Tag Archives: Americana music

The Decemberists’ Live At Bull Moose

Very early in their tour in support of the 2011 release The King Is Dead The Decemberists recorded this seven-track EP during a live in-store appearance at Bull Moose music store in Scarborough, Maine, a suburb of what frontman Colin … Continue reading

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Nick Jaina’s The Beanstalks That Have Brought Us Here Are Gone

Nick Jaina is showing signs of being one of the most prolific of Portland, Oregon’s many prolific independent musicians. Already in 2011 he has put out a free download album Sleeping On The Covers that features songs by other artists … Continue reading

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Hot Club Of Cowtown’s What Makes Bob Holler

The Hot Club Of Cowtown is just what its name implies – a small ensemble playing a mix of hot jazz in the manner of Django Reinhardt’s and Stephane Grappelli’s Hot Club of France and Western swing in the manner … Continue reading

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Maggie Björklund’s Coming Home

Maggie Björklund is a Danish pedal steel guitar player who recently released her debut album in the United States. You won’t find any “Steel Guitar Rag” or Hawaiian music on Coming Home, if that’s what your idea of pedal steel … Continue reading

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Sean Rowe’s Magic

“Surprise” is an appropriate title for the first song on Upstate New York-based singer-songwriter Sean Rowe’s debut Magic. You’ll probably be surprised by him, especially if your introduction to him was in a live setting, as it was for me … Continue reading

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Various artists’s No One Got Hurt: Bloodshot Records’ 15th Anniversary @ The Hideout, Chicago

During the summer and early fall of 2009, the folks at Bloodshot Records, Chicago’s “insurgent country” label, put on a series of concerts featuring a rotating cast of a bunch of the musicians currently or formerly on their roster. In … Continue reading

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Warren Zevon’s Preludes: Rare and Unreleased Recordings

Warren Zevon’s songs, like the man himself, alternated between sincere and heavily ironic, sometimes within the same song. Heck, within the same verse. My response to this 2007 New West release does the same thing. Ironic summary: Four years after … Continue reading

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Asleep at the Wheel and Leon Rausch’s It’s A Good Day

Leon Rausch was lead singer with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys in that band’s later years, starting in 1958. He was again enlisted as lead vocalist when Wills’s widow reformed the band as Bob Wills’ Original Texas Playboys in … Continue reading

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My Cousin, The Emperor’s The Subway EPs

As I write this, the Brooklyn-based band My Cousin, The Emperor is playing at the South By Southwest music industry showcase in Austin, Texas. Although a lot of people I know are there, and some may even be in the … Continue reading

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Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys’ Grand Isle

Grand Isle, the 11th album by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, continues to push southern Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole music in new directions while remaining solidly rooted in tradition. This gritty album was born on the heels of yet … Continue reading

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