Folk Music

The Five Best Concerts In Dallas This Week, February 18-21

Ra Ra Riot, Pacific Air Tuesday, February 19, at The Kessler Theater, $18-$25 Since Ra Ra Riot popped up on the radar in 2006, they've entertained crowds large and small with their poppy, instrumental sets. The group's third effort, Beta Love, just dropped last month, but because cellist Alexandra L ... More >>

Clint Niosi, Eyes, Wings & Many Other Things and Swirve

Saturday, August 11, at Good Records

Ronnie Fauss at the Common Table

Thursday, July 19, at the Common Table

SXSW: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Rock ACL Live

Bruce Springsteen's Thursday started with a keynote speech in one of the big ballrooms at the Austin Convention Center, and ended with a mythic three-hour set at ACL Live across town, in front of a few thousand people cooing "Bruce". The keynote and the show went hand in hand. If you weren't there ... More >>

Chuck Ragan Knows Good Road Music, Plugged or Unplugged

Scott ToepferChuck Ragan.​Gainesville, Florida's Chuck Ragan is one of those dudes who just can't go wrong. His more-than-a-decade's work with the still-revered punk act Hot Water Music is often cited by younger punk bands as a key motivator for their own punk-ish endeavors. In the more recen ... More >>

The Sheepdogs List Their All-Time Top Five Favorite Canadian Acts You Should Also Know

The Sheepdogs on the cover of the Rolling Stone.​From any way one might look upon them, The Sheepdogs of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, are living the dream of being rock stars on the rise. Earlier this year, the band became the first unsigned act to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone, and it didn't t ... More >>

Loudon Wainwright III: "If People Pay Me Extra Money [To Do "Dead Skunk"], I'll Play It."

Michael WIlsonLoudon Wainwright III​At 65, singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III is, perhaps, the elder statesmen of musicians who were tagged as "The Next Bob Dylan" in the early 1970s. But Wainwright's cynicism and humor have always set his songs a part from the typical coffee house troubadour ... More >>

Get To Know Your DOMAXXIII Nominees: Best Solo Act, Best Alt-Country/Roots Act, Best Country Act

​Welcome to our 2011 Dallas Observer Music Awards breakdown, wherein we'll use the weeks leading up to the DOMA showcases on Saturday, October 15 (which is also when voting ends), to explain the nominees in each category Today, we look at the nominees in the  Best Solo, Best Cou ... More >>

The Dodos,The Luyas

Seryn Will Finally Get Around To Releasing Its Debut... In Just Two More Short Months!

Seryn​Just last week, we shared a new video focusing on Denton's folk-loving five-piece Seryn and joked about the band's long-anticipated debut release, which, a couple times now, has seen its release pushed back for who knows what reasons. But today comes news that, finally, the band has settled ... More >>

Q&A: The Low Anthem's Jeff Prystowsky Talks Darwin, Fleet Foxes and Red Sox. (Also: Another Giveaway!)

The Low Anthem​Hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, the three members of The Low Anthem are all Ivy League-educated, classically trained musicians whose band is receiving a healthy critical and commercial buzz. The band's sophomore release, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, has drawn praise for its hig ... More >>

Because, Apparently, Zack de la Rocha Also Thinks the City Should Be in the Hotel Biz?

Perhaps, for its next ad, the R.I.P. Dallas folks could use a Woody Guthrie song -- "This Land is Your Land," maybe. Or Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction." Or The Specials' "Ghost Town." Till then, bulls on parade through Victory Park.

Heat Rave

Remember when summer was awesome? No? Well, Here are 10 great summers in music history to jog your memory.

A Bitter End

Bishop Allen, Page France, The Teeth

Saturday, July 28, at Hailey's, Denton

Weed Killer

Valentine's Play Daylist

Need the ultimate romantic mix tape? Look no further.

Bolton Lives!

Being an ass-clown ain't so bad

Sufjan Stevens

Wednesday, September 13, at the Lakewood Theater

Jesse DeNatale

Thursday, June 22, at AllGood Cafe

Zim Vs. Hag

How the two most polar songwriters of the '60s became the same man

Clay's the Thing

Shannon McNally

Monday, August 1, at Gypsy Tea Room's "Tea Room"

Rilo Kiley, Neva Dinova

Sunday, May 8, at Trees

Clay

East Dallas Mix Tape (Self-released)

Kevin House

Gutter Pastoral (Bongo Beat)

Bob Schneider and Salim Nourallah

Thursday, August 26

Daniel Lanois

July 24

Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsome, Vetiver

July 2

Califone

June 9

A3

Power in the Blood (One Little Indian)

Break Like the Wind

Spinal Tap tapped, the Folksmen turn it way down from 11

Johnny Cash / Various Artists

At Madison Square Garden (Sony Legacy)
American IV: The Man Comes Around (American/Lost Highway)
Dressed in Black (Dualtone)
Kindred Spirits (Sony)

Do Look Back

The Band dances The Last Waltz, but can time heal old wounds?

The Who?

Little Grizzly finds itself, and its new album, somewhere along the way

A Real Mother

When Shawn Colvin had a kid, it made giving birth to a new album a little harder

Britneymania!

What would the face of rock history have looked like if the British Invasion had been a Britney Invasion instead?

Flanagan's wake

VH1 vice president's novel about the music business mourns an era just since passed

Plain folk

Roger McGuinn, still a Byrd man, doesn't wanna be a rock 'n' roll star

G. Love and
Special Sauce

Out Here

Macha men

More than a decade after fronting one of Dallas' first new-wave bands, Joshua and Mischo McKay go out of this world

Out There

Forever young

Belated release of Bob Dylan's legendary Live 1966 brings it all back home

Out There

Out Here

Bordered by ballads and folksongs

John and Alan Lomax, groundbreaking musicologists

Bar chords

Harry Dean Stanton sings--but then, he always has

Roadshows

Economies of scale

Cake hopes that cutting a deal won't interfere with keeping it real