Reviews
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Keb' Mo': Oklahoma
Joy is a commodity that is very often in short supply. In the past few years, it seems even more rare. Maybe that\’s because it\’s a state of being, rather than a mere emotion, so it takes effort to cultivate and maintain joy in our lives. Anyone who\’s ever been in the presence of blues…
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Courtney Hartman: Ready Reckoner
Not everyone can be alone with nothing but their thoughts to fill the space that surrounds them. Even if other people are around, giving yourself over to stillness, solitude, and silence necessarily demands the courage to be vulnerable and honest in your internal self-assessments. Imagine hiking a trail in that state for four hours… four…
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The Small Glories: Assiniboine & the Red
It\’s a wondrous moment in life when a person finds their place in the world, geographically speaking. Finding one\’s metaphorical/spiritual/emotional place is a whole other adventure, to be sure, but physical locations can certainly help even so, as different places have different energies. Some folks love the ocean, while others crave the mountains. But everyone…
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Dylan LeBlanc: Renegade
The rock-ification of folk music has a long and honorable history tracing back more than 50 years to Bob Dylan going electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and others were members of folk-rock\’s foundational movement, as well, with oodles more joining in the decades since, many of whom have more…
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Roo Panes: Quiet Man (Deluxe Edition)
There\’s something about a good record that jumps out at the listener within the first few moments. It might be something technically proficient, but more likely, it\’s something emotionally resonant that is being translated through the filters of talent and technology to hit the ear in just the right way. That\’s the experience of listening…
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Ani DiFranco: No Walls Mixtape
As the story goes, when asked to define country music, songwriter Harlan Howard retorted, \”Country music isn\’t nothing but three chords and the truth,\” and many have lived by those words of wisdom ever since. A lot of folk music abides by the same constraints. Heck, a lot of ALL music does. Every now and…
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Mavis Staples: We Get By
There are all sorts of clichés to describe the cyclical nature of time: “Everything old is new again”; “History repeats itself”; “The more things change, the more they stay the same”; and others. This particular moment in time feels like a grab bag of eras colliding. While young adults are sporting the acid wash of…
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Caroline Spence: Mint Condition
In her new Netflix special, The Call to Courage, Brené Brown talks about how it\’s the small, ordinary moments in life that we miss the most once we no longer have them. Whether that loss applies to a pet, a parent, a partner, or someone else doesn\’t much matter. What matters is that life —…
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Joy Williams: Front Porch
Being trendy seems like an absolutely exhausting, if not thoroughly disheartening, pursuit. Even if you are a trend-setter, as soon as a certain phase passes, there is evidence in the world that may come to be embarrassing for you. (Is there anyone from Gen X donning acid wash in its second coming? No way. We…
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Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi: there is no Other
In a video that went viral at some point over the past few years, a gene-testing company gathered up a bunch of folks who were so very, very proud of their various heritages — some to the point of outright hostility to other races and ethnicities. When the tests came back to show that their…