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Paste

Paste

Paste magazine, published in Avondale Estates, Georgia, was founded as a quarterly music and entertainment magazine in July 2002, moving to a monthly magazine with its August 2006 issue. It ceased publication in August 2010. A digital edition, pastemagazine.com, continues.

178 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

Solomon Burke: Don't Give Up On Me

Review by j. poet, Paste, 7 January 2003

WHEN CRITICS began raving about Burke's comeback album, more than a few fools in the crowd asked "Solomon who?" ...

Rosanne Cash: Rosanne's Rules

Report and Interview by j. poet, Paste, 15 June 2003

"I'M NOT A militant female songwriter, and I wouldn't want to be considered some kind of new age uber-feminist," Rosanne Cash says. "But having said that, ...

The Libertines: Libertines Rock The Cotton Club, Atlanta

Live Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 19 August 2003

AMIDST RUMORS of drug addiction and rehab, Libertines' singer-guitarist Pete Doherty has been out of commission for the past few weeks, skipping the band's European ...

Joan Baez: Dark Chords

Review by j. poet, Paste, 1 October 2003

JOAN BAEZ hasn't written a song in 10 years, but she maintains an unerring instinct for choosing good material. ...

John Mayer: Growing Up In Public

Report and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 1 December 2003

"WHEN I FIRST FINISHED the record, I thought, 'I can't talk about this. It's like fishing through your own poop,'" says John Mayer, fresh from ...

Howlin' Wolf: The Howlin' Wolf Story

Film/DVD/TV Review by j. poet, Paste, 23 January 2004

THE DEBATE ABOUT precisely when the blues became rock'n'roll will go on forever, but the footage of The Howlin' Wolf Story makes a good case ...

Alicia Keys: The Diary of Alicia Keys

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 1 February 2004

AT THE TOP OF THE POP WORLD these days, it’s hard enough to find an artist who can sing well without the aid of ProTools. ...

Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man: Out of Season

Review by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 1 February 2004

AS THE VOCAL instrument of Portishead, Beth Gibbons was the centerpiece of 1994's Dummy, a trip-hop landmark and one of the great albums of the ...

Isobel Campbell: Amorino

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 1 February 2004

BEFORE HER AMICABLE SPLIT with Belle & Sebastian in 2002, cellist-vocalist Isobel Campbell recorded two albums with her side project, The Gentle Waves. Amorino, her ...

Travis: 12 Memories

Review by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 1 February 2004

I'M STILL TRYING TO FIGURE OUT how many listens it'll take for Travis' fourth LP to kick in. The elements that made 1999's The Man ...

The Beach Boys: Ocean Way: The studio that shaped the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds

Retrospective by Steve LaBate, Bud Scoppa, Paste, June 2004

This is the first piece included in a longer feature for Paste June/July 2004. ...

Jackson Browne: A Once and Future Fan's Notes

Retrospective by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 1 June 2004

ON THE OCCASION of Jackson Browne's 2004 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rhino Records has assembled The Very Best of Jackson ...

Los Lobos: 30 Years of Eclectic Rock

Review and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 1 June 2004

IN AN OLD BRICK BUILDING on the gritty end of Sunset Boulevard, the five members of Los Lobos are nearing the end of a day ...

Wilco: A Ghost Is Born

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 1 June 2004

SO HOW DO YOU follow the dense, experimental, critically worshipped Yankee Hotel Foxtrot? The latest version of Wilco answers with an overwhelming, at times postmodern ...

Phish: Undermind

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 2 July 2004

THIS LATEST PHISHING TRIP begins as you'd expect a Tchad Blake-produced record would — in a fog of creepy, bone rattling Waits-ian gothic rambling, pinging ...

Drive-By Truckers: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Redneck Warrior Poets of Rock 'n' Roll

Profile and Interview by Steve LaBate, Paste, 1 August 2004

TEN, NINE... This is a story about rock 'n' roll. ...

Juliana Hatfield: In Exile Deo

Review by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 1 August 2004

ON HER PREVIOUS half-dozen albums, Boston-based Juliana Hatfield has clearly defined her sexy-waif persona through a steady stream of confessional songs filled with vulnerability, uncertainty ...

Secret Machines: Now Here is Nowhere

Review by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 1 August 2004

THESE JITTERY times have resulted in a new genre — let's call it "dread rock." Prime examples include Wilco's celebrated Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and the ...

Michael Franti: Various Artists: Reggae on the River

Film/DVD/TV Review by j. poet, Paste, October 2004

TWENTY YEARS AGO, the residents of Piercy, Calif., held a benefit concert to rebuild a community centre torched by a local arsonist. ...

Robyn Hitchcock: Spooked

Review by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 1 December 2004

THE FIRST CUT on Robyn Hitchcock's new album deals with a guy stuck in a dysfunctional relationship with his TV set; it's precisely the sort ...

Willy Mason: Lo-Fi Charm

Report and Interview by j. poet, Paste, 1 December 2004

AT THE BEGINNING of every autumn, the local music community in Martha's Vineyard comes alive. That's when the vacationers leave and the working-class folks who ...

Donovan: Beat Café

Review by j. poet, Paste, 18 January 2005

CERTAIN TRACKS on Beat Cafe sound like they could be outtakes from Donovan's 1967 album Mellow Yellow, but I'll let you decide if that's a ...

