Email Author Roy Kasten

2009 Stories by Roy Kasten

• Farm Aid

  published September 30, 2009

  Rock & rollers, country singers and blues people aren't do-gooders by nature. They want to get paid, get laid, get high and above all else, get... More >>

• Sea Wolf

  published September 30, 2009

  Jack London's novel Sea Wolf is a tale of the destructive potential of a single, domineering vision. For all his gifts, Alex... More >>

• Joe Pug

  published September 30, 2009

  Like that baby-faced Guthrie acolyte from Duluth, Minnesota, Joe Pug will one day go electric. For now, fans of elemental broadside... More >>

• The Dead Trees

  published September 23, 2009

  Slacker rock takes a turn for the hooks on the Dead Trees' first album, King of Rosa. It's a hazy, twangy, impudent homage to... More >>

• Bettye LaVette

  published September 23, 2009

  The adage "there are no second acts in American lives" needs some work, but don't look to Bettye LaVette for help. Despite industry... More >>

• Interview Outtakes: Patty Loveless, Playing at the Sheldon Tonight

  published Sep 17, 2009

  In this week's RFT, freelancer Roy Kasten interviewed Patty Loveless about her career and forthcoming album, Mountain Soul II, the follow up to her first "mountain music" album, Mountain Soul. The fin... More >>

• Coal Miner's Daughter: Country chanteuse Patty Loveless charms the Sheldon

  published September 16, 2009

  What does it take to be the finest pure country singer of your generation? Consider the life of Patty Loveless: A childhood raised on Kitty... More >>

• Michelle Shocked

  published September 9, 2009

  When a photographer for the San Francisco Examiner captured the scene of a riot-helmeted cop putting a stranglehold on a young protestor... More >>

• James McMurtry

  published September 9, 2009

  For years, James McMurtry labored behind two long shadows: that of his father, the novelist Larry McMurtry, and that of the Texas... More >>

• Two Cow Garage

  published September 2, 2009

  You'd think that after eight years of the dive-bar circuit, the bashing, string-wrenching, country-punks Two Cow Garage would have... More >>

• Curtis Salgado

  published September 2, 2009

  The blues don't bicycle, they don't microbrew, and they're as environmentally friendly as a pack of Winston straights. In other words, the... More >>

• Walking in Memphis: B-Sides talks with songwriter, singer and doghouse bass rocker Amy LaVere

  published August 26, 2009

  Memphis, Tennessee, has become a place of musical myth and fable, where tourism and hunters of legend often eclipse its present reality.... More >>

• Ha Ha Tonka

  published August 19, 2009

  Ha Ha Tonka caught the new wave of ersatz, old-time stompers and pickers churned up by the Avett Brothers and the Old Crow Medicine... More >>

• Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women

  published August 19, 2009

  With the Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women project, the ex-Blasters' transformation from blues and rockabilly guitar poet to sensitive,... More >>

• Show Review + Photos: Slobberbone and Glossary at Off Broadway, Wednesday, August 12

  published Aug 13, 2009

  Before we begin, a pledge. This review will not use the following words which fall like random keystrokes from a chimpanzee blogger's laptop: rock (or its derivations), crunchy, drunk, Americana, twan... More >>

• Ana Popovic

  published August 12, 2009

  Ana Popovic picked up her father's guitar at the age of fifteen and learned to play the blues behind the Milosevic curtain in Belgrade.... More >>

• Slobberbone gets the band back together for another twang-punk trek

  published August 5, 2009

  More bands should study the elegant, almost neoclassically refined career arc of Slobberbone. The flight path goes like this: drink beer, play... More >>

• Diane Birch

  published August 5, 2009

  From the glistening, resonant electric piano chords that open the terrific single "Nothing But a Miracle," Diane Birch stakes out her... More >>

• Arc Angels

  published July 29, 2009

  The Arc Angels has had plenty of media exposure — most of it bad and feeding off the supergroup trifecta of drugs, egos and... More >>

• Dusty Rhodes and the River Band

  published July 29, 2009

  With a name straight out of A Mighty Wind and a sound straight out of The Survival Guide for Kids with ADD or ADHD, Dusty... More >>

• History Never Repeats: Josh Ritter conquers complacency with an orchestral-leaning record and a tour with on-the-fly horn sections

  published July 22, 2009

  When Josh Ritter first showed up on radars outside his native Idaho, he was hailed as an heir to Townes Van Zandt, Nick Drake and, yep, Bob... More >>

• 

  Photos + Review + Setlist: Chris Isaak at the Pageant, Friday, July 17

  published Jul 19, 2009

  Forty years ago in July, eight years before his death, Elvis Presley began a stand of 57 shows at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, a concert run that restored the King to a throne he'd spent most... More >>

• Joan Baez

  published July 15, 2009

  For those who find Joan Baez's icy soprano, righteous politics and self-regard too much to bear, give her another listen. Not to Joan... More >>

• Susan Cowsill

  published July 15, 2009

  With the passing of Michael Joseph Jackson, it's easy to contemplate the doom that awaits the child pop star. Susan Cowsill is the... More >>

• Legendary bluesman T-Model Ford keeps on trucking his way on the road

  published July 8, 2009

  When B-Sides finally reaches Stella, the girlfriend, gatekeeper and muse for legendary Mississippi bluesman T-Model Ford, the phone line... More >>