Looks like we’re Nebraska bound. I love New Mexico green chile and history and warm winters, but I have a great opportunity with a new consulting firm in a small town half-way between the here and home. That and Albuquerque has many advantages, but personal safety is not one of them, and Colorado is full. […]
200 Years On the Santa Fe Trail
The Spanish founded the city of Santa Fe in 1610 on top of a native Pueblo, as La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís–the capital of Nuevo Mexico. The province became part of the nation of Mexico after independence from Spain in 1821. Spain wanted trade to go through Mexico, […]
Raton, New Mexico
Willow Springs stage station once provided respite at the southern base of Raton Pass for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail’s mountain cutoff. In 1879, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway set rails over the pass from Colorado and their division point became the City of Raton, New Mexico. Later, Interstate 25 connected Denver […]
Absaroka County, New Mexico
In 2004, author Craig Johnson created Sheriff Walt Longmire as the protagonist in his series of Western-crime novels set in fictional Durant, Wyoming, county seat of the equally fictional Absaroka County. Longmire is a crime fighter, but first and foremost his is a gentleman and a cowboy. Johnson has to date gifted us 21 books […]
Corb Lund Live at the Launchpad on 2020-03-08
Corb Lund put on an amazing show on Central Avenue–Old Route 66–in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Sunday March 8th, 2020, just before we all went into nation-wide lockdown. Corb has a new album coming out, Agricultural Tragic, and I scored a pre-release copy at the show. Yeah band merch. Too many “country” artists are all […]
Grammys do Good, Ameripolitan Awards do Awesome
Dale Watson doesn’t much care for the “Americana” appellation, so he went and dubbed himself “Ameripolitan”. That’s a nod to the old “Countrypolitan” style of Chet Atkins’ 1960s’ Nashville Sound. Now I’m not much of a Chet Atkins fan of orchestrated pop country, but it’s still better than anything in 21st Century pop country. Dale […]
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2019 Blog Posts in Review: JCShepard.com turns 10
It’s the end of the decade… or maybe that’s the end of 2020 instead of the beginning. Either way, jcshepard.com is 10-years old, a decade since we went online 1 January 2009. Happy birthday to the blog. In 2018, our site here had 1,400 visitors give about 6,200 views, with August 2018 garnering more clicks […]
JC’s Americana Top Tunes of 2019
The Year in Music for 2019 was dedicated to Guy Clark and Susanna Clark, with a coda for the late, great Townes Van Zandt. As soon as I heard about Steve Earle’s project to dedicate an album of covers to Guy Clark’s memory, I knew this would be my favorite recording of 2019. GUY held […]
No Depression 2019 Readers and Critics Favorite Albums
No Depression magazine started out covering “Alt.Country…whatever that is”. As such, they still cover, well, Alt.not-country but we’re not quite sure whatever that is”. No Depression isn’t an “Americana” magazine, but it isn’t NOT an “Americana” outlet either. Mostly, though, No Depression (like the namesake album by Uncle Tupelo) covers the sorta music I like […]
Americana Radio Top 100 Airplay for 2019
Hayes Carll and Good Companions Hayes Carll’s album What It Is took the top spot for most spins by Americana Radio in 2019 (through 12/17/19). Denver’s very own The Lumineers’ cut “Gloria” off III was the single most spun single in 2019. Contrast this, as usual, with the Grammy’s complete lack of recognition of the […]