Mark Sandman: Sandbox

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 1 February 2005

DARK, WITTY, LONELY, BRILLIANT, TRAGIC — Mark Sandman was all these things. Fronting legendary Boston band Morphine, he realized his unique vision, creating a style ...

Doves: When Doves Cry

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Paste, April 2005

JIMI GOODWIN, the affable and bearded bassist-singer with Mancunian trio Doves, leans forward in his seat for an endearing moment of honesty. ...

Solomon Burke: Make Do With What You Got

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 1 April 2005

WHEN LEGENDARY ARTISTS like B.B. King or James Brown grow old and start resting on their laurels, it's easy to forgive them. After all, they've ...

Spoon: The Way They Get By

Review and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 1 April 2005

LET'S GET THIS STRAIGHT from the beginning: I am mad about this band — have been ever since someone (can't remember who but thanks a ...

Coldplay: X&Y

Review by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 1 June 2005

COLDPLAY GRADUATED from "intriguing" to "important" with 2002's A Rush of Blood to the Head, a musically and thematically bold statement as fully realized as ...

Mofro: The Pageant, St. Louis, Mo.

Live Review by Kandia Crazy Horse, Paste, 18 June 2005

PERHAPS THE RED, white and blue spotlights at St. Louis's Pageant should've served as trickster clues. Or the snide remark of a toasted, aging frat ...

Me'Shell Ndegeocello: The Spirit Music Jamia: Dance of the Infidel

Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, 1 August 2005

WITH THE EXCEPTION OF BECK, no popular artist since Prince has jumped so freely from one genre to the next on each successive album. What ...

Shakira: Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 (Epic)

Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, 23 August 2005

Beyond the Belly: Colombian songstress trumps lazy stereotypes with raw talent ...

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals: Jacksonville City Nights

Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, 27 September 2005

RYAN ADAMS got his PhD in bad behavior from decrepit old Rock 'n' Roll University, where he studied all the greats: Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, ...

Solomon Burke, Joe Henry, Bettye LaVette, Allen Toussaint: Joe Henry

Interview by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 10 January 2006

BEFORE PRODUCING Solomon Burke's modern-day soul landmark, Don't Give Up On Me, in 2002, Joe Henry was a modest-selling "critic's darling" with a reputation for ...

Drive-By Truckers: A Blessing and a Curse

Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, 12 April 2006

PATTERSON HOOD SUMS UP Drive-By Truckers' new album, A Blessing and a Curse, in one line of the closing track: "To love is to feel ...

Lindsey Buckingham Peels It Down to the Essentials

Review and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 15 November 2006

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM'S LIFE has changed dramatically since the release of his last solo album, Out of the Cradle, in 1992. First, he returned to Fleetwood ...

John Legend: Once Again

Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, 12 December 2006

SOPHOMORE SLUMP? What sophomore slump? On the follow-up to Get Lifted, the Grammy-winning multi-platinum debut from John Legend, the one-time session man chucks the simple ...

Lucinda Williams: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (Deluxe Edition)

Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, 1 February 2007

The story of Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is long and winding. ...

Brandi Carlile — A Brandi and two chasers: Spiritual siblings perfect their balancing act

Report and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 4 April 2007

AFTER A MID-AFTERNOON ACOUSTIC MINI SET, Brandi Carlile and twin brothers Tim and Phil Hanseroth jump down off the cramped stage at one end of ...

Elliott Smith: New Moon

Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, 8 May 2007

ONE DAY in the late 1990s, not long after his sublime performance of 'Miss Misery' in between the bombast of Celine Dion and bravado of ...

Björk: Volta

Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, 3 July 2007

WHEN MADONNA OR DAVID BOWIE enlists the latest production gurus to spice up their music, the results frequently come off sounding desperate, as if the ...

Manu Chao: La Radiolina

Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, 11 September 2007

FOUR SONGS into La Radiolina, an onslaught of beefy, staccato guitar chords chop like butcher knives into a mix of vertigo-inducing electronics and air-raid sirens. ...

John Lennon: The Vulnerable Beatle: John Lennon's Narrative-like Solo Catalog Tailor-made for Digital Delivery

Retrospective by Mark Kemp, Paste, October 2007

ONE OF THE MORE telling songs in John Lennon's solo catalog is the tender 'Look at Me.' Not the well-scrubbed version on his first album, ...

Bettye Lavette: Late Bloomer Gets Her Mojo On

Report and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 31 October 2007

AFTER ATLANTIC RECORDS shelved what singer Bettye LaVette had hoped would be her breakthrough album in 1972 — an album recorded in soul-music hotbed Muscle ...

The Remains: The Remains

Retrospective by Mark Kemp, Paste, 8 November 2007

Original debut and outtakes cast Boston rockers as America's lost Stones ...

The Thrills: Teenager

Review by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 3 December 2007

THE THRILLS' SAGA is a familiar one: band makes impressive debut album, gets showered with kisses from fans and critics alike, falls victim to the ...

The Breeders: Mountain Battles

Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, 31 March 2008

The Deal sisters stumble back into the sunshine for another winning set of delicate heartbreakers. Four songs into Mountain Battles, Breeders singer/guitarist Kim Deal announces ...

