In preparation for indie songster/professional whistler Andrew Bird’s upcoming show at the Gypsy Tea Room, we sat down for a listen through Bird’s new album, Armchair Apocrypha. What follows are excerpts of the accompanying selected song-by-song Instant Messenger conversation—a lively discussion of Bird’s clever wordplay, instrumental prowess (Bird is a…
From Minnie Pearl to Dolly Parton to Amy Sedaris, Southern chicks have always played an important role in the comedy world. And judging by the promotional video on their Web site, it’s possible the women of the Southern Fried Chicks Comedy Tour—Leanne Morgan, Karen Mills and Etta May—might ruin the…
You might think Leahy is a tie-dyed jam band fronted by beloved Vermont Senator (and noted Deadhead) Patrick Leahy, touring the land in a biodiesel VW bus and rocking out against the evils of illegal government wire-tapping. But you’d be wrong, since Leahy is actually a Celtic pop band comprised…
You would think a movie called The Italian would be set in the Bronx, where three generations of veteran character actors would fight for control of a fictional crime family while battling a horde of corrupt NYPD cops and G-men. You would also think such a film might be directed…
Are you a red state suburban housewife sick and tired of sitting idly while your bubba red state husband watches Larry the Cable Guy and Fox News? Do you long for an evening of interpretive dance? Then drag that bubba to the Orchestra Hall at 4401 Trail Lake Dr. in…
It’s a real shame that movie theaters don’t show more shorts, especially considering all the lame trivia questions and banal commercials moviegoers have to sit through before your average Hollywood flick. About the only time you ever see shorts these days is before Pixar movies, or when they show short…
When was the last time you saw an Asian fella banging the skins in a rock band? Unless you’re a fan of popular Japanese rock bands such as Acid Mothers Temple, Boris or Electric Eel Shock, it has probably been way too long—and that’s a damn shame. Perhaps we just…
The young men of Old Crow Medicine Show scored a minor hit in 2004 with “Wagon Wheel,” a reworked Bob Dylan outtake that easily ranks among the best country songs of the ’00s. With its wistful fiddle line, soaring harmonies and timeless refrain, the song easily established OCMS as one…
Nashville, Tennessee, has been known as Music City, U.S.A. for years now; with its rich musical heritage and position at the epicenter of country and gospel music, it’s a fitting moniker. The nickname first caught on after repeated use by radio announcer David Cobb in the 1950s, but interestingly enough,…
It’s been four long years since the Baptist Generals released the mope-folk masterpiece No Silver/No Gold, but if singer-songwriter Chris Flemmons is to be believed—and if the new songs we’ve heard are any indication, we really want to believe—the wait for a follow-up might soon be over. “We’re rallying to…
In the summer of 2005, an IMAX film crew descended on southern Louisiana to film a documentary on the state’s rapidly shrinking wetlands. The film was to serve as a warning, depicting the destruction a large hurricane could wreak on New Orleans if something wasn’t done to restore its natural…
Like his father—the legendary Texas singer-songwriter/artist/playwright Terry Allen—artist Bale Creek Allen has dipped his toe in many media, from acting to song to sculpture. He’s even tried his hand at creative taxidermy, forming art with the carcasses of diamondback rattlesnakes. His newest exhibit, Empire, uses sculpture, found objects and said…
The sound of Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter hits like a cold front on the first day of winter. As guitarist Phil Wandscher’s blustery leads swirl through the desolate streets, echoing off the brick and stinging your cheeks, Sykes’ weary voice hangs heavy in the air, each syllable dissipating…
Whoever made up that old wives’ tale about the kid who made a funny face and had it freeze that way was obviously no fun. Besides, we all make funny faces on a daily basis anyway, whether we mean to or not. You’re probably making a funny face right now,…
When I first saw that [bjm_danse] was performing at SMU’s McFarlin Auditorium, I naturally assumed it had something to do with the Brian Jonestown Massacre. A full-blown interpretive dance version of DiG! perhaps. Or maybe just Anton Newcombe and Co. playing sitars as the Dandy Warhols’ Courtney Taylor-Taylor–clad only in…
While Gram Parsons’ legendary mystique has earned him most of the credit, it seems as if every long-haired hippie in California was reconnecting with their roots in the summer of ’69: Roger McGuinn and the Byrds followed the influential Sweetheart of the Rodeo LP with the country-tinged Ballad of Easy…
Richardson, Texas, might seem like a strange place for a Blues and Jazz Festival; with its wide streets, strip malls and business parks, it’s pretty much the complete antithesis of the crowded Deep Ellum street corners where Blind Lemon Jefferson and Leadbelly revolutionized country blues in the ’20s. But perhaps…
Remember SAT analogies? They were always the fun part of the test for me, like the testmaker had suddenly become that cool, laid-back substitute that ended up hooking up with some senior and getting fired—”Hey kids, let’s give the math a rest already. I’m gonna give it to ya straight…
“For a rock show, you’re gonna kinda try to get yourself pumped up and stuff. For this kind of show, you drink a nice, warm glass of milk and put your slippers on.” So says Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy in his new solo DVD, Sunken Treasure: Live in the Pacific Northwest,…
I remember watching a lot of movies multiple times during my elementary years, with Star Wars, Spaceballs and Top Gun chief among them. How my dear mother watched Spaceballs so many times without killing herself I will never know. ( Not that Spaceballs isn’t amazing, of course…) This weekend the…
Billy Joe Shaver was the songwriter du jour for the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, penning tunes recorded by Kris Kristofferson, Bobby Bare and Johnny Cash. Waylon Jennings even did a whole album of Shaver compositions, 1973’s Honky Tonk Heroes, often credited for kicking off the movement that would…
Winona, Texas, is a small town situated northeast of Tyler in the Piney Woods of East Texas. Approximately 100 miles east of Dallas, the town isn’t much to speak of, with a population of less than 1,000. Unfortunately, Winona is best-known for the pollution, disease and death left in the…
