Tag Archives: folk-rock

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’ Folk & Great Tunes From Russia

You would have to think that a huge, ethnically diverse and culturally rich country such as the Russian Federation would be rich in folk art. And you’d be right. You’d also imagine that when it comes to folk music, there … Continue reading

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James Elkington’s Ever-Roving Eye

There’s no way James Elkington could have known about the trauma that we’d all be feeling in the midst of a pandemic when he tracked the 11 songs on his sophomore “solo” release Ever-Roving Eye. But somehow he put out … Continue reading

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Teddy Thompson’s Heartbreaker Please

It’s hard to believe that this year marks the 20th anniversary of Teddy Thompson’s recording career. He’d been singing and playing guitar on mom Linda’s and dad Richard’s recordings since the mid ’90s when he released his self-titled debut (which … Continue reading

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Squirrel Flower’s I Was Born Swimming

Squirrel Flower is the stage name of the Boston-based singer-songwriter Ella O’Connor Williams, making her recording debut with the beautifully realized I Was Born Swimming. She has a singing voice that conveys heartache and steely determination in equal measures, an … Continue reading

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David Dondero’s The Filter Bubble Blues

The Cuyahoga River was the subject of scathing satire in the 1970s, when it was so polluted it actually caught fire where it passed through Cleveland, Ohio. That hasn’t happened again, yet. But David Dondero imagines it won’t be long … Continue reading

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Tiny Ruins’ Olympic Girls

Hollie Fullbrook has an arresting, husky alto that makes her singing stand out immediately. Add that to her multi-faceted songwriting talents and a New Zealand “accent” that’s going to sound pretty exotic to American ears, and Olympic Girls, her first … Continue reading

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