Selected Writings

The Guardian

Welcome to NRA Country

How Racial Tensions Shape Modern Soul Music 

The Aw-Shucks Surrealism of John Prine 

Lori McKenna: Making Magic Out of the Mundane

‘Country Music Has Become Apolitical’

Indie Country Takes on the Mainsream

Oxford American

Soul Meeting

You Don’t Know What You Mean To Me

Willie’s Other Voice

Rolling Stone

The Ballad of Justin Townes Earle

This 1969 Music Fest Has Been Called ‘Black Woodstock.’ Why Doesn’t Anyone Remember?

Inside The Life of Brenda Lee, the Pop Heroine Next Door 

‘Fighting To Be Heard’: The Story of the Black Country Music Association

Kinky Friedman Comes Home

He Gave Hip-Hop A Voice at The Grammys Before Being Fired. Ten Years Later, He’s Ready To Talk

He Scored The First Platinum Hit. 45 Years Later, His Family Is Fighting For Every Penny

‘Teenage Dirtbag’ 2.0

Last Call

Inside the Americana Genre’s Identity Crisis

‘Compensation, Healing and Closure’: One Man’s Quest For Reparations in the Music Business

Ron Louie: Remembering Music’s ‘Ideal Superfan’ Who Died From Coronavirus

What Happened In Vegas

Inside Country Music’s Uneasy Relationship With Gun Control

John Prine: A Never-Ending Christmas And an Aw-Shucks Smile

A Long Conversation With Rapsody About Writing Raps

How Americana Went Mainstream in the 2010’s 

Why Jeff Tweedy Is Calling For Reparations In the Music Industry

How YouTube Reaction Videos Are Changing the Way We Listen

Lee Bains Would Like It If You Sang Along To This Next One

Greg Calbi’s Invisible Touch

A Lost Soul Man’s Second Chance

Did Dr. John Actually Finish His Final Album Before He Died? Depends Who You Ask

“Old Town Road” and the History of Black Cowboys in America 

The Existential Country-Soul Quest of Hiss Golden Messenger

Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings Talk 20 Years Since Landmark Album ‘Time (The Revelator)’

Gillian Welch on How ‘Everything Is Free’ Became a Modern Classic in the Streaming Era

How Thousand Oaks’ Borderline Bar Became a ‘Safe Place’ For Las Vegas Survivors

Brandi Carlile Talks New Album ‘By The Way, I Forgive You’

Why Country Music Wanted Everyone To Get Along in the 2010’s

Ryan Adams’ Bad Behavior Was Hiding in Plain Sight in His Songs

Mason Ramsey: Inside the Curious Fame of ‘Lil Hank Williams’

The Music Industry Saved Songwriter Hugh Prestwood From Homelessness. Is It Also Responsible For His Plight?

Bettye Lavette on Interpreting Bob Dylan

Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon Looks Back on ‘The 59 Sound’

Yola’s Fight For Roots-Rock Freedom 

Candi Staton Isn’t About to Stop Now

Inside Swamp Dogg’s Existential Soul Opus 

How Our Native Daughters Reimagine Folk Song Narratives

Inside Mavis Staples and Jeff Tweedy’s New Trump-Era Protest LP

Joan Baez Talks ‘New Way of Expressing Myself’ On First LP in a Decade

Inside Drive-By Truckers’ Controversial ‘American Band’

Inside the Dark Corners of Bob Marley’s Jamaica (RS 1219)

Ashley McBryde Talks ‘Girl Going Nowhere’

GQ

Luis Fonsi Celebrates The Year of “Despacito”

The Honky-Tonk Heart of Ashley Monroe 

No Depression

The Many Lives of Candi Staton

An Interview With Joan Shelley

John Hartford Pilots a New Generation 

Bitter Southerner

The Big Old Goofy World of John Prine

Josh Hedley: “I Am a Country Singer”

Pitchfork

Welcome to Blake Mills’ Weird World of Sound

Drive By Truckers: It’s Great to be Alive!

Margaret Glaspy: Emotions and Math

Gillian Welch: Boots No. 1

Rhiannon Giddens; Freedom Highway

Vulture

9 Great Behind-The-Scene Stories From Darlene Love, The Greatest Backup Singer Ever

Mavis Staples on her 12 Favorite Young(er) Singers, from Adele to Pharrell

The New New South
Sweet Home Everywhere  
Maura

U Remind Me Of Me

Newsweek

Dawes Takes the Long Road

Entertainment Weekly

Q&A: Maren Morris

Q&A: Steven Van Zandt 

Q&A: Meat Loaf

Brooklyn Magazine

Martha is Britain’s Best-Kept Pop-Punk Secret 

Craig Finn

Endless Oklahoma Sky

William Bell on Making the Ballads That Made Him

Dave Cobb’s Southern Family Misses the Mark 

Sick of Terminal 5?

Bandcamp

The Outsider Insights of Queer Country

Nashville’s Jessica Lea Mayfield Makes No Apologies 

(Sandy) Alex G on Growing Up and Getting (A Little More) Serious

What Can I Help You With: Making Tapes With Cryptic Carousel

Vice

We Went to See the O-Town Reunion

Tyler Childers Is Making Hometown Folk Songs in Tune With the Universe

Village Voice

Hurray for the Riff Raff’s New York Story

Jason Isbell: Southern Man 

How Julien Baker Learned to Embrace the Ugliness of Existence

Lucy Dacus Has Something to Say 

American Songwriter

Phosphorescent: A New Glimmer (2018 November/December Feature)

Tift Merritt: Singing For Herself (2017 March/April Feature)

Randy Newman: Not Getting Worse (2017 Jan/Feb Feature)

The Singer Becomes The Song: The Transformation of Hayes Carll (2016 May/June Feature)

The Glad Tears of Aoife O’Donovan (2016 March/April Feature)

Josh Ritter: The Sound of Something True (2015 November/December Feature)

Houndmouth: Unruly Folk (2015 September/October Feature)

Iris Dement: The Letting Go (2015 September/October Profile)

Leon Bridges: The Dishwasher’s Dream (2015 May/June Profile)

Courtney Barnett: Quotidian Blues (2015 March/April Profile)

Patty Griffin’s Family Affair (2013 July/August Feature)

Desperados Under the Eaves: A Tour of L.A.’s Best Songwriting Haunts (2014 November/December Feature)

John Moreland: Substance Over Style (2014 March/April Profile)

Q&A: T Bone Burnett

Kacey Musgraves: Same Trailer, Different Park

A Tale of Two Springsteens

John Prine: The Singing Mailman Delivers

Inside The Star-Studded Inside Llewyn Davis Concert

Nashville Scene

The Opry Goes to New York

 One Week One Band

Drive By Truckers

When Something Is Wrong With My Baby

County Fair