It’s been a long time coming but it’s finally ready to take off the wrapping. From the home of the premier Americana music event in the country, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, yours truly, Twang Nation is proud to present the first ever Twang Nation Jamboree showcasing some of the best of local Americana and [...]
The Old 97s tore it up at Thursday’s free show to promote Texas travel. Under the Lone Star flag at San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza an enthusiastic crowd under sunny skies as the band worked through their extensive catalog, played REM’s Driver 8 from a recent covers EP release, a song written especially for the [...]
Lucinda Williams took to Twitter to announce the title of her forthcoming album. Continuing her recent theme of happiness and matrimonial bliss the title will be Blessed. I guess Lou got her Joy back. Ms. Lucinda and other notable Americana music folks, Drive By Truckers, Todd Snider, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Rhett Miller, Jimmie Dale [...]
Country and blues music has always mined the life’s mundane moments and extracted nuggets of domestic mythology shimmering with love, lust, booze, blood, tears, asphalt and diesel fuel. With these elements masters like Hank Williams Sr., Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt and Bob Dylan – and latter day troubadours like Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle and [...]
Denver, Colorado’s Suburban Home Records has released a fine compilation (Or for this roots music blogger, a convenient sonic crib sheet) of new and classic roots rock and Americana music entitled Suburban Home Records Mix Tape Vol. 5, Someone’s Gonna Die. The title is inspired by I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In the House’s new [...]
I hope everyone had a great Independence Day. I spent America’s 234th birthday seeing some great music by Hang Jones, at the park with family and friends eating, watching spectacular stuff bow up and watching Brock Lesnar stop being pummeled long enough to submit Shane Carwin with a arm-triangle choke. Ah, American values….I wanted to [...]
I want to share one of my favorite songs for this holiday weekend. The Ballad of Ira Hayes, written by the folk singer Peter La Farge, tells the story of Ira Hayes, a Pima Native American and one of the five Marines and one Navy Corpsman who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi during the [...]
Ferlin Husky (84) and Billy Sherrill (73) have been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Don Williams and Jimmy Dean will be inducted in a ceremony in September. Austin’s Izzy Cox will take her bathtub gin hillbilly vibe on the road to open for Hank Williams III this summer. Beer, baseball and Americana [...]
While attending the Americana Music Conference in Nashville last September I was lucky enough to go to some great shows. John Fogerty , Charlie Robison, Radney Foster, The Bottle Rockets, Angela Easterling….all great. But the show that stuck with me most was my favorite sort, a complete surprise. Texas has a long, rich legacy of [...]
No Depression magazine (and now web site), the go-to authority for roots and Americana music for 15 years, has announced the line-up for their second annual No Depression Festival, and it’s a peach! The Swell Season, Lucinda Williams, The Cave Singers, Alejandro Escovedo, Chuck Prophet, Punch Brothers and Sera Cahoone. The fun starts on Aug. [...]