The Midtown Dickens sound is hard to explain to people who’ve never heard it. There’s not a band or a song you can throw down for a starting point of description. The best thing you can do is let a person experience MD, but you’ve got to play an entire album, because a [...]
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Music Review: Home
Midtown Dickens’ most recent release tells a story subtly, through lyrics touching and haunting and music that feels both experimental and traditional. This push-pull of past and present is evident in the songs’ messages, the sound, even down to the album art. Not surprisingly, given the title, this album explores ideas of home [...]
Music from the Bridge
I’m amongst a crowd hovering forty feet above Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, who are waving back at us with a combination of elation and gratitude. We have all gathered on the bridge that runs by the nTelos Wireless Pavilion at the end of the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, Virginia to catch a [...]
Music Review: Emotional Traffic
Ten albums and tens of millions of record sales in, and suddenly Tim McGraw is going to court. Flashback to early 2011: Curb Records, the label that released every one of McGraw’s albums for the last two decades, claims McGraw’s breaching his contract and trying to skip out early. The album’s coming [...]
Music Review: Last Day of Summer
There are a few things I do not appreciate about music criticism. Example one: when the critic describes a band as “sounds like (insert name of band) if (that band sounded like something else)” or “like a combination of (band) playing (music by another band/artist).” It’s sloppy writing, for one. And it presupposes [...]
Music Review: Radioactive
Gadsden, AL’s Yelawolf can’t be easily mentioned without the phrase “white rapper” following within the same breath, but he’s making his big splash, his name popping up on YouTube channels, his mixtapes surrounded by buzz and such, so that’s what hipped me to Radioactive, his first official album release through Eminem’s record label Shady [...]
An Interview with Courtney E. Smith
San Antonio-based writer Courtney E. Smith is the author of Record Collecting for Girls, a critically-acclaimed book about music from a female perspective. Liam O’Brien, head music writer for Drawl, interviewed Smith about the industry, up-and-coming artists, and of course, the South. L.O.: In your book, you state, “In a small way, I’ve been shaping the [...]
Christmas Playlist, Part I
Are you having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that Christmas is a mere three weeks away? Has the spirit not caught you yet? We suggest the following few songs to help you ditch the funk and get into the spirit: “Oh Sh*t, It’s Christmastime,” Mad Tea Party “Carolina Christmas,” Squirrel [...]
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