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If Nashville is all about songwriting, as some observers believe, Americana music is one genre far from the only one that can have difficulty connecting good songs with interesting production styles. In many cases, the song remains at the forefront, which means Americana is, at its core, deeply stylistically conservative. Still, when the formula balancing song to sound works right, you can wind up with music that’s both conservative and idiosyncratic. Some artists figure out how to solve the problem, and you can hear that clearly on Nashville singer and songwriter Mando Saenz’s latest full-length
Published Feb 24, 2021
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Maybe it started with Uncle Tupelo, perhaps it was the Byrds hell, it s probably always been this way but alternative musicians find a great deal of solace in country music. It s an emotionally intelligent genre filled with self-deprecation and hard truths. Kyle Edward Connolly the Toronto scenester known for his work with WISH, Beliefs and Orville Peck is definitely not the first to blend indie rock and country music, but he may just be one of the best. With unique production and groovy melodies,
On Arrival doesn t appropriate any traditional approach to country music, nor does it feel inherently contemporary. The album settles somewhere in between, capturing a timeless quality reminiscent of George Harrison or Gram Parsons.
THE tramp around my exercise yard in the time of Covid has been accompanied by the understandable nagging from ageing limbs but also the more incomprehensible summons to times past. A regular companion has been Cillian Murphy. Or, at least, his voice. The actor has a show on Radio 6 that is broad in its scope and regularly powerful in its ability to spark memory. So it was, with snow suitably drifting up the slope from Maryhill, that I met again with the members of the Red Army Choir. It was not the surprise of hearing the Song of the Volga Men on an otherwise contemporary song list that caused me to pause. It was not my aching calves (and who brings small cows on a walk in a suburban park?) It was, rather, that I had been transported back to childhood and the dimmest of memories.
On the heels of American Songwriter’s premiere of the “warm, inviting" title-track, the Montana-based quartet Satsang has announced their extraordinary new album ‘All. Right. Now.,’ out June 4th via SideOneDummy. Written and recorded during an extended hiatus from the road, ‘All. Right.
The making of Wilco s Summerteeth
The making of Wilco s Summerteeth : Looking to the past pointed the way to the future, explains bassist John Stirratt.
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Feb 8, 2021
WILCO: (L-R) John Stirratt, Ken Coomer, Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett. Photo by Ken Weingart/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.
The making of Wilco s Summerteeth : Looking to the past pointed the way to the future, explains bassist John Stirratt.
Released in 1999
Wilco’s third album,
Summerteeth, represented a turning point for the band. The first album from the group to sell in excess of 200,000 copies,
Summerteeth a musical departure from the band’s original alt-country origins ended up on many publications’ best-of lists for that year.