Phil Jamieson, who mans the keys, synth and guitars for instrumental rock act Caspian takes the “post-rock or just rock” questions with a great deal more understanding than many of his more celebrated, non-singing peers. In fact, some guitar-intensive acts get downright pissed when confronted with the seemingly innocuous “post-rock”…
Mississippi native and former lead-singer for the successful Squirrel Nut Zippers, Jimbo Mathus, shows his true southern self on his latest, excellent album, White Buffalo. While his old band brought attention back to Swing music for a while in the late 1990’s, it’s now tough to imagine Mathus ever being…
For over 20 years, the Mother Hips have expertly offered a soulful, psychedelic sound that just seems to flow in the Northern Californian waters. Although it’s been a while since the band’s last album, the groove-tastic Pacific Central Dust, was released in 2009, word has it that a new album…
Dallas may have its first band to ever officially count a photographer/cinematographer as a member. These Machines Are Winning, a new music and art hybrid performance project conceived and fronted by former [DARYL] frontman Dylan Silvers, started as an enthralling, ambitious idea that’s now become a living, breathing entity of…
Holly Williams, the 31 year old granddaughter of the iconic Hank Williams, has grown into a formidable artist all her own. Unlike her off-his-rocker dad and her crazy-ass half-brother, Hank Williams III, Holly hasn’t really dabbled in the stone-cold honky-tonk sounds that her family has been making for decades. She…
Texas Country, or Red Dirt, or whatever one wants to call it, has become big business these days. So, it’s not really shocking that a couple of television shows dedicated to artists fitting into the Lone Star-loving realm have popped up and are shedding light on the talent all over…
While George Strait and George Jones recently garnered headlines for their announcements that they would be retiring from the road soon, Loretta Lynn keeps rolling. Last year, the 80-year-old daughter of a coal miner told the Observer that the secret to an artist’s longevity is “how hard they’re willing to…
Sean Watkins has been kicking around the music biz for many years now. As perhaps the least-heralded member of the now-dormant roots group Nickel Creek, he shared the stage with his sister, Sara, who is now enjoying solo success and the recently crowned “genius,” and mandolin virtuoso, Chris Thile, who…
The Dave Grohl-directed documentary Sound City, is a loving and thoroughly entertaining docu-valentine to the legendary studio just outside of L.A. where many landmark albums were recorded. Throughout the film’s first half, we’re given glimpses of behind the scenes action on the making of such classics as Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors,…
On the morning of December 17, 2012, as I was in my truck listening to KHYI-FM 95.3 The Range, a rocking, sparkling song I hadn’t heard before came on. I continued to listen, drop-jawed, to the lyric: “Party till the break of dawn, Daddy’s got it goin’ on” commingled with…
This past October, Punch Brothers mandolin player and vocalist Chris Thile received a $500,000 “Genius Grant” from the MacArthur Foundation, bolstering the notion fans of roots music already understood to be true. While Thile has been a closely watched prodigy since childhood, his current gig has him stretching the boundaries…
Almost a year ago, Erika Wennerstrom and her band, the Heartless Bastards, released an excellent LP, Arrow, which followed up the possibly more excellent The Mountain. Now that the hoopla surrounding the release of Arrow has passed, the Austin-based act is in a sweet spot. The band’s set last March…
On August 31, Todd Gautreau, the brains behind excellent area dream-pop act Crushed Stars, took to the band’s Facebook page to sound off on a topic that’s turned into a national debate among artists, record labels, music consumers and various streaming services, specifically and most notably Spotify. Gautreau, who’s received…
On August 31, Todd Gautreau, the brains behind excellent area dream-pop act Crushed Stars, took to the band’s Facebook page to sound off on a topic that’s turned into a national debate among artists, record labels, music consumers and various streaming services, specifically and most notably Spotify. Gautreau, who’s received…
Houston native Roger Creager has been a mainstay of the Texas-centric festivals and college-town honky-tonks that make up the Texas country circuit. Over the course of six full-length albums and 14 years, Creager’s become known more for his rambunctious live shows than he has his relatively small catalog of recorded…
The country music that came from DFW in 2012 was perhaps even more of a mixed bag than 2011. Last year, many newcomers were featured on our list of the Ten Best Local Country Songs, but this year, the vets held their ground with authority. From stone-cold, sawdust-kicking AM gold…
Certainly, there will be lists coming forth that will discuss the wonderful local tour stops for many national and international bands in 2012, whether Radiohead at the AAC, Sharon Von Etten at Trees or Frank Ocean at South Side Music Hall. See also: – The top five musical resurrections of…
If there were a String Band Hero video game, it’s highly likely the music of Nashville’s Old Crow Medicine Show would be prominent in the list of song options. Best known for “Wagon Wheel,” the song that’s as responsible for today’s youthful lust for all things banjo as any other…
Carry Me Back, Old Crow Medicine Show’s comeback record after a yearlong hiatus, is also a return to the raw, freewheeling style of their early days. The former New York City subway buskers are at their best when they’re telling a story that may bear the sound of the old…
Metroplex country singerNate Kipp, who had a song on our top 10 local country songs of 2011 list, is in a giving mood this season. While he readies his follow up to last year’s great The Holding Pattern, he decided to write his first original Christmas song. “I’ve wanted to…
Mike Eli, lead singer for the ascending Eli Young Band, has seen the quartet he helped start in Denton in 2000 go from playing some of the smallest stages in North Texas to being awarded country music’s top trophies, including the recent ACM award for Song of the Year, for…
The folky, harmonic pop of NYC trio the Spring Standards has been in production since 2008, and is now available their inventively inventively packaged double EP, Yellow/Gold, released this past May. James Cleare, James Smith and Heather Robb are swinging through Denton tonight, and we had a moment to speak…
