kmx
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Hayes Carll, Parker Millsap Blow the Roof Off Nashville
On the latest installment of their current Club Crawl tour, Hayes Carll and Parker Millsap camped out in Nashville for five nights — well, technically, it was four plus one in Cumberland Caverns. First stop, the Loveless Barn for Music City Roots on March 5. Now, it\’s worth noting that the Barn is a tough…
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St. Vincent's Performance : Art : Life
Last weekend over brunch, I was talking with a contemporary country songwriter and a former boy band member about the various “arts” within music: There\’s the art of crafting a great song that defies time, space, and genre; the art of selecting 10 or 12 great tunes that play well together; the art of producing…
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Robert Ellis Throws Down Full-Throttle Freeform at The Basement
In a year that\’s shaping up to be another great one for music, an early contender for various \’Best Albums of 2014\’ lists is, no doubt, The Lights from the Chemical Plant by Robert Ellis. For the record, Ellis has shaken off the shackles of country music and his new sound defies definition.
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Matthew Perryman Jones: Land of the Living (vinyl LP)
The opening cut of Land of the Living is about as close to sonic perfection as you can get. The composition, the production, and the performance on “Stones from the Riverbed” are all pitch-perfect… even the lazy groan that Jones emits as he rounds out the first verse couldn\’t be more spot-on.
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Sarah Jarosz Lends Deft Musicality to Station Inn
It was another sold-out night at Nashville\’s Station Inn, this time for Sarah Jarosz, the fresh-out-of-college bluegrass/folk phenom. Flanked by a couple of string players (Nathaniel Smith on cello and Alex Hargreaves on fiddle), Jarosz opened her first set with the Appalachia-tinged \”Tell Me True\” which found her deftly handling a banjo. Indeed, the whole…
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Robert Ellis: The Lights from the Chemical Plant
If country music is defined merely by the presence of pedal steel guitar and vocal twang, then, sure, Robert Ellis fits the bill. But to limit expectations or opinions of The Lights from the Chemical Plant based on that measure alone would be thoroughly misguided. There’s so much more to it — some of which is blatant,…
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Old Black Kettle Brings a Harmonic Convergence to Station Inn
For the past few years, the folk and Americana genres have been infiltrated by a bunch of artists who are far more flash than substance. This “Genericana” trend is full of pretentious posers who sport banjos and beards as semblances of their authenticity. (I\’d use the lipstick on a pig metaphor, but I don\’t want…
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Sugar + the Hi-Lows with Nashville Ballet
It\’s easy to imagine why both Sugar + the Hi-Lows and the Nashville Ballet would share an affinity for the work of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. To interpret and incorporate that music into a live performance, however, would be quite a feat. But last night, the Valentine\’s Day crowd witnessed just that with Christopher…
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Peter Bradley Adams: The Mighty Storm
There are some artists who continually push and pull themselves into new artistic terrain with each release. And there are some artists who stay within their creative comfort zone and try to make it the best it can be with every effort. Peter Bradley Adams belongs in the latter group and has, for years, been…
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Amy Stroup: Tunnel
It\’s always fascinating to hear artists harken back, musically, to eras they were hardly old enough to experience other than through cultural osmosis or historical exploration. Not sure which path was tread by Amy Stroup on her new Tunnel release, but she somehow finds her way back into the \’80s, and brings numerous modern accoutrements…
