Email Author Roy Kasten

2012 Stories by Roy Kasten

• Bonnie Raitt at the Pageant, 5/18/12: Review, Setlist

  published May 19, 2012

  Bonnie Raitt | Marc Cohn May 18, 2012 The Pageant They'd come in from Kansas City, Columbia, Minneapolis, Chicago, Louisville and West County -- and places further, I'm sure. The general admission t... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Steve Winwood at the Peabody Opera House, 5/14/12: Review, Setlist

  published May 15, 2012

  Steve Winwood | Bobby Long May 14, 2012 Peabody Opera House As go case studies in paying respects to the elder statesmen of rock & roll, there are worse fates than fourth-row tickets (so what if th... More >>

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  Luther Dickinson & the Wandering

  published May 17, 2012

  For Luther Dickinson, leader of the North Mississippi Allstars, the Wandering was a simple matter of free association: banjo and guitar led to... More >>

• Joe Pug

  published May 10, 2012

  Joe Pug is not a hipster with a banjo, a smarty pants with a computer, a naïf with a fake British accent singing in a fake forest. What he... More >>

• Andre Williams on "Shake a Tail Feather," Proto-Rapping and Folk Funk

  published May 03, 2012

  In the sordid and tangled history of popular music, Andre Williams is a larger than life figure, a prolific - to the point of incalculable - songwriter and a living and breathing Stagger Lee of R&B if... More >>

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  Chuck Mead

  published May 3, 2012

  Who is Chuck Mead, and why is he Back at the Quonset Hut, as his latest album declares? Founder of pivotal alt-country band BR549, Mead... More >>

• JD McPherson at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, 4/26/12: Recap

  published Apr 27, 2012

  JD McPherson Blueberry Hill's Duck Room April 26, 2012 JD McPherson's signature song, "North Side Gal," is a hit waiting for a chart, a single looking for a jukebox, an irresistible dance number on i... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Ray Wylie Hubbard on the Grifter Blues, Songwriting and Ringo Starr

  published Apr 27, 2012

  In the interest of full disclosure, I've known Ray Wylie Hubbard for going on 15 years, have crashed at his home in the hills of Wimberley, Texas and once rode on his tour bus (OK, it was borrowed) t... More >>

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  Ray Wylie Hubbard

  published April 26, 2012

  Thank the old blues gods that Ray Wylie Hubbard never became a preacher or a grifter or, as is often the case, one and the same. He'd convert... More >>

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  Red Horse

  published April 19, 2012

  The term "supergroup" has never been more ridiculous than when applied to singer-songwriters who, when tiring of the solo acoustic trade, band... More >>

• Abigail Washburn on Earl Scruggs and Getting Into an Old-Time Trance in China

  published Apr 11, 2012

  It's safe to say that of all the ambassadors for old-time music -- from Bill Monroe to Pete Seeger to Ralph Stanley -- Abigail Washburn has had, through her passion for and knowledge of China, the mos... More >>

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  Abigail Washburn

  published April 12, 2012

  With the passing of Earl Scruggs, attention has turned to the instrument that launched a thousand jokes: the banjo. But in the hands of masters... More >>

• White Denim

  published April 5, 2012

  White Denim's transformation from Nuggets-fueled retrophilia to druggy art rock hasn't been seamless. The band's 2011 release, D, messes... More >>

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  Ruthie Foster

  published March 29, 2012

  "You can't find it in a shout," Ruthie Foster wails on the fiery 2009 single "Truth!" Like the whole of her Grammy-nominated album The Truth... More >>

• Chuck Prophet at Off Broadway, 3/22/12: Review and Setlist

  published Mar 23, 2012

  Chuck Prophet | The Jans Project Off Broadway March 22, 2012 In Austin a few days before his semi-annual stop in St. Louis, Chuck Prophet sat outside a Mexican restaurant and said, "You know, I think... More >>

• Talking St. Louis, Baseball, Country Blues and Crooning With Bhi Bhiman

  published Mar 20, 2012

  Bhi Bhiman is an unlikely young hero for whatever remains of the folk-side of the singer-songwriter scene. The 29-year-old, second-generation Sri Lankan American grew up in Ballwin, Missouri. His new ... More >>

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  Chuck Prophet

  published March 22, 2012

  Chuck Prophet's latest album, Temple Beautiful, isn't the first rock & roll homage to San Francisco, but it's the best. Riff to rhyme,... More >>

• The End of SXSW 2012: Too Much Portland to Count and a Little St. Louis

  published Mar 19, 2012

  Friday, March 16, 2012 2:15 p.m. By mid-afternoon the South Congress strip had become a not-quite-debauched Mardi Gras parade of young and old, hip and unhip, crunchy and coiffed, and dogs, lots of ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Norah Jones, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Do it Right: SXSW 2012 Day 3

  published Mar 16, 2012

  Thursday, March 15, 2012 1 p.m. SXSW is a time machine, not always dialed towards the future. Though the clubs change names every season, the gimmicks get more and more outrageous -- witness the sky... More >>

• Fiona Apple, Tennis and Corporate Sponsorship: SXSW 2012 Days 1 and 2

  published Mar 15, 2012

  Tuesday, March 13, 2012 6:25 p.m. I've been coming to SXSW for over a decade now, and pre- and post-apocalypse days off are as much essential rituals as 2 a.m. taco runs and sleep deprivation. This... More >>

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  Hayes Carll

  published March 15, 2012

  Raised outside Houston, tutored by Ray Wylie Hubbard and now one of the most reliable of the unwashed, uncouth but undeniably talented... More >>

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  Whitehorse

  published March 8, 2012

  Veterans of the Canadian roots circuit, Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland have been supporting each other in music and in marriage for the... More >>

• Blind Pilot's Israel Nebeker on Songwriting and "White Apple"

  published Mar 01, 2012

  In this week's RFT, Senior Music Writer Roy Kasten chronicles the story behind Blind Pilot, a rising Portland folk-pop band touring behind its sophomore album We Are the Tide (produced by Tucker Marti... More >>

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  Del Fuegos

  published March 1, 2012

  Cut from the same proto-punk cloth as Tom Petty and the Hearbreakers, the Del Fuegos had hooks, looks, tunes and 'tude: everything it should... More >>

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  Blind Pilot started out in the saddle

  published March 1, 2012

  The Northwest of the United States has become fertile ground for a musical paradox sometimes called "new folk" or "neo-folk" or, worst of all,... More >>