Sam Phillips

Summertime Soul

Echoes and Reverberations: The Twisted Fate of a Lifetime Crate Digger

Many of them were tucked away in suburban strip malls, their storefronts always the black sheep of the retail family. They were usually owned by a single lifelong music fan, someone who relished the opportunity to dog-paddle in the eye of the pop culture hurricane. Sometimes they smelled like incens ... More >>

The Top 10 Reissues of 2008

It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again. BILLY JOEL The Stranger (Columbia/Legacy) As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, rock. "Scen ... More >>

Hello, He's Not Johnny Cash

Walk the Line never strays from the dull telling of a tall tale

Americana Pie

Grab a slice of 2004's best roots music while it's still hot.

Sam Phillips

Sunday, October 10

Here's Hoping

Hope springs eternal on Second Avenue, but real change comes slowly

Johnny Cash

The Essential Johnny Cash / The Fabulous Johnny Cash / Hymns by Johnny Cash / Ride This Train / Orange Blossom Special / Carryin' On With Johnny Cash & June Carter (Columbia Legacy)

A New Tune

After September 11, some new songs just don't sound the same

Bob Dylan

Love and Theft (Columbia Records)

Life is Messy

Rodney Crowell chases old ghosts down to Houston

Just Beautiful

A year so good, not even Sleater-Kinney makes the Top 10

Rock and a Hard Place

Music can free your soul, but can it spring the West Memphis Three?

Oh bury me not

Johnny Cash sings of Love, God, Murder and how all three make him a legend

The sideman

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acknowledges Scotty Moore, the guitarist behind the King

Oh, Mann

Three years and one bad record deal later, Aimee Mann returns -- with two wonderful records

Joe Henry

Out There

The seven-year itch

It's one step forward, two steps back for XTC

Out of a Trance

Trance Syndicate--Texas' best label--closes its doors, leaving Bedhead without a home

Back in black

Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash are still our greatest Storytellers

The million-dollar record

Four years after its debut, Slowpoke makes its major-label bow on Geffen

Rave on cats, he cried

Carl Perkins, 1932-1998

Forever, my beloved

Julie Miller makes music for--and of--the ages

Joyful noise

New Arts Six and Langston Hughes celebrate a stirring Black Nativity

In spite of his ignorance

Van Dyke Parks, the eternal odd man out, finally comes out to play

Letters

Born again

Sam Phillips might be pop music's savior

Good rockin' last night

Dallas' forgotten Star Talent Records label got there before Sun's rise

Chocolate and cheese

1994 wasn't The Year of Anything--except great music

Joe Bob Briggs

Drive-In Movie Critic of Grapevine, TX