Hank Williams

Tim McGraw Gets Sober, Kills Only Chance of Revitalizing Country Music

Country music has always mystified me. On the one hand, the songs always seem to focus on alcohol, failed relationships, and poverty - subjects that have spawned fantastic art for years. On the other hand, popular country music has been virtually unlistenable for at least the last twenty years.

Is Karaoke an Appropriate Response to a Tragedy?

Karaoke can be a dangerous endeavor. What can you sing that won't make friends shun you? How can you go balls-out during your next performance? Each week in "Ask a Karaoke Host," RFT Music writer and professional karaoke host Allison Babka answers your burning questions about maximizing your melodio ... More >>

Ryan Mifflin on the Problem of "Heard Of" but "Not Heard"

Ed. Musicians may get all the groupies, but there is more to a city's music world than people wielding instruments. To name a few: venue and studio owners, show promoters, assorted enthusiasts and -- the subject of this series -- bloggers. In Music Blogs of St. Louis, we'll talk to the humans behi ... More >>

Country: Meet the 2012 RFT Music Award Nominees

The 2012 Riverfront Times Music Showcase is two weeks away. And if that is our own St. Louis Music holiday, then consider this the season: Throughout May, we've been making our cases for all 125 bands and artists nominated for an RFT Music Award this year, introducing the nominees from one or more o ... More >>

The Ten Best Juke Boxes in St. Louis

​Selecting the Riverfront Times' Best of St. Louis 2011 was no picnic. Choosing the winner meant several worthy candidates would go unmentioned -- until now. In this RFT Music series, we're beeboping and scattin' our way through notable runners up in a number of categories. There is no surer way ... More >>

Raul Malo Talks Mavericks Reunion and Staving Off Cynicism with Holiday Music

Kristin Barlowe​When Raul Malo rattles off singers like Frank Sinatra, Pavarotti, Elvis, Andrea Bocelli, Hank Williams and Celia Cruz, he's not name dropping and he's not blowing smoke. The former lead singer of one of the great country bands of the '90s, the Mavericks, and current solo artist ... More >>

David Olney

8 p.m. Thursday, August 18. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

Slaid Cleaves

7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 22. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

"You can't drink when you're dead": An interview with Steve Earle

Photo: Ted Barron​"I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" is the title of a beloved Hank Williams Sr. song. It's also the title of Steve Earle's new novel, as well as his newest album, and if it's not the motto tacked to his New York City apartment door it damn well should be. We reached Ea ... More >>

Earle of the Arts

Social Distortion' Jonny "Two Bags" Wickersham on the band's resurgence

Country-music legend Kris Kristofferson talks about touring with his "hero," Merle Haggard

Interview: Rodney Crowell on Memory and Country Music

Alan Messer​There are lots of reasons to hate Rodney Crowell. He's had scores of country hits and penned definitive progressive country anthems such as "'Til I Gain Control Again" and "Old Home Place Revisited." He records with Joe Henry and sings like a fallen angel. And he's had breakfast in ... More >>

R.I.P. Gene Roberts, Long-Time KDHX Country Music DJ

Sara Finke/KDHXGene Roberts on May 6, 2008​Gene Roberts, who hosted the long-running KDHX show "Country Function, Bluegrass Junction," until August 2008, died on Wednesday. He was 82. "Gene had what is likely the most extensive collection and knowledge of country and bluegrass music there is ... More >>

Justin Townes Earle

9 p.m. Wednesday, September 15. The Old Rock House, 1200 South Seventh Street.

Last Collector Standing: Ted Ryan on Country Music, Colonel Sanders' Christmas Album and Being a Record Store Clerk

The number of chain record stores nationwide has dwindled. However, St. Louis has become an unlikely safe haven for indie record shops as well as for DJs who prefer to spin the black circle instead of scrolling their iPods. In this weekly column, we'll focus on personal portraits of St. Louis' recor ... More >>

Jamey Johnson

7 p.m. Sunday, December 13. Pop's, 401 Monsanto Avenue, Sauget, Illinois.

George Jones

8 p.m. Saturday, November 21. Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center, on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, 1 University Boulevard.

The Dive Bomber: South City Hospitality at Pepper's Bar and Grill

I approached Pepper's Bar and Grill (near Bevo Mill, not the place on Locust) on a cold, rainy night to see a woman sitting on the front stoop. She wore shorts and a t-shirt and was talking on the phone. She jumped up as I neared the door, smiled at me, opened the door and promptly let it slam close ... More >>

The Song Remains the Same: Singer-songwriter Tom Russell might have released his finest moment with his new album, Blood and Candle Smoke

The Dive Bomber: McLain's Corner

Robin Wheeler writes for the blog Poppy Mom. She also has a strange attraction to drinking establishments with jars of pickled -- or possibly fossilized -- eggs. She reports on these dives for Gut Check every Friday.Saturday morning, I got the following quasi-anonymous text: "Hey, Wheeler. Why do ... More >>

The Top 10 Reissues of 2008

It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again. BILLY JOEL The Stranger (Columbia/Legacy) As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, rock. "Scene ... More >>

Second Spin: Billy "Crash" Craddock, Rub It In

Robin and Linda Williams

8 p.m. Friday, December 14. The Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Boulevard.

Punk's Not Dead

Against Me! Plays anarchist punk rock for the masses.

The Holmes Brothers

8:30 p.m. Sunday, August 12. BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups, 700 South Broadway

Lucinda Williams: Outtakes from the Riverfront Times' interview and music feature this week

Clare Burson/Richard Ferreira

8 p.m. Sunday, August 27. Blueberry Hill's Duck Room (6504 Delmar Boulevard, University City).

Beat Happenings

Music news you can use

Hank III

Thursday, March 30 at 8 p.m. Mississippi Nights (914 North First Street)

Van Morrison

Pay the Devil(Lost Highway)

Overlooked in '05

Ten great discs that were, ahem, underserved by the media this year

Paperback Master of Puppets

We talk mashups with Beatallica, skewer Ember Swift and find out what Robert Earl Keen is really saying

Dave Insley and the Careless Smokers

Wednesday, May 4; Frederick's Music Lounge (4454 Chippewa Street)

The Gourds

Tuesday, April 26; VooDoo Lounge in Harrah's Casino (777 Casino Center Drive, Maryland Heights)

Various Artists

Billy Martin Presents the Turntable Sessions (Amulet)

Various Artists

No Depression: What It Sounds Like (Vol. 1) (Dualtone)

The Holmes Brothers

Saturday, March 13; BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups

He Can Make It

The strangest fact in the George Jones bio is that he's survived at all

Hayseed Dixie

Thursday, May 1; Blueberry Hill's Duck Room

Various Artists

Timeless (Lost Highway)

Wayne Hancock

Friday, Jan. 11; Off Broadway

American Icon

Emmylou Harris keeps proving herself to be one of country music's most important artists

Momus

Folktronic (Le Grand Magistery)

Merle Haggard

Friday, Oct. 13; Mississippi Nights

GOOD BUZZ

Make a beeline to Frederick's Lounge's weekly hootenanny

Rolling Thunder

Letters to the Editor

Are You Sure Hank Done It That Way?

An essential boxed set shows what was right about Hank Williams and what's wrong about country music today

Best Bassist: Michael Prokopf