Johnny Cash: Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (Legacy Edition)

Review by Mark Kemp, Paste, October 2008

IN THE DOCUMENTARY included with this new edition of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, daughter Rosanne shatters the mythology surrounding her dad, gently bringing him ...

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals: Cardinology

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 28 October 2008

I'VE NEVER UNDERSTOOD the fuss over Ryan Adams' prolificacy. Each of his nine previous albums has its own distinct identity, from his 2000 solo debut ...

Ike & Tina Turner: Sing The Blues

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 4 December 2008

Embattled husband-and-wife duo's last independent-label recordings ...

Radiohead: Pablo Honey, The Bends, OK Computer (reissues)

Retrospective by Mark Kemp, Paste, 27 March 2009

WHILE THE BRITISH PRESS argued over whether Oasis' Definitely Maybe or Blur's Parklife would be the savior of mid-'90s U.K. rock, Radiohead sneaked a spanner ...

The Dap-Kings, Sharon Jones: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings: I Learned the Hard Way

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 6 April 2010

SHARON JONES WAS BRIMMING with promise as a kid in church choirs in the 1960s, as she bounced back and forth between her birth city ...

Todd Snider: The Storyteller

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 8 February 2011

Songwriter's songwriter creates hilarious and heartbreaking time capsule of life in our time ...

Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst: Conor Oberst: Catching Up With... Bright Eyes

Interview by Steve LaBate, Paste, 23 February 2011

AFTER A LENGTHY FOUR-YEAR HIATUS from the band that launched his career, Conor Oberst has reunited with his longtime Bright Eyes collaborators Mike Mogis and ...

DeVotchKa: 100 Lovers

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 1 March 2011

DEVOTCHKA'S FIFTH STUDIO LP, 100 Lovers, begins with a gorgeously moody and cinematic wash of synths, strings and piano seeping forth as if water through ...

Dum Dum Girls: He Gets Me High

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 1 March 2011

14 minutes in heaven… ...

Lucinda Williams: Blessed

Review by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 1 March 2011

BACK IN 1980, when she was just starting to find herself as a songwriter and singer, Williams chose to title her second album Happy Woman ...

Bright Eyes: The People's Key

Review and Interview by Steve LaBate, Paste, 8 March 2011

BRIGHT EYES' LATEST ALBUM, The People's Key, plays like some strange transmission beamed from deep space. In other words, it's nothing like its tethered-to-earth 2007 ...

J Mascis: Several Shades of Why

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 21 March 2011

IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT — after 25 years of squalling guitar rock with Dinosaur Jr and a slew of other bands (from The Fog ...

The Strokes: Angles

Review by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 22 March 2011

I NEVER THOUGHT I'd be making this statement about a Strokes record, but the New York band's fourth album is packed with surprises. Sure, the ...

Those Darlins: Screws Get Loose

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 29 March 2011

WHETHER YOU THOUGHT they were a quirky-obnoxious novelty act or a gang of infinitely charming, boots-are-made-for-rockin' Americana party girls, forget your initial impression of Those ...

Elbow: Build a Rocket Boys!

Review by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 11 April 2011

LIKE OTHER AMERICAN LISTENERS, I came late to Elbow, paying little attention to the veteran Manchester band until picking up on the U.K. buzz surrounding ...

Sarah Jarosz: Follow Me Down

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 17 May 2011

WITH A DESCENDING CIRCULAR FLOURISH of acoustic guitar notes, the bluegrass influence on Follow Me Down is evident, but the almost weightlessness suggests something else, ...

Jill Scott: The Light of the Sun

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 27 June 2011

JILL SCOTT REPRESENTS the modern thinking woman's evolved boho grit and dreams. Not one to buy into the fairy tales, she refuses to surrender the ...

Dolly Parton: Better Day

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 28 June 2011

"GRINDSTONES AND RHINESTONES, that made up my life," Dolly Parton writes on the driving 'The Sacrifice', a dobro-laced song about work ethic and commitment, "but ...

Beyoncé: 4

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 30 June 2011

WHEN YOU'RE BEYONCÉ KNOWLES, machining the sheets of throbbing summer singles — muscular anthems that merge thick modern R&B, hip-hop-inflected beats and enough female-empowerment lyric ...

Joss Stone: LP1

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 25 July 2011

SOUL CHILD JOSS STONE grew up going toe-to-toe and holding her own with some of classic R&B's finest, and that old soul presence made for ...

Guy Clark: Songs and Stories

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 16 August 2011

GUY CLARK'S ALWAYS BEEN CHARMING, and that easy graciousness can obscure the exacting quality of his writing. Few can split a moment open with such ...

Stephen Malkmus: Man in the Mirror

Interview by Steve LaBate, Paste, 16 August 2011

IN SWELTERING L.A. — Hollywood, to be exact, right on the Sunset Strip — Stephen Malkmus and his band, the Jicks, are hard at work ...

The Brill Building Sound

Retrospective by Steven R Rosen, Paste, 22 August 2011

WHEN DON MCLEAN'S "American Pie" was released in late 1971, everyone tried to analyze what he meant by "the day the music died." McLean was ...

