What a woman! As the saying goes, they broke the mould when they created her, as shown in Matthew Walker’s documentary I’m Wanita. The Wanita of the title likes to be known as Australia’s queen of honky-tonk. In her late 40s, she’s autistic, a binge drinker, a smoker and a prostitute of 18 years who…
Slim Dusty was an Australian icon. No arguments there. He was the first Aussie to have an international number 1 hit song with A Pub with No Beer. One hundred plus albums, record sales topping eight million and an unrivalled 45 Golden Guitar awards. Impressive numbers by any measure. Born David Gordon Kirkpatrick in 1927…
Over the decades, county music has loved a hard-luck story, a tears-in-your-beer weeper about a romance gone bad, hard livin’ and hard lovin’ with the promise of a party on the weekend. But it also came with the expectation of authenticity, the idea that the person singing the song had lived it, or at least…
The idea of a collaborative super-group of female country artists is hardly novel, but dates all the way back to early sing-alongs on the Grand Ol’ Opry, but was no doubt given contemporary commercial viability when Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris came together for “Trio” in 1987. And of course, for close to…
The advance word on Western Stars, the nineteenth studio album from Bruce Springsteen was a major change of direction for the singer/songwriting rock star. He’s fresh a year or so back from his sold-out solo stand performing an autobiographical monologue with songs for “Springsteen on Broadway” show, that was filmed for Netflix before it shuttered….
The Saint of Lost Causes, the eighth album from singer/songwriter Justin Townes Earle, is such a solid example from start to finish of traditional country & country/blues songwriting that you could use it as a text book for aspiring songwriters in that mold. Of course, you’d might expect that from someone with that name, the…
Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., in the mid ‘70s John Denver was one of the world’s most popular entertainers. His 1973 Greatest Hits album was on the Billboard magazine chart of best sellers for about three years. Of the 24 albums he released on the RCA label during his lifetime, 14 went gold (that is…
