In about a week, Hank Williams III will be hitting the road on an East Coast tour, and for the first time in a long time he won’t be carrying an opening band. With one of the biggest and most loyal fan bases in non-mainstream country, Hank III’s opening slot has been coveted for years, [...]
The female reincarnation of Hank Williams, one Rachel Brooke, has announced she will have a new album coming out this Fall called Down in the Barnyard. No specific release date yet, stay tuned. This comes on the heels of some concert dates she will be sharing with Jayke Orvis coming up in late September, early [...]
2010 is turning out to be a bumper crop year for REAL country music, and no, I’m not just saying that to be a cheerleader for the “scene.” I’ll be the first to admit that last year was a terrible year for new releases, save for a few great ones from the Bloodshot Record’s gang [...]
I picture a post-Apolcolyptic scene: ghost towns full of crumbling buildings and rubble, smoke filling the sky and blocking out the sun, the result of a society that gave no value to art, heritage, and truth; a vast wasteland of grayness. Then all of a sudden in the midst of all the death and decay, [...]
Premier Gothic Country band Those Poor Bastards have just announced they will be releasing a new album, Gospel Haunted, on June 15. The project will be available on CD, and a limited edition clear vinyl. There will be a limited edition Gospel Outtakes 7″ on vinyl as well. Here’s the blurb from the band: “Those [...]
Rachel Brooke isn’t just a musician, she’s a muse. If she was an illustration, it would be an old one, from the 1920′s with tattered edges. Rachel would be sitting on a high cliff overlooking the sea like a Greek Siren, and ships full of suitors would be trying unsuccessfully to approach her position. The [...]
Hank III’s latest record Rebel Within to be released May 25th is now available for preview through Amazon.com, where you can listen to ALL the songs, IN THEIR ENTIRETY! Just CLICK HERE, and navigate over to the player on the right. You’ll want to get over there and get your listen on ASAP, because the [...]
First the bad news. One of the best festivals for independent roots music, the Deep Blues Festival, is no more. Simply put, this is a tragedy. If the independent roots movement had one premier festival, this was it, and this is coming from someone focused on country more than blues. Still, bands like .357 String [...]
It seems like whenever I start making “Best Of” lists, I draw the ire of one group of people or another. I think I am misunderstood quite commonly that my “Top” picks mean that they are my favorite personally, or that maybe I am even trying to push some agenda. I really do agonize over [...]
Tis the season of ringing cash register bells and getting snowed. What is a would-be responsible consumer to do when it seems like everything you want to purchase is going to fund terrorists, polluters, or corporations that screw artists and homogenize the music? It all makes you want to get as shitfaced as a shopping [...]
The Hank Williams female reincarnation known as Rachel Brooke and Lonesome Wyatt of Those Poor Bastards have just finished up a tour through the Midwest, Texas, and Florida in support of their duo record A Bitter Harvest. All the eyewitness accounts I have come across have had nothing but glowing things to say, and as [...]
When I fill out my MySpace REAL Country Awards, without question Rachel Brooke and Lonesome Wyatt’s collaboration A Bitter Harvest will make an appearance, or two or three. Well they have been compiling dates and have just announced their complete “Bitter Harvest” tour, appropriately starting in the spooky month of Rocktober (horns up). Despite my [...]
(A Bitter Harvest is a collaboration between Rachel Brooke and Lonesome Wyatt of Those Poor Bastards. As the release date approached for this album, I began to worry that maybe my expectations were too high, and I was possibly hyping it to the point where it could only be a letdown. But what made this [...]
Today is the release date of my most anticipated album of the year, A Bitter Harvest, which is a collaboration between Lonesome Wyatt of Those Poor Bastards and Rachel Brooke. And your outlets for independent/Outlaw country news and interviews are all over this release like a bad rash. First, Jashie P of Outlaw Radio will [...]
My personal most anticipated release of 2009, A Bitter Harvest, which is a collaboration between Rachel Brooke and Lonesome Wyatt of Those Poor Bastards, is now available for previewing and pre-order! The album is available on CD, vinyl, and a limited edition white vinyl (only 100 copies), and they all can be pre-ordered by CLICKING [...]
When I first heard that Rachel Brooke and Lonesome Wyatt from Those Poor Bastards were teaming up on an album, I just about fell out of my chair. Though this pairing kind of came out of left field, it made complete and perfect sense to me, and this immediately became my most anticipated 2009 album [...]
Let me put it to you as straight as I can people: you need the .357 String Band in your life. Life is better with the .357 String Band. The world is a better place because the .357 String Band is in it. Am I still high as a Georgia pine off of 1 1/2 [...]
One of the reasons that I could justify a 300 mile trip to see Hank III last week, was that the the opening act was the leaders of the Gothic country movement Those Poor Bastards from Madison, WI. I’ve been a fan of their eerily-produced, self described “Old Tyme Hellfire Music” for a while. Lonesome [...]
I was floored yesterday when I learned that Rachel Brooke is pairing up with none other than Lonesome Wyatt of Those Poor Bastards to make a new album! The name of the album is going to be “A Bitter Harvest,” and they are planning for it to be available in May on CD and vinyl. [...]
Allright, so this is my list of my top album releases of 2008. I’m only one human, so I can only purchase and listen to so much music. So if there’s something I’m missing or if you want to put your own list together, pony up in the comments section. No. 1 Fire & Hail [...]