Robert Earl Keen: Ready For Confetti

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 30 August 2011

SOMEWHERE IN THE GULF between Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell and Lyle Lovett and next wave Lone Stars Pat Green, Jack Ingram, Stoney ...

Blondie: Panic of Girls

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 14 September 2011

WHEN NEW WAVE ERUPTED on the back-end of punk, there was Blondie, all crisp beats, silent screen star peroxide beauty and a sense of '50s ...

The Decemberists: Long Live The King

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 31 October 2011

WITH THE DECEMBERISTS, it's a safe bet that somewhere between the post-Brit-folk of Fairport Convention and Morrissey's darkness, leader Colin Meloy will emerge with a ...

Ryan Adams Lets the Sunshine In

Review and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 2 November 2011

"GUYS, LOOK OUT THE WINDOW TO THE LEFT," Ryan Adams shouts to the other occupants of his tour bus, rolling through the verdant Oregon countryside ...

Betty Wright and the Roots: Betty Wright: The Movie

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 17 November 2011

"SOME PEOPLE think it's an untouchable subject, but I like to touch the untouchable," says Betty Wright as her organic roots funk Betty Wright: The ...

John Prine: Innocent Days

Interview by Holly Gleason, Paste, 23 November 2011

"FIONA MADE ME CLEAN OUT THE GARAGE," John Prine confesses with a chuckle that's equal parts warm breeze, cold beer and fried chicken. "I cursed ...

Shonen Knife: Osaka Ramones

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 10 January 2012

WHEN THEIR FIRST HOMEMADE CASSETTE came out in Japan in 1982, who woulda thought that Shonen Knife would still be around, making records and touring ...

Ruthie Foster: Let It Burn

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 2 February 2012

WHEN YOU CALL Grammy-winning producer John Chelew, the man behind John Hiatt's career-resurrecting Bring The Family, you've got to want to be real. Thankfully, Ruthie ...

Chuck Prophet: Temple Beautiful

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 8 February 2012

NOT SINCE LOU REED paid homage to the city and era that forged him with New York has there been a song cycle dedicated to ...

Lyle Lovett: Release Me

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 29 February 2012

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN Leonard Cohen and Bob Wills lies the Promised Land inhabited by Lyle Lovett, who balances elegantly broken romanticism with loose-jointed swing that shuffles ...

Dr. John: Locked Down

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 4 April 2012

TO LIVE AND BREATHE in the sketchiest part of the Quarter...to hustle and flow, to let go... to get saved and find a funky kind ...

Bonnie Raitt: Slipstream

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 10 April 2012

IT'S BEEN SEVEN YEARS since Bonnie Raitt released Souls Alike, and a lot of life has happened. Losing her parents, brother and a best friend ...

Nanci Griffith: Intersection

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 10 April 2012

"I'M STILL GONE and it's all the same/ I'm taking notes and naming names…" snarls Nanci Griffith on the churlish, Pogues-evoking-the-Everlys 'Hell No, I'm Not ...

Rufus Wainwright: Out of the Game

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 1 May 2012

FEW PEOPLE TWIST the opposing aesthetics of lush and stark with the dexterity of Rufus Wainwright, the chanteuse with the steady aim on broken hearts ...

Alejandro Escovedo: Big Station

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 6 June 2012

WITH A BRAZEN SWAGGER drawn from Alejandro Escovedo's punk roots, the 61-year-old songwriter/yowler declares, "I can take a punch, I can take a swing…" on ...

Kelly Hogan: I Like to Keep Myself in Pain

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 6 June 2012

WHEN KELLY HOGAN'S last solo record was released, Ground Zero was still smoldering in Manhattan. More than a decade has slipped by since then, but ...

Crazy Horse, Neil Young: Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Americana

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 6 June 2012

ONLY NEIL YOUNG could take the campfire chestnut 'Oh, Susannah' and turn it into something that demands The Frug. But Young opens Americana, his folk'n'protest ...

The Melvins: No Regrets

Report and Interview by Steve LaBate, Paste, 11 June 2012

On the cusp of their 30th anniversary, the Godfathers of Grunge are too busy for nostalgia trips. Inside Atlanta's The Loft — a barely lit, industrial ...

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals: The Lion The Beast The Beat

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 19 June 2012

IT MUST BE FRUSTRATING to be Grace Potter. So much talent, such a fierce band, the kind of charisma that can't be taught, exuding sex ...

Mindy Smith: Mindy Smith

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 26 June 2012

MINDY SMITH'S MUSIC — at its best — is like a papercut: painful to the point of making you wince, yet somehow so compellingly bracing, ...

Baroness: Yellow & Green

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 18 July 2012

THE MEMBERS OF BARONESS have always mixed in a little indie rock with their occasionally sludgy brand of prog metal. And they've always peppered their ...

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: Mature Themes

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 21 August 2012

WITH ALL THE BUZZ that's been building for him and his Haunted Graffiti bandmates over the last several years, this new record could have been ...

Rickie Lee Jones: So Many Roads

Interview by Steve LaBate, Paste, 27 August 2012

OVER UNDERSTATED, PERCUSSIVE ACOUSTIC GUITAR and the barely-there, spectral drone of an ancient organ, the voice of Rickie Lee Jones seeps like water from a ...

