Americana Archive
29 Nov 2018
Ranky Tanky: Preserving Gullah Culture Through Music
Gullah is a Creole language spoken in a concentrated geographical area, the low-country region along the Atlantic coastal islands in Georgia and the Carolinas. The Gullah people are descendants of […]
07 Nov 2018
Notable Vinyl Releases, Part Two
Today’s three are all new, indie releases. David Duchovny – Every Third Thought A confession, right up front: when this album landed on my desk, my first thought was, “Uh-oh. […]
04 Nov 2018
Carol Rifkin: What is Mountain Music?
Carol Rifkin is an expert on mountain music. She sings and plays it, she writes about it, and she’s the host of the popular This Old Porch radio program. But […]
22 Oct 2018
A Few Moments with Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks) is equal parts musician, songwriter, folklorist and musicologist. But despite his impeccable credentials, the man has never taken an academic approach to music. […]
19 Sep 2018
Hundred-word Reviews for September 2018
Time once again for some 100-word reviews. Please note that I receive many albums each day for review consideration; even when allowing for the fact that 80-90% of them don’t […]
06 Sep 2018
Album Review: River Whyless — Kindness, A Rebel
On the group’s 2016 album We All the Light, Asheville-based group River Whyless pushed the boundaries of indie folk, its supposed genre. In doing so, the quartet could serve as […]
05 Sep 2018
World Musician Taj Mahal Gets the Blues
Taj Mahal is a timeless artist who’s always been ahead of his time. The singer-songwriter-guitarist was making Americana and world music long before either musical genre had been coined. He’s […]
07 Jul 2018
Album Review: Diamonds and Whiskey — Dark Country Voodoo
The band name suggests an alt.country/Americana act, and while those labels aren’t too wide of the mark, there’s a harder, edgier and slightly more sinister feel to this music. The […]
06 Jul 2018
Fifty-word Reviews for July 2018, Part 1
For years now, I’ve engaged in an occasional series of reviews in which I limit myself to 100 words. The point isn’t at all to give short shrift to these […]
02 Jul 2018
Eric Congdon Heads Into the Woods
Hendersonville, N.C. guitarist Eric Congdon has been recording and releasing albums since 2006, when he made his solo record debut, Green River. Over the years, the roots-blues musician has built […]