Carroll Brown, Songwriter?

If you were to ask South Carolina musician Carroll Brown what he considers himself to be, the word “songwriter” probably wouldn’t be the first one out of his mouth. “Entertainer,” probably, or “working musician,” perhaps.
Brown has been playing music for over three decades, mostly to the tourists of Charleston, where he survived a dozen [...]

Works Progress Administration: Musical Recovery Plan

From the land of unlikely yet cool musical collaborations comes the Works Progress Administration, featuring Sara and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek, Glenn Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket, Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), and west coast utility players such as Greg Leisz.
Centered around weekly jams at the L.A. club Largo, the [...]

The Man That Bill Noonan’s Become

With his latest solo CD The Man That I Can’t Be, Charlotte, North Carolina’s Bill Noonan proves that his reputation as one of the Southeast’s leading roots-rockers is well deserved.
Once the leader of The Rank Outsiders, since their breakup in 2002 Noonan has worked with like-minded artists such as David Childers and ex-Rank Outsider [...]

A Family Tradition, Guthrie Style

I had the pleasure of getting to know Johnny Irion and Sarah Lee Guthrie a little bit during the seven years they lived here in South Carolina, and their oldest daughter, born during that time, is about the same age as my oldest girl, so when proud papa Johnny sent me the following clip from [...]

More Patriotic Songs I Like

Last year about this time, I posted a list of patriotic songs that I liked. Since it has been one of my most-viewed posts ever, I figured it rated a sequel, so here are a few more patriotic tunes I like:
Simon and Garfunkel, “American Tune”: A deceptively simple song, the chorus is just as relevant [...]