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 […]
Grammy Award Nominations Don’t Get It All Wrong This Year
The Recording Academy announced their 2020 nominations for the 62nd Grammy Awards last month. While I could pan their General Field nominations as the typical generic, awful ear candy (in particular the controversial NasX-Billy Ray Cyrus fiasco), I won’t. Life is too short to rehash the basic fact that Pop Music Sucks. Moving on. Drilling […]
Turtles All The Way Down
Americana Music for 2014 “I saw the light from heaven shining all around.” –Dry Bones, traditional, as performed by Graham Lindsey This weekend we endure the shortest day of the year—all about the darkness and all about the light. The glass is half-empty. The glass is half-full. All the way to the bottom, it’s always the […]
At the Root of the Music
Uncle Tupelo is the fulcrum of my ROOTS music universe. All things good, bad and ugly; happy, melancholy and sad, flow thru the music and the people and the places of the boys from Southern Illinois. The melancholy is mine–youth is wasted on the young they say. While I was navel-gazing up at Urbana, potential […]