Best known for his stint as a member of the acclaimed 80s roots-rock band the True Believers singerguitarist Jon Dee Graham was also a longtime fixture of the renowned Austin TX music scene Raised on a ranch located near the Texas-Mexico border he pi…

Part country and part garage rock, the Denton, Texas, USA-based Slobberbone was formed in 1992 by Brent Best (vocals), Ed Alderson (guitar), Lee Pearson (bass), and Tony Harper (drums). The band played locally for the next few years, before issuing t…

b. USA. Prophet first attracted attention in March 1983 on joining Los Angeles band Green On Red. His exciting, highly skilled, technique added a new dimension to this already excellent group, although critics initially dubbed his work derivative of …

Despite tongue-in-cheek album titles like SOUTHERN ROCK OPERA and GANGSTABILLY, Athens, Georgia's Drive-by Truckers take their Lynyrd Skynyrd very seriously, as well as their Neil Young and their Replacements. Redneck rock for the 2000s liberal indie…

Japanese electronic pop duo Draco teamed Naoki Morimoto and Miyuki Osawa Their debut LP Enter the Draco was issued in early 2000 Jason Ankeny All Music Guide

Steve Earle did for country in the 1980s what Waylon Jennings did for it in the '70s--released it from the shackles of commerciality and overproduction by introducing a bad-ass, rock-friendly outlaw aesthetic. Besides his talents as a singer/songwrit…

Johnny Cash was part rockabilly rebel, part campfire storyteller, part outlaw in black. Cash made country and rockabilly history on the Sun label in the 1950s. During the '60s, the ruggedly charismatic Cash rose to superstardom, ending the decade wit…

Lucinda Williams started out recording acoustic covers of classic folk and blues songs, but her own idiosyncratic songwriting soon came to the fore. Her mixture of rock, country, blues, and folk endeared her to a wide audience. Williams's self-titled…

Coming out of the grass-roots Gilman St. punk scene of the early-1990s Bay Area, Green Day exploded into the mainstream with their third album, 1994's DOOKIE. The trio's punk energy and pop hooks, influenced by first-generation punks like the Buzzcoc…

Willie Nelson began working in a conventional Nashville style and had great success as the songwriter of Faron Young's hit "Hello Walls" and others, but he was initially unable to make it as a performer. In the 1970s, he and Waylon Jennings made hist…

From his early-1970s beginnings with seminal country band the Flatlanders, Joe Ely has seen substantial critical acclaim but only moderate commercial success. His music, which is often described as a bridge between early-'70s country-rock and '90s "N…

In the mid-'80s the Nashville scene was at a low point until Dwight Yoakam helped usher in a new wave of country that was both traditionalist and progressive. Yoakam's allegiance to the classic Bakersfield sound of the '60s (Buck Owens, Merle Haggard…

Athens, GA-based singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt was paralyzed for life following a 1983 car accident. Despite his condition, Chesnutt learned to play the guitar and began performing in local clubs. At the urging of R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, Chesnutt st…

Turning the music world on its head, Eminem, the blond-haired rapper from Detroit, forced the hip-hop world to accept him as an equal. Despite lyrics full of anger, misogyny, violence, racism, and homophobia, Eminem has been a major commercial succes…

Jimmie Dale Gilmore is one of the founding fathers of progressive country. His recording career began with the Flatlanders. He and his Lubbock singer-songwriter cohorts Joe Ely and Butch Hancock recorded the first Flatlanders album in 1972, but it di…

b. 11 January 1956, Houston, Texas, USA. In the mid-70s, Keen befriended Lyle Lovett at Texas A&M University, an establishment that combined academic and military activities. They often sang and played guitar together and they wrote "This Old Porch",…

A songwriter of unprecedented depth, Townes Van Zandt brought to his country/folk offerings a lyrical grace that rivals the great poets. He's best known for dark, haunted imagery, but had his greatest success with others' versions of his gentler song…

The Los Angeles-based hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas has made a name for itself by taking an eclectic and organic approach to rap, R&B, and funk. Led by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Will.I.Am., the band also includes two other MCs, Apl.de.Ap. and Ta…