1969: A Watershed Year For Americana Music Half a century ago, in a single calendar year, an avalanche of albums were released that would go on to have a lasting and monumental impact on what would become known as alt-country and more recently Americana music. Looking back at 1969 and pursuing the list of albums … Continue reading
TOWNES VAN ZANDT SKY BLUE Fat Possum Records/Inertia Early in 1973, Townes Van Zandt visited his journalist and musician friend Bill Hedgepeth in Atlanta, Georgia, as he often would through his life, and recorded these stripped down acoustic songs in Hedgepeth’s home studio. Some are instantly recognisable TVZ classics while two are unreleased tracks, others … Continue reading
SONGS OF TRIBUTE For my Waitin’ Around to Die column in Rhythms I recently took a look at some of the outstanding releases in the field of tribute albums. Specifically those that fall under the umbrella of Americana and alt-country, whether it’s in recognition of an artist’s body of work or a fundraiser to assist them … Continue reading
This Sunday, Dec 4th is the final Heartbreaker Sessions for 2016 (we’ll be back early in 2017) so we’re hoping that plenty of alt-country and folk lovin’ types will come down to The Bearded Tit in Redfern, Sydney for live sets from Darren Cross and Jen Mize plus the usual cosmic country, troubadour picking, folk … Continue reading
On RSD 2015 (April 16th) the wonderful Light In The Attic Records will release the Heartburn Highways: 40th Anniversary Edition Box Set. Limited to 1,000 copies worldwide Proudly Made in the USA Hand crafted custom wood box by Boles Studio, Bronx, NY LP-sized 80 page book with exhaustive 20,000 word essay by Sam Sweet interviewing artists, documentary creators and … Continue reading
This week saw some great new music hitting the internet with new tracks from Ayleen O’Hanlon, Joshua Seymour and the welcome return of Lucero. We also published reviews of the new and very fine album from The Deslondes of which we said: Their songs swing and rattle along with real ache and verve, never settling … Continue reading
The weather has been fairly chaotic of late here in Sydney and one victim of it’s wrath was the Petersham Bowling Club, one of the finest supporters of roots music with live shows, craft beer and a family friendly environment. They suffered water damage and had to reschedule some shows while they cleaned up the … Continue reading
Here’s Townes Van Zandt with a great full band recording of Hunger Child Blues, taken from the compilation In The Beginning (Compadre Records, 2003). The songs on In The Beginning were recorded in his first Nashville recording sessions in 1966 –predating the release of For the Sake of the Song by two years. Eight of these ten … Continue reading
Due for release on February 5th, Townes Van Zandt, Sunshine Boy: The Unheard Studio Sessions and Demos 1971-1972 (Omnivore Recordings, 2013) consists entirely of previously unreleased music from Van Zandt’s classic albums High, Low & In Between and The Late Great Townes Van Zandt. Both albums were originally released in 1972 on the Poppy label. … Continue reading
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