Alanis Morissette: Havoc & Bright Lights

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 28 August 2012

WHEN BARELY POST-ADOLESCENT Alanis Morissette exploded spewing vitrol and bodily fluids with her raging accusation of the spurned, 'You Oughta Know' from the mega-hit Jagged ...

The Raveonettes: L.A. Story

Interview by Steve LaBate, Paste, 12 September 2012

THE RAVEONETTES' latest, Observator, was supposed to be an L.A. record. Gearing up to write for it, frontman Sune Rose Wagner blasted The Doors on ...

Dwight Yoakam: 3 Pears

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 18 September 2012

A CASCADING BASS LINE that evokes the work of Motown's James Jamerson, all fat, swollen and narcotically melodic, opens 3 Pears, Dwight Yoakam's return to ...

Aimee Mann: Charmer

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 19 September 2012

THIS ALBUM is full of horrible, heartbreaking things. Things that happen not just to bad people but good people, too. Of course, by the time ...

Bettye LaVette: Thankful N' Thoughtful

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 25 September 2012

BETTYE LAVETTE'S VOICE, sanded raw and consumed by emotion, is a powerful witness: strong, down and above all, real. Those attributes infuse Thankful N' Thoughtful ...

The Whigs: Enjoy the Company

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 25 September 2012

OVER THE SPAN of 10 years and four albums, The Whigs have simmered their energetic, overdriven, no-frills rock sound to its potent essence. It's been ...

Tori Amos: Gold Dust

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 2 October 2012

ALL THE WAY BACK to Y Kan't Tori Read, Tori Amos has always been the feral Kate Bush — slightly more muscular, possibly more grounded ...

Wanda Jackson: Unfinished Business

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 9 October 2012

WITH A VOICE LIKE A CHAINSAW swallowed by a little girl, Wanda Jackson's brand of "shake 'em up, baby" is as kitten-with-a-whip as ever. The ...

Alicia Keys: Girl on Fire

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 4 December 2012

WITH A FEW CAREFULLY CONSIDERED piano notes, 'De Novo Adagio' reminds fans of soul diva Alicia Keys' classical roots and sets the stage for an ...

Erin McKeown: Manifestra

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 15 January 2013

WITH A LOUCHE SAUNTER and a thick, descending ripple of horn punctuations, Erin McKeown opens her first self-released album with a high-ironic colonic that skewers ...

Holly Williams: The Highway

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 12 February 2013

HOLLY WILLIAMS HAS WRASSLED all kinds of mainstream Nashville fringe: hippie country, postmodern country, even "kinda sorta" country. But all those records from the Nordic ...

Kris Kristofferson: Feeling Mortal

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 12 February 2013

AT 76, KRIS KRISTOFFERSON is one of Americana's true icons. A witness to old-school hillbilly music, rock's excess, punk's rebellion and modern country, the Rhodes ...

Mark Kozelek: Like Rats

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 19 February 2013

THE CONCEPT BEHIND Mark Kozelek's new record — take metal songs, punk songs, classic-rock and pop songs and deliver 'em slow and soft, accompanied only ...

Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris: Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell: Old Yellow Moon

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 27 February 2013

ON 'HANGING UP MY HEART' and Roger Miller's vintage 'Invitation To The Blues', Old Yellow Moon's opening tracks, Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris seem to ...

The Mavericks: In Time

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 27 February 2013

NASHVILLE HAD NEVER quite heard the likes of The Mavericks, a Miami five-piece with a retro countrypolitan lean and a Cuban-American lead singer with a ...

Ashley Monroe: Like A Rose

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 12 March 2013

TO LOOK AT THE PRETTY GIRL in the sundress under the parasol, Ashley Monroe could be one more Southern belle looking for her place in ...

Kacey Musgraves: Same Trailer, Different Park

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 26 March 2013

KACEY MUSGRAVES, 23, sings unvarnished truths about being hooked on "Mary Kay, Mary Jane and Mary down the block," but she's maintained the sunniness that ...

Patty Griffin: American Kid

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 7 May 2013

WITH A BIT OF JUKE-JOINT loose blues strumming rising from a National guitar, Patty Griffin leans into 'Don't Let Me Die In Florida' with a ...

John Fogerty: Wrote A Song for Everyone

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 28 May 2013

JOHN FOGERTY'S GUESTS on Wrote A Song for Everyone may provide a pupu platter of genres, but the country/rock/progressive duet partners more often serve as ...

T Bone Burnett, John Mellencamp: T Bone Burnett on Ghost Brothers of Darkland County

Review and Interview by Holly Gleason, Paste, 31 May 2013

"I DON'T HAVE ANY HOPES FOR IT," T Bone Burnett confesses about Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, the Stephen King/John Mellencamp collaborative play/performance experience he ...

Jason Isbell: The Highway Loves The Sin

Review and Interview by Holly Gleason, Paste, 10 June 2013

"I REMEMBER that place being this mythical hellhole," Jason Isbell says quietly. He's not speaking of the addiction he's recently kicked, but the place of ...

Mavis Staples: One True Vine

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 25 June 2013

"SOME HOLY GHOST KEEPS ME HANGING ON," Mavis Staples intones over and over a loosely strummed acoustic guitar, world-weary yet resolved on the opening track ...

