Tag Archives: Americana music

Sad Daddy’s Way Up in the Hills

Sad Daddy is a wonderfully diverse and versatile band. The music they make is broadly acoustic country music, loosely falling into the now so broad as to be nearly meaningless category of Americana. But all four members are top-notch songwriters, … Continue reading

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Maya De Vitry’s Violet Light

Maya de Vitry‘s third solo album Violet Light is a superb collection of country-tinged folk music. Raised in Pennsylvania and now based in Tennessee, she’s been a part of the U.S. folk scene for 10 years now since starting out … Continue reading

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M. Ward’s Post-War

M. Ward is on a roll. With Post-War, he has released his fifth full-length CD (third for Merge), and against all odds he keeps getting better. He’s still recognizably the same singer-songwriter he was on his first, Duets for Guitars … Continue reading

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M. Ward’s Transistor Radio

Ever since his first album Duets For Guitar, No. 2 was released by Howe Gelb’s Ow Om label around the turn of the century (where it remains one of the label’s best sellers), Matt Ward has produced albums with a … Continue reading

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Various artists’ I Am The Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey

John Fahey was an immensely influential musician. He collected old blues records and helped revive interest in the Delta masters in the early 1960s. He started his own record label on which he recorded his own unique take on Delta … Continue reading

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M. Ward, September 30, 2006, Crystal Ballroom, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.

One of the things that immediately attracted me to M. Ward was his muscular guitar playing. Sure, he was sometimes lumped in with the early ’00s crop of sensitive male singer-songwriters dubbed emo, for the way they often wore their … Continue reading

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Les Ross Sr.’s Hulivili Huuliharppu/Rollicking Harmonica

Judith Gennett wrote this review. Les Ross is a retired accountant from Marquette, Michigan who plays harmonica in traditional Finnish-American lumberjack style. This album was made when Ross was in his mid-seventies, but the playing is as wonderful and young … Continue reading

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Jake Xerxes Fussell’s Good and Green Again

New music from Jake Xerxes Fussell is always cause for celebration, and this one is very special. Good and Green Again is his fourth release and in some ways represents a bit of a departure. On his two previous albums … Continue reading

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Gary’s favorite roots, rock, and Americana music of 2021

There was plenty of good Americana and roots music in 2021, but I didn’t hear a lot of great music in those categories. Which is fine, and understandable. We’re all struggling to stay afloat. These selections mostly reflect music that … Continue reading

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Doran’s Doran

Doran is the sound of four young musicians engaged in the serious business of playing with sound. These four, who hail variously from the Pacific Northwest, New York City, and rural Virginia, have made one of the most spine-tingling and … Continue reading

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