Americana Archive
14 Jul 2019
Amanda Anne Platt & the Honeycutters: Get What You Need
Amanda Anne Platt launched her recording career with 2009’s Irene. A decade later – after countless live shows and three more albums of original material – she’s ready to revisit some of the songs on her debut release. “I wanted [Live at the Grey Eagle] to be kind of a career survey,” she says. “I
04 Jun 2019
What is Drunken Prayer? Leader Morgan Geer is Open to Suggestions
With one foot in honky-tonk and the other in straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll, Morgan Geer’s Drunken Prayer is Americana for people who don’t like Americana, rock for those who don’t mind a bit of singer-songwriter introspection. But there’s music more to the man who writes the songs than simply penning crying-in-your-beer laments. Cordelia Elsewhere, the
24 May 2019
Unspoken Tradition: Bluegrass Speaks to Today
It’s something of a tightrope walk to move forward musically within the confines of bluegrass; there’s a subset of the genre’s fan base that resists change. But Unspoken Tradition confidently masters that path, with a sound that’s firmly rooted in history yet forward-looking. The group recently released its third album, Myths We Tell Our Young.
05 May 2019
New Releases from Asheville-based Artists
Three new record releases from Western North Carolina artists explore different musical styles, but they all share a focus on themes of love and optimism. Tellico – Woven Waters For its second album, Asheville folk/bluegrass band Tellico – formed by former members of Dehlia Low – weighs in on world events. The album’s centerpiece is
25 Apr 2019
Alias Patrick Kelly: Claiming His Inheritance
Patrick Kelly was a longtime fixture of the Asheville music scene back in the days when one could argue there really wasn’t a scene. As bassist for the Goodies, Kelly helped deliver a cabaret-flavored rock vibe to the Western North Carolina mountains. Today he’s back where he started, in Atlanta, and his original material –
22 Apr 2019
Drunken Prayer: Geer Diary
Morgan Geer is into a lot of things, musically speaking. He’s toured and recorded with Freakwater, the Handsome Family and other acts that exist on the edgy fringes of Americana. And since 2006, he’s also been releasing albums and performing as Drunken Prayer. Six albums in, Drunken Prayer has made its most diverse – and
31 Mar 2019
Tellico: Courage for the Times
Formed in 2015 by three members of popular bluegrass band Dehlia Low, Tellico didn’t set out to be political. And while the group’s second and newest album, Woven Waters, isn’t exactly a musical-political treatise, its songs are informed by the division and unrest that characterize American life near the end of the 21st century’s second
27 Mar 2019
Steep Canyon Rangers: Pushing and Pulling Bluegrass Boundaries
Ask most people who follow Americana and related styles of music what it is that Steep Canyon Rangers plays, and the most common answer you’ll hear is bluegrass. But ask a member of the popular, award-winning and long-running band based in Western North Carolina the same question, and the answer isn’t quite so simple. “I
26 Mar 2019
Hundred-word Reviews, March 2019 Part Two
Yesterday I covered ten albums in 1000 words. Today I’ll do the same. All titles are new or recent releases. Shumaun – One Day Closer to Yesterday I love me some atmospheric, progressive leaning and ambitious music. And that’s what’s on offer within One Day Closer to Yesterday. The music has hints of Pink Floyd,
25 Mar 2019
Hundred-word Reviews, March 2019 Part One
I can’t point to specific reasons as to why this is the case, but in recent months there has been more than the typical amount of really good music finding its way onto my desk here at Musoscribe World Headquarters. What that means, of course, is that it’s time once again for a clutch of