“ … it just made me realise that some people get on this ride and they go so fast that they just can’t hang on and they fall off. I didn’t want to be one of those. I wanted to be a daddy to my kids—enjoy life a little bit.” Billy Ray Cyrus tells Alan […]

Carrie Rodriguez In a few short years Carrie Rodriguez has blossomed forth from a rather reserved back-up musician into a revered singer, songwriter and fiddle player. She rather tentatively tested the water as a vocalist singing backup vocals for Chip Taylor, then with Taylor’s guidance gradually developed into a distinctive lead singer and promising songwriter. With […]

AMANDA SHIRES & ROD PICOTT  Though Amanda Shires is a classically trained violinist, she is also a down-home Texas gal at heart who grew up on a diet of country music, western swing and real-life cowboys. For the past three or four years she’s been touring as Rod Picott’s sidekick, and this pair of music mavericks […]

Raul Malo is regarded in Nashville as one of Music City’s finest vocalists. It’s been that way since the early 1990s when he first hit town with his band the Mavericks. They moved from Florida to Tennessee to make their mark in music and were initially dubbed a country music act, even though to those […]

“Gram Parsons’ influence is untold. It’s probably phenomenal. Almost every artist of a certain age that you can think of will mention him. He’s probably a lot more far-reaching than he’s given credit for. And Emmylou, too, if you look at the time, there was a lot of classic country music on the radio, and […]

It happens all the time. After hearing American string wizard Walter Strauss play guitar and sing, first-timers to his shows invariably turn to each other slack-jawed and wide-eyed, whispering: ‘Why the hell have I never heard of this guy before?’ Good question. But there are good reasons, too. For years now, Walter has been in […]

The English country dancing troupe to the left of me. The beginner’s clawhammer banjo class to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle of Cecil Sharp’s basement café on a Saturday morning, with a cup of tea and a slice of cake and the phenomenon that is the Groanbox Boys. It could be […]

British bluegrass fans—and for that matter any acoustic music lover who enjoys finely picked, harmony-laden rootsy music—are in for a real treat this spring when the young and dynamic Gold Heart tour the UK. This close-knit family band comprisng the Gold sisters Analise (mandolin, 19), Jocelyn (guitar, 16) and Shelby (fiddle, 13) are still barely […]

A gaunt looking Justin Townes Earle, tall, pencil thin, with dark eyes deep in the sockets, leant carefully over his guitar as he deftly changed the strings just a few hours before the latest leg of his punishing tour. Maverick’s Alan Taylor took the opportunity to ask him a few questions at the Maze in […]

“We live in a very global community and people are now exposed to this music and all other types of music, which is now at our fingertips,” Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles tells Alan Cackett on the eve of their first UK tour  In four short years Sugarland have emerged as the most successful duo in country music, […]