Robert Randolph & The Family Band: Lickety Split

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 16 July 2013

SINCE BURSTING into public consciousness, sacred steel prodigy Robert Randolph has straddled the worlds of the holy and the profane. On the jam band circuit, ...

Guy Clark: My Favorite Picture Of You

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 23 July 2013

AS HE ENTERS HIS 70TH YEAR, Guy Clark consolidates his standing as the eminence grise of Texas singer/songwriters with My Favorite Picture of You. A ...

Van Dyke Parks: Songs Cycled

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 23 July 2013

WITH A NOD to his wonderfully eclectic 1968 debut Song Cycle, legendary arranger/songwriter/producer Van Dyke Parks returns with the postcards from everywhere, Songs Cycled. Whether ...

The Runaways: Evelyn McDonnell: Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways

Book Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 30 July 2013

Peeling away the clichés on the Runaways ...

Civil Wars, the: The Civil Wars: The Civil Wars

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 6 August 2013

PRESSURE MAKES DIAMONDS — or coal dust. For The Civil Wars, the triple Grammy-winners whose stark acoustica shook pop music, it created both. Amongst their ...

Goodie Mob Returns

Retrospective and Interview by Steve LaBate, Paste, 26 August 2013

After a 14-year hiatus of the legendary rap group's original lineup, and CeeLo's explosion as a pop-culture icon, the originators of smart, righteously indignant Southern ...

Robbie Fulks: Gone Away Backward

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 27 August 2013

ALWAYS THE contentious kind, Robbie Fulks flexes the old Tareyton Cigarettes mode of doing business: "I'd rather fight than switch." To that end, he's remained ...

Janelle Monáe: The Electric Lady

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 10 September 2013

AN ENNIO MORRICONE sonic vista opens The Electric Lady, the sequel to Janelle Monáe's The ArchAndroid, making its ambition obvious. Overture burning off, a tugging ...

Richard Buckner: Surrounded

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 10 September 2013

CIRCULAR ACOUSTIC GUITAR NOTES shower down as Richard Buckner's voice, a tad quavering and common enough to seem to sing for us all, rises from ...

Justin Timberlake: The 20/20 Experience : 2 of 2

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 1 October 2013

AFTER SEVEN YEARS, Justin Timberlake knew: The 20/20 Experience could be too much of a good thing. Keeping the focus sleek, its pop/soul songs come ...

Lorde: Pure Heroine

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 1 October 2013

"DON'T YOU THINK that it's boring how people talk," Lorde hypnotically intones as Pure Heroine, her wildly anticipated debut opens on the confessional 'Tennis Court'. ...

Albert Hammond Jr.: Albert Hammond, Jr.: Chasing Greatness

Interview by Steve LaBate, Paste, 20 January 2014

IT'S BEEN 13 lucky years — count 'em — since The Strokes' epic garage- and post-punk-channeling debut provided an indispensable shot in the arm to ...

Bill Callahan: Have Fun With God

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 21 January 2014

AS THE TITLE suggests, this record is the ghost of Bill Callahan's Dream River, drifting hypnotic across the astral plane and breaking through the white ...

Rosanne Cash: The River & The Thread

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 21 January 2014

LIKE A GOOD claret or damp moss, Rosanne Cash's singing is something to sink into. Surrender to the tones – mostly dark, but marked by ...

Uncle Tupelo: No Depression (Legacy Edition)

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 28 January 2014

IN THE SUMMER OF 1990, somewhere in the puzzling chasm between lipstick-smeared hair-metal excess and flannel-clad grunge irony, Uncle Tupelo arrived on the scene like ...

Broken Bells: After the Disco

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 4 February 2014

IT'S FRIDAY NIGHT. You and your friends roll up on the club. It has no sign — no flashing marquee to beckon you inside. It ...

Robert Ellis: The Lights from the Chemical Plant

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 11 February 2014

LIKE SAM SHEPARD, Robert Ellis understands the tenderness beneath the untamed's leathery exterior. Born and raised in Lake Jackson, Texas, recently relocated to nouveau hipster ...

Leon Russell: Life Journey

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 1 April 2014

LEON RUSSELL'S VOICE sounds like parched earth, cracked and its essence crawled out: raw, blistering, molten to the touch and savory in all the right ...

Nickel Creek: A Dotted Line

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 1 April 2014

FROM SEAN WATKINS' FIRST commanding acoustic guitar strokes on 'The Rest of My Life', it's obvious Nickel Creek has grown up. Sister Sara Watkins' fiddle ...

Emmylou Harris: Wrecking Ball

Retrospective by Holly Gleason, Paste, 8 April 2014

WHEN EMMYLOU HARRIS MADE Wrecking Ball, the atmospheric meditation on the unbearable lightness of being, it appeared the diaphanous vocalist had been gate-checked by the ...

Nickel Creek: Celebrating the Now

Profile and Interview by Holly Gleason, Paste, 15 April 2014

NEVER MIND THE GRAMMY AWARDS, the accolades and being young, gifted and at her creative peak. There was a moment during the recording of 2005's ...

Eels: The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 22 April 2014

THERE'S AN INHERENT SOFT-FOCUS to Mark Everett's worldview. His jagged details scrape your flesh to the bone, but his bitterness or rancor is tempered with ...

