General

I’ve been listening to Eddie Hinton for years, and half the time I wasn’t even aware it was him. If you listen carefully, you can hear his chunky rhythm guitar and tasty fills on a whole slew of [...]

OK, I’m done bitching about mainstream country. It’s like bitching about reality TV or big blockbuster movies or Applebee’s… things I can choose to ignore, thereby narrowing down the list of [...]

Music nerds of a certain ilk (my ilk) are quick to declare the death of terrestrial radio. Fact is, it’s not quite dead yet, but definitely on life support… unless you’re a fan of mainstream [...]

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks turned 70 on May 17. More important, he’s coming to our town in a week to perform as Taj Mahal, one of the world’s greatest living bluesmen. He’s also one of our [...]

About a year ago, my wife and I went to an arts/music festival at our favorite neighborhood in Akron. Against all odds, we found an outdoor table at Chipotle (well-kept secret: their Margaritas [...]

Time for a re-post… I’ll warn you up front, this is one of our longer pieces. But it includes some nice quotes from Clarence freaks Dan Auerbach and his Uncle James, as well as our [...]

I’m beginning to think that themes are overrated. People don’t even buy CDs anymore. Why would anyone be interested in how one song might relate to another? Maybe I should just write down every [...]

Temperatures are hitting the triple digits… Tropical storms are starting to line up like jets at LaGuardia… Tempers are flaring at country music festivals as fleshy Bubbas fight over warm beer [...]

Wish I would’ve come up with that headline. But it belongs to a typically provocative HBO documentary (and the book by Michael Schaffer that inspired the movie) that focuses on the various [...]

Last week I bitched about not coming across any new tunes that merit a second listen. Well, my daughter Allie must’ve heard me all the way down in Lexington, because she sent me a couple of [...]

Now we have a new look to go along with our iPad/iPhone optimization. Special thanks to our Web Wrangler, Keena… Looks like all those trips to the World of Rubber Museum finally paid off! [...]

Check it – RCR is now optimized for iPad and iPhone use. We’re also the only site I’m aware of that’s optimized for rotary phones. Just dial Garfield 1-2323 and I’ll have [...]

I’ve got RCR’s IT department working on a redesign of our site to address a nagging problem – if you’re reading our blog on an iPad and sample a song, it takes you away from our site. And good [...]

American Idol’s Randy Jackson would probably describe him as “pitchy,” and I don’t think he’d make it on anyone’s team on The Voice. But Arthur Alexander is one of the great heroes of early [...]

Another rough week, another re-post… Sue me. (Hey, our last post rang up almost 200 Likes – maybe it’s time to send some of our readers back to Drunken Vegan!) Here’s one of our [...]

We’ve covered guitarist Robert Quine pretty well in this blog, especially here and here. But I had to throw this post together after my sister came across a long-lost article in the bottom of a [...]

Several things happened since I first posted this piece almost two years ago: 1) Based on my google stats, it’s still drawing a lot of readers; 2) A new bio about long-time Thelonious Monk [...]

I’m usually not a “let us praise our fallen rock heroes” kind of guy. But I have to admit, the passing of Levon Helm hit me a little hard. And I’m not sure I can really explain why. I always had [...]

“Tim, you’ve just spent another post exhuming a dead blues guy. Are you listening to any music recorded since, say, 1964?” Another nasty missive in the RCR mailbox (family members can be such [...]

America’s greatest musical export? That’s easy – Chess blues and rock ‘n roll. New Orleans R&B might be a close second, and you can’t deny the lasting, global impact of jazz greats like Miles [...]

Let me start by saying Dr. John’s new album, “Locked Down,” is one of the most satisfying listens I’ve come across in the last few years. But I’ll also admit I [...]