Remembering Michael Jackson, My Way

The loss of Michael Jackson this week, and thinking about all the great music the man made before succumbing to the weirdness of the megapopstar life, coincided for me with another event–getting my old Lego sets down out of the attic for my own kids to play with. So it is with that nostalgic frame [...]

Alt-Country From Another Country

So, with South America making the news this week for all the wrong reasons (the Argentina mistress of our dirtbag South Carolina Governor), here’s a great new clip of a song from Madera, a self-proclaimed “Alt-Country” band from Uruguay, of all places. It’s actually pretty good stuff, kind of like a spanish language Blue Rodeo. [...]

Chris Pandolfi through the Looking Glass

There are a number of young instrumentalists in the fringes of bluegrass and new acoustic music who are reinventing the genre to their own liking, from Noam Pikelny to Matt Flinner, Chris Thile, and more; add Infamous Stringdusters co-founder Chris Pandolfi to the list with his second solo disc The Looking Glass, out now on [...]

Barry Beckett, RIP

Barry Beckett Passes Away
The specifics are in the link above, but if you think you’ve never heard of Barry Beckett, I can promise that you’ve probably heard him. For a pretty good listing of his production work and the countless albums he appeared on as a keyboard player, check out discogs.com.
Beckett played on many of [...]

Springsteen, Live in Stockholm

Just for fun, here’s a clip of one of my all-time favorite Springsteen songs, as performed live in Stockholm just a couple of days ago–being a rough audience video, it really captures the feeling of being in the “pit” for a Bruce show…

Mandy Moore Grows Up to be Amanda Leigh

I posted a clip here recently of the single from pop singer Mandy Moore’s new album Amanda Leigh and raved about how perfect a pop tune it was, without sounding like anything on pop radio. Well, the rest of the album’s out and it’s even more mature and frankly much better than even I expected.
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The Great Columbia Mixtape, My Version

Here’s my list of songs that any denizen of the Columbia, SC music scene over the past twenty or so years ought to at least have heard once or twice. This was my part of the process that brought this week’s cover story in the Columbia Free Times (click here for the official mixtape list [...]

New Music From Elvis Costello

Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane is the name of the brand new album from longtime critic’s darling Elvis Costello, who has gone through more artistic permutations in the last decade than Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen combined. Costello has returned to a country-folk vibe for the first time since the classic 80’s album King Of America [...]