Thee Oh Sees: Drop

Review by Steve LaBate, Paste, 22 April 2014

FROM THE VERY FIRST 'Sweat Leaf'-channeling fuzz riff, there's no question what's being "dropped" on this latest dispatch from prolific San Francisco garage-psych veterans Thee ...

Nikki Lane: All or Nothin'

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 6 May 2014

IF LANA DEL RAY HAD PORES, bodily fluids or even the rare hair out of place, she might be Nikki Lane, the East Nashville firebrand ...

Bert Berns: Joel Selvin: Here Comes the Night – The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm & Blues

Book Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 12 May 2014

EVERY SO OFTEN, a music bio arrives that becomes "the book to read." Think of Last Train To Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley and ...

Dolly Parton: Blue Smoke

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 13 May 2014

BEFORE DOLLY PARTON was country music's Mae West, she was a crystal-voiced songwriter who captured Appalachia's tiniest moments like fireflies in a jar. On Blue ...

Chrissie Hynde: Stockholm

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 14 June 2014

FOR A WOMAN with a voice like an open (if rough-edged) straight razor, Chrissie Hynde chose a smooth retro-pop vein to slash into for her ...

Old Crow Medicine Show: Remedy

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 1 July 2014

WITH 'BRUSHY MOUNTAIN CONJUGAL TRAILER', Remedy's dobro-dripping opener, Old Crow Medicine Show offers a salty, bawdy bit of old-time music basted with tangy strummin' and ...

John Hiatt: Terms of My Surrender

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 15 July 2014

"SOMETIMES LOVE CAN BE SO WRONG/ Like a fat man in a thong/ It walks shamelessly away," John Hiatt intones over the sauntering acoustic blues ...

Robert Plant: lullaby and...The Ceaseless Roar

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 9 September 2014

CINEMATIC. ORGANIC. DERVISH. Delta. Industrial. Celtic. Tribal. Gypsy. Yearning. Thrilling. The words to describe lullaby and…The Ceaseless Roar, Robert Plant's 10th solo album, are endless. ...

Stevie Nicks: 24 Karat Gold – Songs from the Vault

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 15 October 2014

LISTENING TO 24 Karat Gold is like being caught in a time warp. Then is now, now is then, and the listener feels confronted by ...

Jackson Browne: Standing In The Breach

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 28 October 2014

"IT'S NEVER BEEN THAT HARD to buy a gun/Now they'll sell a Glock 19 to just about anyone," muses Jackson Browne midway through 'The Long ...

D'Angelo and the Vanguard: Black Messiah

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 30 December 2014

AT MIDNIGHT ON DEC. 15, 14 years dissolved. One key-stroke, and the mythic follow-up to D'Angelo's Voodoo could be yours. Luxurious, raw, crashed-up, silky, a ...

The Mavericks: Mono

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 10 February 2015

ON THE LAMENTING 'Pardon Me', Raul Malo's voice extends on the final word of a particularly lonesome "life I chose to lead", and it somehow ...

Steve Earle: Terraplane

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 17 February 2015

ON THE RANDY, low-flying Stones-evoking 'Go Go Boots Are Back,' Steve Earle scrapes the same guttural rock 'n' roll that made 'Copperhead Road' so compelling. ...

Lilly Hiatt: Royal Blue

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 3 March 2015

IF LENA DUNHAM is her generation's bullseye for narcissistic neurosis, then Lilly Hiatt is the Gen X/Y femme intellectuelle who uses hurt, doubt and self-knowledge ...

Shelby Lynne: I Can't Imagine

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 11 May 2015

IF 2011'S SELF-PRODUCED, self-released Revelation Road was Shelby Lynne leveling and exorcising the ghosts of her past, I Can't Imagine harvests the remaining sweetness of ...

Shelby Lynne: Groove Girl

Interview by Holly Gleason, Paste, 11 May 2015

"AS I STAND HERE TALKING TO YOU," Shelby Lynne confesses, on the phone from her Palm Springs home, "I have no clothes on. I can ...

Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris: Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell: The Traveling Kind

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 26 May 2015

IF OLD YELLOW MOON, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell's first-ever duet album, felt like old friends catching up and remembering old times, The Traveling Kind ...

Kopecky: Drug for the Modern Age

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 28 May 2015

FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE KOPECKY FAMILY BAND, this Nashville sextet brings an eyes-open approach to the world of hooking up, checking out, disappearing into technology ...

Kacey Musgraves: Pageant Material

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 23 June 2015

"I'VE HAD MY PICTURE MADE with Willie Nelson/Stayed in a hotel with a pool," Kacey Musgraves trills early on Pageant Material, "Slept in a room ...

Joy Williams: Venus

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 30 June 2015

IF JOY WILLIAMS weren't the distaff half of the Grammy-winning Civil Wars, Venus might play like a late 20th century single-sex college's elite women's studies ...

Veruca Salt: Ghost Notes

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 7 July 2015

VERUCA SALT BURST ONTO THE SCENE a caterwauling ball of sonic combustion, clawing, sneering, scratching with American Thighs in 1994. Named for Roald Dahl's tantrum-throwing ...

