti-Mumford albums. That’s not a shot at the Sons from across the pond, as much as it is an illustration of how wide [...]

Dropkick Murphys Signed And Sealed In Blood (Born and Bred) Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars Signed and Sealed In Blood, the eighth album from Boston’s resident Irish-punk collective Dropkick Murphys, opens with the line, “The boys are back and they’re looking for trouble.” Perhaps a more fitting line has never been sung to start [...]

Patterson Hood, perhaps the primary conductor behind the runaway train that is southern rock outfit Drive -By Truckers, is again a solo artist. For the time being, that is. Following up on his excellent, previous solo records, 2004′s Killers and Stars and 2009’s Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs), the Alabama-bred, Athens, GA-based storyteller made [...]

Scott Lucas, the writing and lead-singing half of long-running post-grunge duo Local H, is currently enjoying a more crowded studio and larger travel crew thanks to his other group’s (Scott Lucas and The Married Men) newly released, second full-length album Blood Half Moon. While the six-piece band’s first album, George Lassos The Moon, followed relatively [...]

Gillian Welch is in a pretty good spot these days. By her own, personally set standard, Welch’s current album, the impeccable The Harrow and The Harvest, is practically still a new release, as it’s only been on shelves since the end of last June. Welch famously (or infamously) allowed eight years to pass between proper [...]