Reviews

September 15, 2010

Review – Possesed By Paul James “Feed The Family”

In some of his songs the ambiguity of the lyrics allows them to hit your brain and bend to your own life’s experiences and needs. It’s like a cure all. Normally in an album review I would list certain songs, talk about them, compare them with each other and other songs for other artists. I would pick out favorite tracks, and talk about the weak ones to prove my objectivity. But with Possessed this seems like folly. There are no weak tracks.

Feed The Family, Hillgrass Bluebilly Records, Justin Townes Earle, Konrad Wert, Possessed by Paul James, Townes Van Zandt

September 14, 2010

Review – Justin Townes Earle’s Harlem River Blues

Trigger Reviews 75 Comments

…production can only go so far. There’s no meat here, no body. No soul, no blood, no deep roots–just aping and parody that is orchestrated, arranged, and packaged very well. I keep listening, waiting for those one or two songs that will cling to me so I can use them to buoy together an affinity for this project, but they haven’t come.

Bloodshot Records, Harlem River Blues, Justin Townes Earle, Pickathon, Pokey LaFarge, SXSW

September 6, 2010

Album Review – Dale Watson’s “Carryin’ On”

Trigger Reviews 17 Comments

The standout in this album is Dale’s voice. He exhibits superlative control and wide wisdom singing his parts that come across confidently, without any sign of weakness or chipped paint even after years of honky tonkin’ and road doggin’. If Nashville had tried to strap an Auto-tuner to him, he would have fried the machine from the complexity of runs, and the diversity of volume and note changes just in a simple, short phrase. Nashville younguns take note of a master…

Carryin' On, Dale Watson, George Jones, Lloyd Green, Merle Haggard, Pete Wade, Pickathon, Pig Robbins, Review, Ween

September 2, 2010

Left Arm Tan Has a Hit With “Wish”

Trigger Reviews 14 Comments

I think it is important when we talk about saving country music, that we don’t work from a position of envy. In truth the joke is on them. They may have the big money, the control of the radio stations and the media. But we have each other, and true themes mined from real life experiences. Let them have their fake world, we have real music…

Ft. Worth, Jim, Left Arm Tan, Review, Wish

August 29, 2010

A Letter To Ruby Jane Smith

Trigger Reviews 16 Comments

On Friday (8-27-10) I saw Ruby Jane Smith perform at The Kessler Theater in Dallas, TX. I was going to write a review for the show, and then write Ruby a fan letter because I was so moved by the performance. As I was writing the letter I noticed I was writing a quasi review as well, and so I decided to post it here in lieu of a traditional review.

Review, Ruby Jane, The Kessler Theater

August 27, 2010

Willis Alan Ramsey Delivers in Dallas

Trigger Reviews 7 Comments

I had no idea what to expect when driving down into Dallas to see Willis Alan Ramsey perform. Information on the legendary, but somewhat reclusive songwriter is scant at best. No website, calendar or social network sites to help. If you’re not religiously scanning the fine print of your local alternative newsweekly, and you don’t live in or near Texas, you’re likely to miss him.

Alison Rogers, America, Captain & Tennille, Dallas, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffet, Kenny Rodgers, Leon Russell, Lyle Lovett, Michael Martin Murphy, Poor David's Pub, Taj Mahal, Waylon Jennings, Willis Alan Ramsey

August 21, 2010

I’m Impressed by Possesed by Paul James

Trigger Reviews 4 Comments

(Possessed just released his latest album “Feed the Family” through Hillgrass Bluebilly Records, and it will be released worldwide Sep. 21st.) After recently reviewing the underground film The Folk Singer, I wanted to get more information about the “main character” (so to speak), the artist Possessed by Paul James, and luckily a check of his […]

Dan's Silverleaf, Denton, Feed The Family, Hillgrass Bluebilly, Mark Littler, Possessed by Paul James, Rubber Gloves, Scott H. Biram, Slowboat Films

August 1, 2010

Peewee Moore Hits The Outlaw Mark

Trigger Reviews 6 Comments

If someone asks you to define just what exactly you mean when you say “REAL” country or when you call someone an “Outlaw.” If words fail you when someone asks you to clarify what you mean when you say your music has to have “that sound.” When you say “I know it when I hear […]

Outlaw, Peewee Moore

July 23, 2010

Movie Review – The Folk Singer

Trigger Reviews 30 Comments

The Folk Singer is the exact right movie for this very moment in time. It courageously reaches down to the deepest measure of the human soul and spirit and mines what cannot be expressed in words. It says what we are all thinking, but were incapable heretofore of saying. You watch this movie and say, […]

Ghostwriter, Konrad Wert, MA Littler, Possessed by Paul James, Reverend Deadeye, Review, Scott H. Biram, The Folk Singer, Tom VandenAvond

July 19, 2010

The Quebe Sisters Are Good. Real Good.