Joss Stone: Water For Your Soul

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 14 July 2015

JOSS STONE, modern queen of the timeless old-school soul, has propelled herself into a project merging hip hop, reggae, world music and R&B. Her tenure ...

Watkins Family Hour: Watkins Family Hour

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 14 July 2015

OFTEN COLLABORATIONS of wildly talented people fall short of the pieces, or force an outcome that feels designed to an end. For the Watkins Family ...

Grace Potter: Anything But Nocturnal

Review and Interview by Holly Gleason, Paste, 11 August 2015

GRACE POTTER SQUEALS midway through her last interview of the day. The mention of Donna Summer's street opera Bad Girls hits a nerve, and the ...

Keith Richards: Crosseyed Heart

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 15 September 2015

AS ROCK'S ENDURING PIRATE, Keith Richards embodies swagger, sangfroid and a certain delicious naughtiness. More than the Stones themselves, the guitarist exudes a dirt 'n' ...

Bikini Kill: Revolution Girl Style Now

Retrospective by Holly Gleason, Paste, 1 October 2015

BEFORE THE INTERNET'S UBIQUITY, the 140-character Twitterverse and more, DIY punk meant hanging your own flyers and hand-stapled fanzines. In 1991, Bikini Kill — a ...

Patty Griffin: Servant of Love

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 4 October 2015

"AMBULANCE DRIVERS and grave diggers/Mislaid fortunes grown bigger and bigger/Polar ice caps below and above/Conquered and claimed and ruined for love," Patty Griffin's porous, earthy ...

Adele: 25

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 20 November 2015

ANTICIPATION'S A BITCH. For Adele, whose bajillion-selling 21 (okay, not a bajillion, but 30 million worldwide) proved emotional exorcism is its own commercial reward, how ...

Prince: HITnRUN Phase 2

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 18 December 2015

FROM THE OPENING NOTES of Prince's HITnRun Phase 2, it seems like a return to the days of the Purple One's midcareer classics like 'Cream', ...

Lucinda Williams: The Ghosts of Highway 20

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 5 February 2016

IN THE LATE '80S, Lucinda Williams emerged as the patron saint of busted love and broken dreams. Lucinda Williams and Sweet Old World established her ...

Lissie: My Wild West

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 12 February 2016

LISSIE, IN MANY WAYS, is emblematic of the millennial/post-millennial generation's golden promise: follow your dream, work social media, find believers, win! Moving to California, her ...

Bonnie Raitt: Dig In Deep

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 4 March 2016

BONNIE RAITT HAS ALWAYS BEEN a pilot light, powering hard love, broken love, lost love and yes, unrequited love. In the valley of the unfulfilled ...

Robbie Fulks: Upland Stories

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 19 May 2016

BEFORE STURGILL SIMPSON or Chris Stapleton, there was Robbie Fulks: a hardcore alt-country sensation, writing subversive songs like his Nashville anti-Valentine 'Fuck This Town', 'She ...

Bonnie Bishop: Ain't Who I Was

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 6 June 2016

HOLLOW BASS CASCADING over a sunken groove, slinky guitar etching the melody and a palpable humidity establish 'Show A Little Mercy' as a satiny ribbon ...

Rhiannon Giddens: Freedom Highway

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 20 February 2017

ALWAYS AMBITIOUS, Americana/traditional folk artist Rhiannon Giddens uses Freedom Highway, her second solo album, for a contemporary end: tracing the roots of the BlackLivesMatter movement ...

Conor Oberst: Salutations

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 21 March 2017

GROWING UP IS HARD TO DO. Growing up a wunderkind in public — your youth commodified as a talisman of sensitive youth — creates an ...

Rodney Crowell: Close Ties

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 27 March 2017

FOR A SONG CYCLE that turns around death and mortality, Rodney Crowell's Close Ties is a decidedly jubilant affair. Co-produced by Kim Buie and Jordan ...

Karen Elson: Double Roses

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 6 April 2017

IN THE SEVEN YEARS since Karen Elson's The Ghost Who Walks, there have been glimpses of the woman who was to emerge on Double Roses. ...

Ani DiFranco: Binary

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 19 May 2017

LIKE A FAVORITE CHAIR, it's easy to take Ani DiFranco for granted. Always there, always as expected, always comfortable/satisfying in her execution, it's easy to ...

Little Steven: Soulfire

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 22 May 2017

STRIP AWAY THE SOPRANOS, the Underground Garage, the bandana-clad Springsteen sidekick role, the hyper-political Sun City all-star single and what you get is a true ...

Justin Townes Earle: Kids In The Street

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 23 May 2017

OTHER THAN THE CLASSIC Western shuffle 'What's She Crying For', with its piano sprinkles and steel guitar swerves, Kids In The Street marks the emancipation ...

Steve Earle & The Dukes: So You Wannabe An Outlaw

Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 12 June 2017

SOMEWHERE IN THE SWAGGER STAGGER opening chorus of the cautionary title track of Steve Earle's return to the majors, the multi-Grammy winner half bellers/half brays ...

Shelby Lynne, Allison Moorer: Shelby Lynne & Allison Moorer: Not Dark Yet

Review by Jon Young, Paste, 16 August 2017

IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING. Though Shelby Lynne and her younger sister, Allison Moorer, have released a slew of solo records between them since ...

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