That voice. Country-rock icon Gram Parsons called him “The King of Broken Hearts” and routinely wept onstage while covering “She Once Lived Here” with The Flying Burrito Brothers. Elvis Costello wrote “Stranger in the House” as a duet for them to sing at a time when Costello was still rock’s…
You can count the number of Valley residents who have made a major splash in country music on one hand, even if that hand has lost a finger in a farm equipment mishap. There’s Glendale’s Marty Robbins, he of the famous gunfighter ballads, the awesome ‘stache, and the part-time gig…
You can count the number of Valley residents who have made a major splash in country music on one hand, even if that hand has lost a finger in a farm equipment mishap. There’s Glendale’s Marty Robbins, he of the famous gunfighter ballads, the awesome ‘stache, and the part-time gig…
To see Matthew Reveles kicking back in his Tempe home, dressed in blue jeans, a T-shirt, and flip-flops, you might get the wrong idea. Reveles’ long, black hair, flowing beard, and wire-rim specs seem to suggest he’s in a neo-jam band on the order of Phish or maybe even drawing…
To see Matthew Reveles kicking back in his Tempe home, dressed in blue jeans, a T-shirt, and flip-flops, you might get the wrong idea. Reveles’ long, black hair, flowing beard, and wire-rim specs seem to suggest he’s in a neo-jam band on the order of Phish or maybe even drawing…
The annual Country Thunder festival at the dusty Canyon Moon Ranch just outside of Florence is country music’s version of a cattle drive, where over four days some of the bigger names in country music are herded on stage to bleat their biggest hits, then lassoed off to make way…
It’s that time of year again, when Valley country fans by the thousands kick up dust in the trampled alfalfa fields at the Canyon Moon Ranch outside Florence, where the annual Country Thunder music festival trots out four days of the biggest names in contemporary country music. After a lackluster…
If you’ve ever drowned your sorrows in suds on a Sunday night at the Yucca Tap Room, you know that DJ Dana gives you the perfect soundtrack for whatever heartbreak ails you, spinning classic country discs from her vast collection of wax as well as hosting a local country act…
Hellraisin’ runs in alt-country badass Hank Williams III’s family. His granddad, the patron saint of country music, was a serious drinker and drugger who checked out in the backseat of a Caddy on the way to a gig on New Year’s Eve 1953, and his daddy, who in his prime…
There’s a scene in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange in which ultra-violent “droog” Alex DeLarge, played by Malcolm McDowell, undergoes “aversion therapy” to cure his violent tendencies by being forced to watch violent films while given drugs to induce a nauseated reaction, so that every time he feels violent, he’ll…
One thing is for certain in today’s contemporary country music — you’ll never hear bluegrass deity Dr. Ralph Stanley singing on a Kenny Chesney record. While Chesney’s grasp of country tradition begins with Jimmy Buffett’s 1977 hit “Margaritaville,” fortunately for country purists, there is Josh Turner, who dueted with Stanley…
Neo-honky-tonker Wayne Hancock’s nickname is “The Train,” and though it may appear convenient to give the native Texan the moniker simply because of the Dr. Seuss-style rhyme one can play with his first name, Hancock has earned an allegiance with perhaps country music’s greatest symbol of both heartbreak and freedom…
Most bands will tell you that being in a group is like being a polygamist. You’re married to three or four other people, each with a dizzying array of emotional needs, including either an inflated ego or a total lack of self-confidence. There’s the guitarist who’s jealous of the lead…
If you miss following the Grateful Dead or Phish from gig to gig, munching a few funky brownies and spinning in circles as the bands play, fire up the VW bus this weekend and head up to the Spirit Room in Jerome, where Tempe’s Mojo Farmers host their semi-annual Mountain…
Say you are a “winter visitor” to Arizona, sitting in your Buick at a stoplight in east Mesa, listening to Sean Hannity on your factory-installed radio. There you are, enjoying your retirement, when you notice the car in front of you has a “Fuck Strange Young Things” sticker in the…
If you miss following the Grateful Dead or Phish from gig to gig, munching a few funky brownies and spinning in circles as the bands play, fire up the VW bus this weekend and head up to the Spirit Room in Jerome, AZ, where Tempe’s Mojo Farmers host their bi-annual…
If you miss following the Grateful Dead or Phish from gig to gig, munching a few funky brownies and spinning in circles as the bands play, fire up the VW bus this weekend and head up to the Spirit Room in Jerome, AZ, where Tempe’s Mojo Farmers host their bi-annual…
There was a time when a new Randy Travis album was cause for celebration in country music circles, with radio programmers tripping over themselves to add Travis’ brand of neo-honky-tonk to their late-80s and early-’90s playlists. The basso profundo former juvenile delinquent could render a tear-and-beer-stained ballad better than anybody…
