#ruston-kelly

#ruston-kelly

Booking shows is not a career for the faint of heart. Beyond coordinating schedules, hosting live music night after night requires a skilled ear behind the sound board to make sure the drums don't overpower the bass, and that the vocals don't overpower the drums.

The Sound It Made opens Two Wheels Move the Soul like the blaze is roaring to life before your eyes. Zack James' shifty drumming hammers out a drum 'n' bass redux like a panicked heartbeat while Carney Hemler's bass lurches in slow motion, replicating the gut drop of a horrible realization.

Maybe we ran into an old acquaintance at the supermarket and said "Let's catch up sometime" or told our friends we would "check out" the boring-sounding show they spent the past five minutes recommending? That's what country-music superstar Jelly Roll appeared to do after the Grammys last week when, in response to a question about the state of the country, he said he had "a lot to say"

Jimmy vowed when opening his steakhouse in 1934, just a year after the repeal of Prohibition, to "serve a great steak" and "pour a generous portion of whiskey." After decades of doing just that, plus his promise of "attentive service," those core principles remain. True to his word, the steaks are legendary, and whiskey free-flows as if Prohibition and the Great Depression never even existed.

That whole year I just felt awful and like I was dying. I didn't feel right, and mentally I was off, like there really was something wrong the whole time. So I think the reason some of these songs feel the way they do is because I felt that way, even though I didn't know something was wrong yet.

Alabama country singer Drayton Farley has announced a new album, A Heavy Duty Heart, due March 27 via One Riot Records ( pre-order). Like 2023's great Twenty On High, it was produced by Sadler Vaden (of Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit), and it was recorded live to tape in Nashville with Drayton's touring band. It's got 10 new songs, three of which are out now, and two of those actually recently premiered on TV shows.

Meanwhile, his daytime trade as a geologist brought him from his home turf near Nashville to the Pacific Northwest, that rugged place whose seismic activity seems to thrum like the gears of a great subconscious. It's safe to say country music is in his blood-and so, one can imagine, are the seams of magma that crisscross the Ring of Fire. His new album Paleo Sol is like a seance with the elements.

Jeff Hanna, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder and de facto leader, is tucked into a nondescript booth at El Palenque, a 30-years-plus local restaurant in a Nashville strip mall, talking about "Nashville Skyline," a pensive track from their EP, "Night After Night." The family-owned Mexican restaurant is the kind of place he's gravitated toward since starting a jug band with friends in Long Beach before migrating to Los Angeles' folk/rock scene.