Tag Archives: Americana music

Daniel Norgren’s Daniel Norgren Live

Daniel Norgren’s Wooh Dang was one of my favorite albums of 2019, and his live show that I saw in Portland in October of that year was startling and uplifting – and also one of the last live shows I … Continue reading

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Debra Cowan’s The Long Grey Line

Debra Cowan, a Massachusetts-based folksinger, sings a baker’s dozen Irish-influenced songs on this self-released CD. It’s tastefully played, well produced music, as good as most that you’ll find in the coffehouse and pub folk circuit, and better than some. Cowan … Continue reading

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The Knitters, The Aladdin Theater, Portland, Oregon – December 3, 1999

Quick, name a band that has only recorded one album, but 15 years later has inspired a tribute album and is packing clubs with dileriously loyal fans. If you said The Knitters, you’re right. Buy yourself “a big-ol’ cheap bottle … Continue reading

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Andy Gill & Kevin Odegard’s A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the making of Blood on the Tracks

Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks is a landmark album. It is listed on numerous “best-of” album lists, be they of “all time” or the Seventies, or of the rock era. It and its follow-up, Desire, are his two top-selling … Continue reading

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Gary’s favorite roots and Americana music of 2020

This was an amazing year for creativity of all sorts, not least in roots music. This list could easily be twice as long, especially as everybody else’s year-end lists come out and I learn about releases that I haven’t heard … Continue reading

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Felix Hatfield’s False God

With a life list of influences that includes Pete Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Antonia Stampfel, Baby Gramps, Michael Hurley and more, Felix Hatfield checks a lot of the boxes on my list of important figures in folk music. Add to … Continue reading

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Anne Malin’s Waiting Song

Sleep, dreams and reveries predominate in Anne Malin’s Waiting Song, a deeply personal and quirky album of country-tinged indie folk rock. Anne Malin is a musical duo of the poet, singer and songwriter AM Ringwalt and multi-instrumentalist William Johnson. On … Continue reading

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Pat Keen’s Cells Remain

Pat Keen has unleashed one of the most enigmatically enjoyable albums of 2020. Or perhaps it’s the most enjoyably enigmatic. Probably both. Cells Remain is a puzzle wrapped in a conundrum, or whatever that saying is. On the surface it’s … Continue reading

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Various artists’ The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Volume 1

As we approach the 20th anniversary of the passing of John Hartford, his family and friends and many of the musicians he influenced are working to ensure we don’t forget him. Hartford is best known by the public as the … Continue reading

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Kristen Grainger & True North’s Ghost Tattoo

One of the ways I distinguish what’s called Americana music from its relatives bluegrass and old-time is its tendency to lean more toward a cultural progressivism as opposed to the related genres’ cultural and musical conservatism. That’s certainly true of … Continue reading

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