country Archive
28 Dec 2019
Album Review: Amanda Anne Platt & the Honeycutters — Christmas on a Greyhound Bus
When an artist releases an album (or EP) of holiday music, it need not be designed to fulfill an obligation to a label. It also needn’t be a placeholder while […]
14 Dec 2019
Hundred-word Reviews for December 2019, #2
With the end of 2019 on the horizon, I figure now’s as good a time as any to bring things up to date with another batch of quick reviews. In […]
03 Sep 2019
Casey Kristofferson: Coming Home to Country
With a surname like Kristofferson, a musician is essentially presented with two options: they can run from preconceived notions, heading in an altogether different musical direction. Or they can embrace […]
29 Aug 2019
Hello Stranger: RiddleFest Celebrates Life and Work of Overlooked Musician and Song Collector
Lesley Riddle is an important yet mostly overlooked figure in the history of American music. A musician and folklorist, he collaborated with –and greatly influenced the Carter Family. As an […]
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 […]
11 Jul 2019
Dwight Yoakam: Honky Tonk Man
Dwight Yoakam launched a life in music at precisely the wrong time. But over the ensuing decades, he helped bend country music – or at least a significant part of […]
17 Jun 2019
Gold Light + Snakemusk: Shadows and Light
The first recorded project from Gold Light + Snakemusk – the duo of former Kovacs and the Polar Bear multi-instrumentalist Joe Chang and singer-guitarist Beau Campolong – is a new […]
17 Jan 2019
Asheville’s Top 10 for 2018
2018 has brought forth a bumper crop of superb albums in every genre from artists local (or with strong connections) to Asheville and the surrounding region. Any of these 10 […]
08 Jan 2019
No Way Out of Here: The Unicorn Story (Part Two)
Continued from Part One… David Gilmour wasn’t a complete novice in the ways of the studio. Then 27 years old, the guitarist had already co-produced six albums with Pink Floyd; […]
07 Jan 2019
No Way Out of Here: The Unicorn Story (Part One)
Early demo tapes from Unicorn, a country-rock group and protégés of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, show that the underappreciated British group had an authentic yet radio-ready sound that should have […]