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Latest blog posts from Postmodern Sounds in Country and Western Music

Johnny Cash Remixed
I read an academic paper once that argued that hip-hop sampling was just a natural technological continuation of the practice of quotation in jazz and the blues.* The implicit corollary was that jazz, the blues, and other primarily African American musical forms were natural and inherently...
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Published 3 months ago

Chris Scruggs - Tennessee
I saw Chris Scruggs, former/on-and-off co-front man and steel player with BR549, last April and I picked up the tour-only EP Tennessee. I had liked Chris’s contributions to BR549, notably his song “Honky Tonkin’ Lifestyle,” which first appeared on his independent solo debut of the same...
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Published 5 months ago

Reverend Organdrum - Hi-Fi Stereo
The Reverend Horton Heat gig I saw last month was the same fast and frenzied postmodern rockabilly that’s been drawing standing-room only crowds for two decades. Front man Jim Heath’s hair might be starting to show his age, but his guitar playing isn’t exactly what you might expects from a...
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Published 9 months ago

The Jones Street Boys - Overcome
I got a song off this album from another blog (S:I?) a few months ago and couldn’t stop playing it. That song, “Last Time,” showed the Jones Street Boys as a promising string band willing to incorporate accent instruments such as piano, harmonica, and traps drums. When they sent me their...
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Published 10 months ago

Corb Lund - Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!
Corb Lund is obsessed with horses. I’m not sure if every song on this album mentions them, but even “Student Visas,” a haunting song about a US soldier’s experience as a CIA aide to the Nicaraguan Contras, calls upon the soldier’s family heritage in the cavalry, connecting his injury in...
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Published 10 months ago

White Ghost Shivers - Killing Tradition
Austin-based "hot jazz" ensemble the White Ghost Shivers are plugging in tonight at the Replay Lounge in Lawrence, KS, and playing a set of punked up versions of their 1920s-style fare. At their acoustic show last night I picked up a copy of a teaser EP featuring four of their songs redone in...
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Published a year ago

Jeff Zentner - Hymns to the Darkness
A couple months ago I posted about "distortion folk" group Creech Holler. Lead singer Jeff Zentner also sent me his solo CD, Hymns to the Darkness. Unlike Creech Holler, which takes a distorted electric take on largely traditional tunes, Zentner's disc brings a baker's dozen of acoustic...
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Published a year ago

The Statler Brothers - The Essential Statler Brothers, 1964-1969
If you're about my age, you probably only know about the Statler Brothers from their cheesy early-'90s TNN variety show and their appearance on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack (and the scene where Bruce Willis sings along). But before they got old and fully embraced corn pone humor, the Statler...
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Published a year ago

Forty Twenty - Lowdown and Dirty
I first saw Forty Twenty opening for BR549 in the spring of 2003. In the year that followed, they must have made the trip from Lincoln down to Lawrence or Kansas City another six or seven times, almost all of which I saw. Forty Twenty is a great country bar band, playing as long as three hours...
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Published a year ago

This is America.
Listen:Marty Stuart - Hobo's PrayerBuy:From Amazon
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Published a year ago

Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
I figure that it's about time for me to write about my (near) namesake, Ray Charles's 1962 album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. Much of what is written about this album sees it as the initial work in the country-soul connection that would become more obvious a decade later with the...
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Published a year ago

American Gun - Dark Southern Hearts
American Gun is a Columbia, SC-based rock group that wears their love of country music on their sleeve. Ranging from straight-ahead rock and roll (circa early-1970s Stones) to more laid-back roots rock with prominent steel guitar and piano, their debut album Dark Southern Hearts shows a wide...
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Published a year ago