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Mead says he still has a deal with Ten Ten, but he is no longer drawing a salary. "It was great because I learned how to sit in a room with someone with a blank piece of paper and come out with something. It's pretty intimate thing to do, and some experiences are better than others, but given the right person you can come out with something pretty damn good like that with a couple of people bouncing ideas off each other."

"There's a craft to it," he says, "but there's also learning from the other person and incorporating it into your own writing that you maybe consider too personal to write with anybody else."... »»»

Young, founding member, songwriter and primary vocalist for the Greencards, explains why the band wanted to change gears on their first CD on Sugar Hill Records.

"We've been playing together for a bit more than six years," says Young by phone while her tour bus is on the way to St. Louis. Her voice has the familiar Aussie cheerful lilt and bares little resemblance to the nuanced chanteuse on the albums. "There is a creative aspect that grows. You really have no power over that. It just happens. We love playing music, and we love playing live shows, and pushing ourselves every night is a big part of it. And while we love traditional music and... »»»

The songs are stories. With the Dead Horses backing him up, Bingham is allowed to create some beautiful music, as is evidenced on songs like the dreamy Bluebird and straight-to-the-heart Tell My Mother I Miss Her So. "Songwriting is a way of getting things off my chest," Bingham says.

Fresh off the road for a few weeks, Bingham, 28, is back at his home in Topanga Canyon, a place in the Los Angeles area that has been home to hippies and rock-n-rollers for years and now counts New Mexico native Bingham as a resident. Interestingly, on his new album, he features a new song called Roadhouse Blues on "Roadhouse Sun." It's rumored that Jim Morrison of The Doors wrote his Roadhouse Blues about Topanga Canyon.... »»»

Jarosz was raised in Wimberley, Texas, just outside the live music hub of Austin. Her mother played rhythm guitar and wrote songs, and her parents exposed her to all kinds of music - from rock and blues to country and bluegrass. The young Jarosz showed an interest and talent for music almost immediately; she began playing banjo and singing at 2 years old, picked up piano at 10 and slowly added clawhammer banjo, mandolin and guitar to her musical arsenal.... »»»

Taking advantage of the opportunity to try out her own developing talents as a tunesmith, she co-wrote the album's title track with Sonya Kelly and Carl Jackson, who continues as her producer. An up-tempo testament to the virtues of the kind of gal who prefers the Tennessee version of Paris to the French one, Nugent laughs as she agrees that the song was a blast to write.

"We toyed with the idea of writing the Hillbilly Goddess song for a while because I was afraid that... »»»

Many may have been caught off guard by this unusual turn of events, but in truth, everybody should have seen it coming. After all, Doe hinted at his sincere knowledge of roots music back in 1983, on X's "More Fun in the New World" record. In a song called I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts, he complains: "Woody Guthrie sang about b-e-e-t-s, not b-e-a-t-s."

In one sense, these words were an appalled reaction to the overly synthetic rock scene at the time.... »»»

It would appear to be a recipe for disaster, a one-album flameout. But in the end, does it all fit? In a word — harmoniously.

To understand why Sara Watkins assembled a studio full of rock luminaries for her self-titled debut on Nonesuch Records — as well as the likes of Tim O'Brien, Ronnie McCoury and Gillian Welch - takes an understanding of just who she is professionally. Watkins, of course, is one-third of the Grammy-winning, gold record-selling band Nickel Creek, which broke down so... »»»