Email Author Roy Kasten

2009 Stories by Roy Kasten

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  FEATURED STORY

  Review + Setlists: Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson at GCS Ballpark, Thursday, July 2

  published Jul 03, 2009

  Everything looked bad but the weather. I crawled through traffic in parts of Cahokia and Sauget that will never make a John Mellencamp small town video. I stared at the lines snaking around the GCS Ba... More >>

• Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson/John Mellencamp

  published July 1, 2009

  The irony of Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp touring minor-league ballparks is as rich as their combined... More >>

• Story Outtakes: Brothers Lazaroff

  published Jun 26, 2009

  Brothers Lazaroff will be holding a CD release party for American Artifact, the band's second album, at Off Broadway on Saturday. Guests include the Educated Guess and the Auset Music Project. Roy Kas... More >>

• Brothers in Arms: Now settled back in St. Louis, the Brothers Lazaroff mines its own distinctive American artifacts

  published June 24, 2009

  It's lunchtime, and Hodak's in south St. Louis is jumping. Jeff and Dave, the Brothers Lazaroff, are having fried chicken, cod, beets and iced... More >>

• Steve Earle

  published June 17, 2009

  Throughout three decades Steve Earle has been many things: a Texas folk vagabond, a Nashville outsider, a dope fiend, a jailbird, a... More >>

• The Felice Brothers

  published June 17, 2009

  The Felice Brothers are one brother down — drummer Simone Felice left this year to pursue his new band, the Duke and the King. But... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Photos + Review + Setlist: Jenny Lewis, Farmer Dave and Deer Tick at the Pageant, Sunday, June 14

  published Jun 15, 2009

  Twangfest 13 closed out on Saturday, June 13 at the Duck Room, but you could consider the Pageant debut for Jenny Lewis (supported by indie twang-blues rockers Deer Tick and the droll and self-conscio... More >>

• Jenny Lewis

  published June 10, 2009

  Jenny Lewis is smarter, sexier and twice as evil as any femme fatale in indie rock. Other than that, there's nothing to worry about.... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Show Review: Constantines with Crystal Antlers and Old Lights at the Duck Room, June 3

  published Jun 04, 2009

  The good news for the Constantines is that on a Wednesday night in St. Louis, with no buzz and no promotional exertions, their draw is good for 100. That's double the attendance (I'm told) of ... More >>

• Hoots and Hellmouth

  published June 3, 2009

  At this year's SXSW, the young Philly quartet Hoots and Hellmouth ripped the doors off an alley-side pub and sent the hipster detritus... More >>

• Los Straitjackets

  published May 27, 2009

  Fans of Los Straitjackets may have first come for the novelty, but they've stayed for the sound — a furious instrumental assault... More >>

• Paul Burch & WPA Ballclub

  published May 20, 2009

  Paul Burch named his band the WPA Ballclub after the New Deal's Works Progress Administration, but there's nothing Depression-era... More >>

• Dale Watson

  published May 20, 2009

  When it comes to hard-drinking, hard-hurting country music, the kind that rips your heart out and then crushes it beneath eighteen... More >>

• Show Review: Living Things at Off Broadway, Monday, May 11

  published May 12, 2009

  This past Sunday, and it would seem, the Sunday before and before that, former Vice President Dick Cheney made the round table rounds, spreading his signature cheer, trenchant analysis and Strangelovi... More >>

• Roy Clark

  published May 13, 2009

  Along with George & Tammy, Buck Owens and Glen Campbell, virtuoso picker Roy Clark was the face and sound of country music at the dawn... More >>

• Living Things

  published May 6, 2009

  It's a Herculean task, but one must slog through mucho bullshit to connect with the Living Things. Given the "Berlin" brothers'... More >>

• Murder By Death

  published May 6, 2009

  Bloomington, Indiana's Murder By Death overcomes aesthetic absurdity — picture the Crash Test Dummies employing cellos to... More >>

• Shivers Me Timbers: Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers breathes new life into rock & roll

  published May 6, 2009

  Who would have guessed that Samantha Crain, the 22-year-old Shawnee, Oklahoma, native previously known only for the lovely and bookish... More >>

• Richard Buckner

  published April 29, 2009

  Richard Buckner never stood a chance at becoming a star, but once he seemed destined for more than cultish obscurity. His first three... More >>

• Trigger 5

  published April 29, 2009

  Country music seems so simple to some: three chords, a cheatin' or beer-drinkin' rhyme or two, and vocals squeezed up into the inferior... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Show Review: Ray LaMontagne and Jessica Lea Mayfield at the Pageant, April 22

  published Apr 23, 2009

  The sign on the door at the Pageant said, "This is a quiet show. Please speak softly." Another said, "Sold out. No further tickets available." The teams of scalpers begged to differ. This activity was... More >>

• Beep Beep

  published April 22, 2009

  The unbearable cuteness of being in a band called Beep Beep is hardly mitigated by the conceptual dalliances of the 2009 release,... More >>

• Paul Simon

  published April 15, 2009

  Despite all the shifts during his recording career — from the angelic folk of Bookends to the roots-pop of Paul Simon, from... More >>

• Time Out of Mind: Steve Forbert shucks the nü-Dylan tag with optimism and a nod to soft rock

  published April 15, 2009

  You could fill a small factory-outlet store with cutout-bin specials that feature forgotten New Dylans. Steve Forbert hasn't been forgotten... More >>

• Audrey Auld

  published April 8, 2009

  Audrey Auld's roots are in Tasmania, an exotic Australian isle that suggests nothing of the lissome singer's precise, terse lyrical... More >>