After school, I was milking the cow and listening to the radio when I heard a menacing baritone intone the words, "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die." It made an impression.
Music
I’m Just Dead I’m Not Gone, by James Luther Dickinson and the North Mississippi Allstars
In his storied career, Jim Dickinson produced some of rock’s greatest acts (Big Star, the Replacements). Here his sons Luther and Cody, who gained fame as the North Mississippi Allstars, accompany him in a live gig recorded three years before his death in 2009.
That’s Why God Made the Radio, by The Beach Boys
The new Beach Boys record doesn't always work, but when it does it dials in the group's age of innocence, filtered through years of experience.
Long Lost Ghosts, by Emily Hurd
Working with producer John Abbey (who has played with Daniel Lanois and Ray Davies), Emily Hurd turns in a soulful, tender album that recalls the best of Lucinda Williams and Shawn Colvin.
Elephant King, by Trace Bundy
Named “Most Promising New Talent” of 2008 by Acoustic Guitar magazine, Trace Bundy has been impressing audiences with his playing, which will please fans of Phil Keaggy, Michael Hedges and Laurence Juber.
I recently learned that "Onward Christian Soldiers" can speak truth—when it's not a display of militarism but just patently ridiculous.
True, by Willie Wisely Trio
This troubadour is a master of melody and pop invention, as evidenced on his McCartneyesque 1996 album She. Wisely returns to sparkling form here, and with depth to boot.
I'm prone to the occasional rant about how much I dislike the movement folk music of the 1960s—its lack of subtlety, its odd mix of the earnestly humorless and the cornball, its endless verses of repetition. But I love Woody Guthrie, who was born 100 years ago today. Guthrie was a generation older than the 60s troubadours and a singular influence on many of them, none of whom shared his gifts and sensibilities.
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