During Steely Dan’s first go-round—the period from Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972) to Gaucho (1980)—I remained dubious about the increasingly popular and steadily shrinking band. To me their reluctance to tour symbolized a growing distance ...

When Bob Dylan retreated to Woodstock in 1967 and began writing and recording songs with The Band, those oft- bootlegged sessions soon became the stuff of legend. The new material had deep roots and was ...

At 66, Neil Young is pedal to the metal. This spring he reunited with Crazy Horse on Americana, sending Stephen Foster songs into the Top 10. This fall he published the autobiography Waging Heavy Peace ...

Nearly 35 years into a recording career that began with the self-titled Dire Straits album, singer-songwriter-guitarist-produ- cer Knopfler holds as steady on his course as such older baby-boom peers as Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, and ...

For their sixth album, The King Is Dead, the Decemberists set out to record an album that embraced the adage “less is more.” This evolution came as a direct result of the indie folk rockers’ ...

The truism that bands lose their creative spark after a few records doesn’t apply to Over the Rhine. In fact, twenty years into OTR’s recording career The Long Surrender actually ups the ante, with Grammy- ...

As reissues of obscure recordings continue to rain down upon us, one might wonder if there’s anything left worth rediscovering—but the fact that Michael Chapman’s Fully Qualified Survivor is only now being re-released in America ...

Slowly but inexorably, things are going Carrie Rodriguez’s way. The Mexican- American singer-songwriter keeps making fine records, keeps getting great press, and keeps proving herself a distinctive writer and instrumentalist both. With greater recognition looming, ...

The animating conceit of Donna Hughes’s unsettling new album is expressed early on, in the bustling, minor-key bluegrass epistle titled “Nothing Easy,” in which the artist, one of the most compelling songwriters in roots music, ...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Doug MacLeod is a unique, powerful guitarist with a rich and soulful voice, singing original songs based on his own life and experiences. This is ‘Genuine Original Acoustic Music’ at its ...

For 35 years, this Rhode Island-based band has delivered a tasty gumbo of high-octane jump blues, moving through a series of personnel changes while spawning red-hot blues guitarists (Duke Robillard and Ronnie Earl) and staying ...

Jack White of the White Stripes (and the Raconteurs and Dead Weather) produced this showcase for rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson, a 73-year-old singer who once dated Elvis Presley. Jackson—best known for the rockabilly hits “Fujiyama ...

Joni Mitchell’s career has been filled with startling detours. From the dulcimer- strumming folkie of the Woodstock era, to the jazz-infused, smoky stylist of today, the gifted singer/songwriter has been a bold and restless musical ...

This two-CD, 21-track collection (plus a hidden track) gathers songs cast aside during the marathon recording sessions that spawned Darkness on the Edge of Town, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band’s epic 1978 album ...

The Stooges—vocalist Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, bassist Dave Alexander, and drummer Scott Asheton—unleashed their feral proto-punk on the world in 1969 and it landed like a boot to the head. The rock world was ...