Interviews
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Five Questions: Ray Wylie Hubbard
With its homespun eloquence and hard-earned wisdom, Ray Wylie Hubbard\’s music comes off as equal parts Buddha, books, and bars. The Texas songwriter has done some living and he\’s never been shy about sharing the stories. Some of them are even true. And some of them fill out the minutes of The Ruffian\’s Misfortune, Hubbard\’s…
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Living the Dream: An Interview with Betty Who
Betty Who, the Australian singer/songwriter once known as Jessica Newham, started her musical journey as a kid, studying classical cello, before adding piano and guitar to her repertoire. The switchover from classical to pop took her to Boston\’s Berklee College of Music where she studied voice and recorded her first single, “Somebody Loves You,” which…
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Five Questions: Liz Longley
Following the lead of so many of her contemporaries, singer/songwriter Liz Longley turned to Kickstarter when she was ready to make a record. After raising nearly $55,000, the Berklee School of Music graduate made the record she wanted to make with guitarist/producer Gus Berry. Longley also relocated from Boston to Nashville and signed on with…
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The Magic of Melancholy: An Interview with Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard
It\’s a complicated thing, an artist\’s relationship with their art — let alone their fans\’ relationship to it, as well. And, when you lead a band that has meant so much to so many over the years, the heat is really on. For the past 17 years, Death Cab for Cutie has provided the soundtrack…
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High Rolling: An Interview with Trent Dabbs
Trent Dabbs is a true, musical renaissance man. First and foremost, he\’s a singer/songwriter with his own solo career, as well as a duo project — Sugar + the Hi-Lows — with Amy Stroup. But he\’s also a visionary. Along with his wife Kristen, Dabbs founded the Ten Out of Tenn artists\’ collective and Ready…
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Five Questions: The Weepies
Deb Talan and Steve Tannen (aka the Weepies) have had quite a go of it lately. Over the past five years, the husband-wife duo has stayed at home in Iowa raising three kids, beating breast cancer, and recording an album — Sirens. The name is a tip of the hat to both sweet-voiced muses and…
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The Way She's Livin': An Interview with Lee Ann Womack
To really understand the Lee Ann Womack story, you have to start at the beginning, in the small East Texas town of Jacksonville and with the music that was on country radio at the time — including the station where her father worked as a DJ. It was the era of “real” country music from…
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Five Questions: The Honeycutters
Based in Asheville, North Carolina, the Honeycutters live the roots life all the way through… even releasing their upcoming Me Oh My LP on Organic Records. With singer/songwriter — and, now, producer — Amanda Platt at the helm, the group puts their own spin on an old form. Sure, there\’s a timeless quality to honest…
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Blazing Strange Trails: An Interview with Lord Huron's Ben Schneider
On Lord Huron\’s 2012 album, Lonesome Dreams, frontman/songwriter Ben Schneider created a whole series of stories based on the fake Western fiction of George Ranger Johnson. His hero tumbled and tootled through windswept tales, searching high and low for a once-lost love. For the follow-up, the just-released Strange Trails, Schneider opened things up a bit,…
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Squared Roots: Will Hoge x Ray Charles
Inspiring folks from Elvis Presley to Roger Waters to Billy Joel, Ray Charles was a musical force to be reckoned with. He\’s in the Playboy Hall of Fame, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Georgia State Music Hall of Fame, the National Black Sports & Entertainment Hall of Fame … really, he\’s in…