Robert Plant has always been a cultural carpetbagger. He and the rest of Led Zeppelin were part of the second wave of the British invasion, those brazen English lads that stormed America in the 60’s and taught us about our own musical heritage – the blues. But Zeppelin , though, turned it up to 11 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Louvin, best known with his brother Ira as a member of the close harmony duo The Louvin Brothers, is scheduled for surgery for pancreatic cancer on July 22 in Nashville. His manager, Brett Steele, says doctors expect a full recovery. Louvin just celebrated his 83rd birthday and had [...]
Hank Cochran, one of country music’s most storied and prolific songwriters who wrote songs for Patsy Cline, Ray Price, Eddy Arnold, Merle Haggard, George Strait an many others passed away yesterday morning. His Wikipedia bio reads like a Mother lode for source for country gold: Born during the Great Depression in Isola, Mississippi, he contracted [...]
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 know I haven’t been posting much lately. Besides the uptick in my frequency of the Twang Nation twitter feed and preparing for a move (down the street) but I wanted to do a quick list for Fathers Day. Being a dad it’s close to my heart and there are some great songs out there. [...]
There appears to be a resurgence of sorts of the modern troubadour. the male singer/songwriter armed with only an acoustic guitar and the stories he weaves always teetering on the precipice between emotional authenticity and cloying sentimentality. The balance becomes even more precarious when you have pop leanings as the term “pop” has been severed [...]