Email Author Roy Kasten

2006 Stories by Roy Kasten

• Local Motion: The Linemen

  published May 24, 2006

  With the demise of the Rock House Ramblers last year, a void opened in the local honky-tonk scene, one that the Round-Ups and Diesel Island (as... More >>

• Crooked Jades

  published May 24, 2006

  The Crooked Jades brandish the slogan "old time is not a crime" like a double-edged sword. On World's on Fire they risk... More >>

• The Embrace Between

  published May 24, 2006

  It's been nearly five years since stand-up comic and actor Judah Friedlander (American Splendor, The Darwin Awards, Feast)... More >>

• .38 Special

  published May 17, 2006

  During the Great Southern Rock Scare of the early '80s, .38 Special was as ubiquitous as bandanas and Jack Daniel's, though their wild-eyed... More >>

• The Tim Carroll Band

  published May 10, 2006

  In a recent mash note to Music City, Bobby Bare Jr. sings, "The greatest living guitar pickers can deliver you a pizza or sell you weed." He... More >>

• Obscurity Knocks

  published May 10, 2006

  Yo! RFT Raps The latest issue of inBox magazine features reviews of the latest Killa Skillz... More >>

• The 88

  published May 3, 2006

  If the British Invasion had landed at LAX instead of JFK, the 88 would have disembarked and taken a Magic Bus straight to the nearest... More >>

• Nuclear Pop Overthrow

  published April 26, 2006

  On the Thursday night of last month's South by Southwest festival, Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, an eight-piece from Indianapolis, squeeze... More >>

• The Dials

  published April 19, 2006

  The Dials have been the recipients of their fair share of critical confusion. Punk, pop, garage, bubblegum, riot grrrl — the Chicago... More >>

• Haggard Glory

  published April 19, 2006

  It was January 1, 1958, and Merle Haggard was doing time in San Quentin for the crime of being stupid. A few months before, he and some friends... More >>

• Eef Barzelay

  published April 12, 2006

  To be clear, "A Special Acoustic Show by Clem Snide" just means Eef Barzelay with a guitar. Publicity strategies aside, the Israel-born,... More >>

• Toots and the Maytals

  published April 12, 2006

  Bob Marley made better albums, Dennis Brown wrote better songs, and Lee Perry was more visionary. But Toots and the Maytals are reggae's... More >>

• Dixie Hummingbirds

  published March 29, 2006

  Out of all the great 1940s gospel groups, the Dixie Hummingbirds were the most exhilarating and influential, largely because of baritone... More >>

• Frog Holler

  published March 22, 2006

  Reading, Pennsylvania's Frog Holler isn't just another alt-country band with a regrettable name, a flannel-and-beard aesthetic and an... More >>

• Ladysmith Black Mambazo

  published March 15, 2006

  Twenty years ago the sound of Ladysmith Black Mambazo emerged from the slums of South Africa via Paul Simon's Graceland, an album... More >>

• The Deadstring Brothers

  published March 8, 2006

  Composed of four Detroit amigos and one amiga (harmony singer Marsha Marjieh, who is too good not to sing some lead), the Deadstring... More >>

• Matthew Ryan/David Mead

  published March 1, 2006

  David Mead's voice is as warm and smooth as sandalwood oil, while Matthew Ryan's vocals are as warm and smooth as No. 2 sandpaper.... More >>

• Bringing Up Baby

  published March 1, 2006

  At 26 years old, Lillian Berlin, singer and songwriter for the Living Things, has a wife, a one-year-old daughter, a four-star review in... More >>

• Rodney Crowell

  published February 22, 2006

  In the '80s, Rodney Crowell was a Nashville insider with a Midas touch, writing and producing hits for then-wife Rosanne Cash and charting... More >>

• Miranda Lambert

  published February 15, 2006

  "Kerosene," the country single of 2005, was written by Miranda Lambert, a 22-year-old former Nashville Star-let who seems to... More >>

• BR549

  published February 8, 2006

  BR549 know country music's past well enough that they're not doomed to repeat it, a significant achievement for what started out as a retro... More >>

• Greg Brown

  published February 1, 2006

  Greg Brown's best album, Slant 6 Mind, begins with tense acoustic guitar and millenarian growls: "She's got a slant 6 mind and a... More >>

• Punch-Drunk Love

  published January 25, 2006

  When contemplating the potential for disaster when recording her fifth solo album, The Forgotten Arm, Aimee Mann must have channeled her... More >>

• Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart

  published January 18, 2006

  With a voice somewhere between Janis Ian's diffident warmth and Nanci Griffith's hillbilly twee, Stacey Earle grabs her guitar-slinging... More >>

• Get Thee to a Winery

  published January 18, 2006

  No Orleans Grayson Capps grew up in Alabama, moved to New Orleans to study acting, formed the... More >>