AltWeeklies Wire
Steff Mahan's Musical Path Produces a Soulful Serenadenew
Without resorting to artifice or clichés, the Nashville singer-songwriter has a gift for writing songs that sneak up on you and, before you know it, get you all teary-eyed.
Colorado Springs Independent |
Bill Forman |
04-15-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
Nashville's Working Musicians Share their Sordid Storiesnew

After talking to more than 20 of Nashville's resident music pros — from club owners to sidemen —the Scene takes a glimpse into this exclusive world of mishaps, transgressions and calamities.
Nashville Scene |
Adam Gold |
04-02-2010 |
Music
Getting to Know Ke$ha, Pop Sensationnew

It was the day after Christmas, and we were dancing at 12th & Porter while Ke$ha danced barely three feet away. She already had the No. 2 song in the country, but she wouldn't be a global it-girl for at least another week. In retrospect, we should have cut in.
Nashville Scene |
Sean L. Maloney |
03-05-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
Redneck Woman Gretchen Wilson's Search For Radio Redemptionnew

Just over a year ago, Gretchen Wilson looked into the abyss. Her third album, One of the Boys, had tanked. The label team that had guided her 2004 debut CD Here for the Party to quintuple platinum sales had largely been swept away in the wake of a corporate merger.
Nashville Scene |
Rob Simbeck |
02-26-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
Music Fans: Check Out These 10 Artists to Watch in 2010new
Not only do we already have some great touring acts slated to darken our club doors in the early months of the year — Aretha Franklin, Tegan and Sara, Screaming Females, Beach House and Quasi among them — we've also got a slew of new local albums to look forward to as well.
Nashville Scene |
Nashville Scene Staff |
02-05-2010 |
Music
Three Hot Nashville Acts Present a New Breed of Female Songwriternew

Those Darlins, Caitlin Rose and Tristen are songwriters who draw on decades-old traditional folk, country and pop to tell provocative tales from an unabashedly female perspective.
Nashville Scene |
Tracy Moore |
08-21-2009 |
Music
Is Phil Lee the Best Songwriter in Nashville? If Not, You Tell Himnew
Long before he ever threw his first knife, Phil Lee was no stranger to sharp points and edges. He writes songs full of them: character studies that sidle up to folks we'd normally shy away from, pretty ballads that turn staggeringly bleak, ambiguous odes to rough living too laugh-out-loud funny to be considered cautionary tales.
Nashville Scene |
Jim Ridley |
07-31-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Hey, Young Nashville Band—Want a Major-Label Deal? Read This Firstnew
If the Nashville curse used to be that no local rock band could snag a record deal, then perhaps now the curse is that they can. It's staying afloat afterward that has proved most elusive.
Nashville Scene |
Tracy Moore |
06-05-2009 |
Music
Tags: Nashville, record labels
A Power Shift Within Nashville's Musicians Union Signals Changing Timesnew

To onlookers, Local 257 became a battleground far larger than Nashville's city limits, in a sort of proxy grudge match for control. At stake was leadership of the fourth largest local in the world's largest trade organization for professional musicians.
Nashville Scene |
Brantley Hargrove |
03-20-2009 |
Music
Roy Orbison and His Nashville Recordings, 20 Years After His Deathnew
With the 20th anniversary of Orbison's death on Dec. 6, and with the recent release of a career-defining box set, Roy Orbison: The Soul of Rock and Roll, it's an apt time to reflect on how several of pop music's most timeless and artful songs unexpectedly emerged from a small Nashville recording studio on 17th Avenue.
Nashville Scene |
Michael McCall |
12-05-2008 |
Reviews
Why So Many Bands Skip Music Citynew
Booking touring acts operates on three principles: warm bodies, location and cold, hard cash. Which do you think Nashville struggles with?
Nashville Scene |
Tracy Moore |
04-11-2008 |
Concerts
Shelley Short Quietly Saves Country Musicnew
Rather than waxing naively cute, a la Jenny Lewis, or idiotic, Short encapsulates much of what makes old-school Nashville country great: a showman's charisma, credible melancholy and close geographical ties.
Willamette Week |
Amy McCullough |
04-09-2008 |
Reviews
The Real Dealnew
Dwight Yoakam is a purist and a
reactionary, but that doesn’t make him any less of a rebel.
Illinois Times |
Rene Spencer Saller |
08-05-2005 |
Reviews