Trigger Reviews 8 Comments

On Friday night I was treated to Western swing heaven as Ray Benson of Asleep At The Wheel brought his Bob Wills musical A Ride With Bob to my neck of the woods. (You can read my review of the show on the 9513.) The show featured a couple of guest artists, one being Ruby […]

A Ride With Bob, Asleep at the Wheel, Bob Wills, Marty Stuart, Ruby Jane, Taylor Swift, The Quebe Sisters

July 16, 2010

Album Review – Trampled By Turtles “Palomino”

Trigger Reviews 20 Comments

In one respect, we live in a blessed time in country music. If it was 1986, the superpickers of our generation would be stuffing a sock down the front of their spandex tights as hair designers kink their bangs and perm their mullet, getting them ready to go on stage and pull some ungodly bad […]

bluegrass, Palomino, Review, Trampled by Turtles

July 12, 2010

Lucky Tubb & Wayne Hancock at The Granada

Trigger Reviews 18 Comments

On Friday night I was supposed to be long gone from Dallas, TX. But plans changed as they sometimes do, and I was able to cash in the consolation prize of watching two overlords of old school country cross paths at one of the best venues in the country in what turned out to be […]

live, Lucky Tubb, Lucky Tubb and the Modern Day Troubadours, Matt Thomas, Review, Shane Keil, The Granada Theater, Wayne Hancock

July 11, 2010

Album Review – Jayke Orvis “It’s All Been Said”

Trigger Reviews 20 Comments

When maestro mandolin player and songwriter Jayke Orvis left the .357 String Band, some heavy metal transplants were screeching that he took all of their grittiness, guts, and anger with him. Taking that theory to its natural conclusion, I guess a few were expecting his solo project to be some sort of bloodletting ritual that […]

.357 String Band, Banjer Dan, Farmageddon Records, It's All Been Said, James Hunnicutt, Jayke Orvis, JB beverly and the Wayward Drifters, New Album, Review, The Goddamn Gallows

July 2, 2010

Deadeye Delivers w/ Trials & Tribulations

Trigger Reviews 13 Comments

Some might have though that this day would never happen, but with The Reverend Deadeye’s new album The Trials & Tribulations Of…, the Lord Jesus Christ is cool once again. The amount of one man band’s busting out of local scenes and making their way into the national eye has in no way diluted the […]

One Man Band, Review, The Reverend Deadeye, Trials and Tribulations

June 21, 2010

The Ruby Jane Show Live . . . and Hope

Trigger Reviews 25 Comments

I’m convinced. Ruby Jane was sent to earth by God to save country music. All accolades I lapped on the 15-year-old fiddle-playing fenom when I said You Need Ruby Jane In Your Life were validated, if not proved to be too tempered after seeing her live at Dallas’s historic Kessler Theater on Friday. Really, I […]

Bob Wills, Django Reinhardt, Review, Ruby Jane, The Kessler Theater, Willie Nelson

June 18, 2010

Brigitte London’s “Bare Bones”

Trigger Reviews 8 Comments

Simply put, Brigitte London is one the best singers of our time, and if you have heard her, you’re nodding in agreement right now. On Tuesday (6-21) she will release her latest record called Bare Bones, which as the name implies, is just her, a guitar, and a little bit of reverb. No band, no […]

Album Review, Bare Bones, Brigitte London, New Album, Roger Alan Wade, Vallejo

June 15, 2010

Interview w/ The Shack Shaker’s JD Wilkes

Trigger Reviews 8 Comments

Pound for pound, possibly the most underrated personality in music is the frontman and founder of the Legendary Shack Shakers, one Colonel JD Wilkes. Don’t take my word for it. Ask Jello Biafra of Alternative Tentacles and The Dead Kennedays who called JD Wilkes, “the last great Rock and Roll frontman.” Robert Plant is also […]

