A brief public service message for long-time Bob Dylan collectors: Don’t get rid of your bootlegs.

I walked away wondering how I’d missed Dark Hound’s first two albums. It’s an oversight that I intend to correct immediately.

‘Ramble at the Ryman,’ released on May 17, 2011, reminded us that Levon Helm was the Band’s loamy voiced, rhythmic center point. And something more.

Gary Burton’s country-jazz experiment ‘Tennessee Firebird’ broke every rule. He joins Tom Wilmeth to discuss a gutsy decision to record in Nashville.

This is a setting, like the measured context of the Band’s early work, that perfectly suits – even as it amplifies – Levon Helm’s voice.

You’d probably assume that 1981’s The Baron, produced by countrypolitan pioneer Billy Sherrill, would do little to suggest where Johnny Cash would end up a little over a decade later with the American Recordings series. You May Also Like: How Johnny Cash Challenged Convention Once Again on ‘American Recordings’ TomRead More

Somehow, Ray LaMontagne lost his mojo. A year went past after the release of his Grammy-winning God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise project. Then two. Then four. Other than the stand-alone track “Empty,” LaMontagne simply walked off the musical map. You May Also Like: The Black Keys Hit UponRead More

It’s not like “Neighbor,” the closing moment of Band of Horses’ 2010 album Infinite Arms, was a boisterous, plugged-in stomper. And yet, this new version — part of their forthcoming Acoustic at the Ryman, due on February 11, 2014 — finds a quieter place You May Also Like: Bob DylanRead More

Bob Dylan, at Robbie Robertson’s urging, handed one of his most famous songs off to Otis Redding in the hopes that he would do his own Stax-ified version of it. Things didn’t quite work out that way, however. You May Also Like: How Robbie Robertson Changed Bob Dylan Forever HowRead More

Time on the road had led Black and the Rodeo Kings to a new sound, inside dressing rooms, in the backs of rumbling busses, in the merchandise tent adjacent to the darkened stage. You May Also Like: Canadian Brass – ‘Canadiana’ (2022) Joe Sofra, “One of Those Things” (2020): OneRead More