Jim Lauderdale: COUNTRY, SOUL and BLUEGRASS
Jim Lauderdale is a musical chameleon of sorts. One of the best living country songwriters, his incredible range of styles is an amalgam...
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By Alan Richard
- Mar 5, 2020
- 13 min
STAX IN ’68: SOME OF MEMPHIS’ BEST MUSICAL MOMENTS
One of my favorite box sets is Stax ’68: A Memphis Story, a compilation of the legendary label’s dozens of singles and B-sides during a...
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By Alan Richard
- Feb 18, 2020
- 10 min
MEMPHIS MAGIC
Producer Matt Ross-Spang discusses his work with the Rev. Al Green, John Prine, Margo Price, William Bell, and other greats Few young...
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By Alan Richard
- Feb 2, 2020
- 6 min
MARTY STUART'S MUSICAL PILGRIMAGE
Twenty years after Marty Stuart’s concept album The Pilgrim was released, it’s out again, with a deluxe edition that includes a coffee...
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By Alan Richard
- Feb 1, 2020
- 1 min
COUNTRY MUSIC FOR ALL
Cindy Emch and her band are making a new album, and everyone’s invited to the party. The Secret Emchy Society, as the alt-country,...
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By Alan Richard
- Jan 9, 2020
- 16 min
BLACK COWBOYS
Dom Flemons’ latest musical journey explores folk music, American history, the West, and the African-American experience Growing up in...
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By Alan Richard
- Dec 4, 2019
- 1 min
BLUEGRASS PRIDE
It’s a long way from San Francisco to Mississippi, but singer-songwriter and banjo player Tyler Stegall of The High Water Line has...
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By Alan Richard
- Nov 17, 2019
- 1 min
ELTON JOHN'S GAY COUNTRY SOUL
Elton John and songwriting partner Bernie Taupin were star-struck when the members of The Band filed into John’s dressing room after a...
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By Alan Richard
- Nov 11, 2019
- 4 min
EMMYLOU LIVE: RED DIRT REQUIEM
Emmylou Harris is one of the most important artists in country and American roots music. Beyond her stunning voice, which always soars...
400 views0 comments
By Alan Richard
- Oct 28, 2019
- 3 min
BLUEBIRD CAFE MAGIC STILL ALIVE AND WELL
On any given night in Nashville, magic can happen, legendary songwriter (and my friend) Marshall Chapman often says. This certainly was...
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By Alan Richard
- Sep 27, 2019
- 15 min
BLACK AND COUNTRY
The African-American influence--and white appropriation--in country music goes even deeper than Ken Burns’ important new documentary...
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By Alan Richard
- Sep 1, 2019
- 1 min
SPEAKING WITH KEN BURNS
I spoke in depth with filmmaker Ken Burns a few weeks ago about his forthcoming eight-part documentary, Ken Burns: Country Music, which...
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By Alan Richard
- Aug 14, 2019
- 6 min
BLUES SURVIVOR
FEW BLUESMEN AS AUTHENTIC (AND AUDACIOUS) AS BOBBY RUSH: Bobby Rush came from Louisiana and Arkansas, fled to Chicago, played the blues,...
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By Alan Richard
- Aug 10, 2019
- 5 min
A TREASURE OF BLACK MUSIC
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION’S NEWEST MUSEUM SHOWS RELICS OF SOUL, GOSPEL, COUNTRY AND MORE The National Museum of African-American History...
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By Alan Richard
- Jul 7, 2019
- 6 min
WHEN GOSPEL GOT FUNKY
LEGENDARY STAX COLLECTION SHOWS OFF GOOD-NEWS GROOVES One of my favorite soul albums is actually a gospel album. The Gospel Truth: The...
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By Alan Richard
- Jun 28, 2019
- 6 min
WILL KIMBROUGH'S 'ALABAMA'
Nashville songwriter laments modern-day lynching, finds family in blues and Americana "Picked up by some folks Took to me to the woods...
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By Alan Richard
- Jun 23, 2019
- 3 min
RY COODER'S LATEST BLUES, GOSPEL TRIBUTE
Los Angeles-based master guitarist Ry Cooder’s remarkable 2018 album The Prodigal Son is perhaps the best--out of his many--records that...
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By Alan Richard
- Jun 20, 2019
- 4 min
MARY BRAGG, KYSHONA: BACK IN GEORGIA
Two of Nashville's best emerging singer-songwriters, Mary Bragg and Kyshona (Armstrong), brought their show to Eddie’s Attic, the music...
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By Alan Richard
- Jun 17, 2019
- 4 min
CASH, COODER SALUTE 'MAN IN BLACK'
Rosanne Cash told the audience at the Ryman Auditorium how she’d spent 40 years mostly avoiding playing her father’s songs. But the...
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By Alan Richard
- Jun 7, 2019
- 3 min
YOLA, THE U.K.'S COUNTRY-SOUL MAVEN
Yola’s melodies and vocals soar on her new record, Walk Through Fire, the most country-soul-focused album of the year (as far as I know),...
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