Alternative Tentacles, BR549, JD Wilkes, Jello Biafra, Joe Buck, Robert Plant, Seven Signs, The Bluegrass Inn, The Dead Kennedys, The Dirt Daubers, The Legendary Shack Shakers

June 6, 2010

Larry & His Flask Steal Show at Muddy Roots

Trigger Reviews 12 Comments

Well I’m not too sure who the hell Larry is, and why his flask is so predominately edified in the band name. What I do know is that to a man, the attendees of this year’s Muddy Roots Festival stumbled out of the hills of east Tennessee saying Larry and His Flask stole the show, […]

Hillstomp, Larry And His Flask, McDougall, Muddy Roots Festival, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Avett Brothers

June 2, 2010

Album Review – Lucky Tubb’s Hillbilly Fever

Trigger Reviews 17 Comments

Wow. Well if you head isn’t already spinning from the caliber of recent REAL country music releases, it will be now. Lucky Tubb & The Modern Day Troubadours team up with the legendary Wayne “The Train” Hancock for an old school comic book style dynamic duo one two punch to the gut of mainstream pop […]

Album, Dale Watson, Glenn Tubb, Hank III, Hillbilly Fever, Lucky Tubb, Lucky Tubb and the Modern Day Troubadours, Natalie Page, Review, Talmage Tubb, Tom Waits, Wayne Hancock

May 24, 2010

Vintage Album Review – Workingman’s Dead

Trigger Reviews 18 Comments

Those that have been around here for a while know that I like to come out of left field with my vintage album suggestions. You already have a big stack of records, no need for me to rehash through them. Still I know some of you are rolling up to this thinking, “What kind of […]

Album Review, American Beauty, Crosby Still Nash Young, Europe 72, Gram Parsons, Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia, John Hartford, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Pedal Steel Guitar, Red Headed Stranger, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Teach Your Children, The Grateful Dead, Vasser Clements, Willie Nelson, Workingmans Dead

May 17, 2010

Review – Outlaw Radio Compilation Volume 1

Trigger Reviews 43 Comments

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, […]

.357 String Band, Album, Andy Gibson, Black Eyed Vermillion, Brittney Spears, CD, Compilation, Dave Smith and the Country Rebels, Hellbound Glory, Izzy and the Kesstronics, Joe Buck Yourself, Joey Allcorn, Last False Hope, Little Lisa Dixie, Lucky Tubb & The Modern Day Troubadours, Old Red Shed, Outlaw Radio, Rachel Brooke, Review, Roger Alan Wade, Ronnie Hymes, Shooter Jennings, Six Gun Britt, Taylor Swift, Ted Russell Kamp, The Boomswagglers, The Dad Horse Experience, The Fisticuffs, The Goddamn Gallows, Those Poor bastards, Tompall Glasser

May 3, 2010

Album Review -Hank III’s The Rebel Within

Trigger Reviews 41 Comments

I’m going to have a lot to say about this record, but the upshot is that its damn good. It is an improvement from Hank III’s last offering Damn Right, Rebel Proud. It may not be his best album, or the album of the year, but considering all the different factors Hank had to juggle […]

Album, Curb Records, Dale Watson, Damn Right Rebel Proud, download, Hank III, Johnny Paycheck, Keith Neltner, listen, Rebel Within, Red Headed Stranger, Review, Straight to Hell, The Rebel Within, Waylon Jennings, Wayne Hancock, Willie Nelson

April 25, 2010

Movie Review- The Wild & Wonderful Whites

Trigger Reviews 29 Comments

As part of the Tribeca Film Festival, the long awaited film about the White family of West Virginia called The Wild & Wonderful Whites has been made available through some pay-per-view and on-demand services (check your provider), and through Amazon.com. Just about a year ago this week, this film created high controversy when the trailer […]

Dancing Outlaw, Documentary, Hank III, Jackass, Jesco White, Johnny Knoxville, movie, MTV, Review, Social Security, The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, watch

April 18, 2010

Live Review – Roger Alan Wade musINK

Trigger Reviews 13 Comments

When you hear the name Roger Alan Wade you’re likely to hear somewhere before or after “Johnny Knoxville’s cousin.” Not that anything is wrong with being Knoxville’s cousin, or even maybe using that to help your music career, but Roger has songs numbering in the hundreds. He’s written for Johnny Cash, George Jones, Willie Nelson, […]

George Jones, Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Cash, Johnny Knoxville, musINK, Review, Roger Alan Wade, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson

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