country
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Elegy with Records on the Doorstep
The old music still filled pits in him like sawdust and wood glue do a nail hole. The songs didn’t say anything new over the years, but they provided home when he missed it.
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Song of the Day: “Let Me See That Ponytail Run”
The Defibulators are the rootsiest bluegrass outfit to come stomping out of Brooklyn, New York, in a long time—perhaps ever. Named by VICE Music as “Brooklyn’s kings of alt-country, minus the ‘alt,’” The Defibulators’ sound has been described as truckerpunk, Americana, citibillie……
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Albums of Our Lives: Rosanne Cash’s Black Cadillac
In her voice, I am held, cradled even. I am equal parts longing and hope. I am home.
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The Recipe to Decolonized Love is in Beyoncé’s Lemonade
“There is a curse that will be broken,” she promises.
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Song of the Day: “Misunderstood”
The incredible cacophony of the bridge on Wilco’s definitive ballad “Misunderstood” is all the more striking because of its contrast with the rest of the tender, harmonious song. The brilliance of songwriter Jeff Tweedy is on full display here as…
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Song of the Day: “Hard To Tell”
The genre of bluegrass receives its fair share of criticism. Considered by some to be a backwater of the teeming estuary of American music known as country, bluegrass, characterized by a decidedly twangier sound, gets unfairly stereotyped as the redneck’s music…
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Song of the Day: “Ramblin’ Man”
The Allman Brothers have had a long and tumultuous run since their formation in 1971 around a core group including Duane and Gregg Allman. The death of Duane in a motorcycle accident that very year could have broken up the…
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Sound Takes: Something More Than Free
“My day will come if it takes a lifetime,” sings Isbell, with the sunny assuredness to make us believe him.
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Song of the Day: “Tennessee Waltz”
Every music genre shifts its boundaries over time, and soul music has done so time and time again, beginning with its heyday in the 1960s. Sam Cooke, who achieved fame first as a young gospel performer in the 40s, is often considered its inventor.…
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Song of the Day: “Never Over You”
Critics have described indie singer-songwriter Natalie Prass variously as “stunning,” “sublime,” “charmingly delicate,” and also, bizarrely, as a Disney princess. The Nashville-based former Berklee College of Music student offers up a heady melange of influences on her acclaimed new eponymous album.…