With the release of their first record in five years, Neon Blue Bird, Ollabelle remind us just how stirring the right combination of vocal harmonies can be. Led by Amy Helm, Levon’s daughter, and Jimi Zhivago, this New York-based roots outfit revels in tweaking traditional tunes such as Stephen Foster’s...

With Mark Olson returning as co-leader of The Jayhawks after 16 years away, Mockingbird Time marks a long-awaited reunion for nostalgic fans. Its familiar noises are pleasing, too â€" though it’s hard to believe this was ever a band which made music that sounded new.

Long ago, The Jayhawks...

When Ry Cooder recorded his first two albums, collections of songs by the likes of Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie that evoked the desperate times of the Great Depression, he could scarcely have imagined that 40 years later he’d be singing of the same old problems, but...

Astute fans know that to attend a Levon Helm rambleâ€"especially one of his intimate rambles at his barn in Upstate New Yorkâ€"is to bare witness to a legend of American music. This live collectionâ€"a CD and a DVD sold separatelyâ€"is from a 2008 ramble at one of America’s finest auditoriums...

Firstly, this disc is blessed with an evocative title, and its song of the same name delivers the sounds to match. Where do we place Jewell, this country miss who also sounds like a darkly mysterious rock'n'roller, a blues-gal, a purveyor of garage exotica? She appears to be quite...

It was an odd start to the festival with noticeably fewer punters than in previous years and a mutual feeling of misery throughout the site as the torrential rain in stark contrast to the blazing Friday heat took the vest wearing optimists by surprise.

But My Morning Jacket reminded me what...

Fans of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and The Gaslight Anthem will lap up the ersatz blue-collar Americana of Danny Wilson, a south Londoner who appears to have been born to the sound of the screen door slamming and the sight of Mary’s dress waving. Wilson was...

The second disc from Bon Iver, the indie folk outfit led by musician Justin Vernon, is less a collection of songs than it is a meditation on placeâ€"on how one’s locale translates in one’s art. The self-titled follow-up to 2008’s beloved album For Emma, Forever Ago names each of its...

  Sean Smith, though noted more for his acoustic guitar work, as a solo artist and producer, and his associating with such American Primitive-focused labels like Tompkins Square and Gnome Life. But, perhaps unfairly, his electric work has not been given the respect it deserves. Maybe that is because his...

Tony Furtado established himself as a prodigious picker early in his careerâ€"he won two National Bluegrass Banjo Championships, in 1987 and in ‘91. However, during the course of a 20-year career, he’s deftly navigated through several musical styles, in addition to being a fiery slide guitarist and itinerant folkie. Golden...