This time around, from my mailbox to your computer screen, we’ve got Heartlanders, Hornicators, and the (so far, anyway!) Acoustic Album of the Year. Read on, dear listeners, for here is the one and only… INDIE ROUND-UP for June 30 2005 === Thomas Truax, Audio Addiction Thomas Truax invents his …

Pearl represented the summit of her self-creation to that point, and it was the only studio album she truly enjoyed making.

There aren’t too many things more American than a set of songs delivered in a country-western twang, with hard-edged guitars, a dose of Jesus, and lyrics about cars and growing up. That’s Bobby Pinson‘s recipe, and projected through his gutsy songwriting and soaring, slightly unpolished baritone, it’s a winning combination. …

For the first time in its four-year run, the Americana Music Honors & Awards will be broadcast to 37 million homes via the GAC (Great American Country) cable TV network this Fall. Hosted by two-time award winner Jim Lauderdale at Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium, the awards show will be taped …

I’m, like, busy or something. So, no witty comments or literary segues this week – let’s just get straight to the… INDIE ROUND-UP for June 16 2005 === Sonya Heller, Fourth Floor Fluid melodies, sultry, jazz-inflected vocals and introspective, literate lyrics define Sonya Heller’s most recent CD, Fourth Floor. The …

Angel superfans and Buffyverse compleatists, rejoice: a full hour of the gloomy, portentious orchestral music that played such a big part in making the Buffy spin-off so simultaneously grim and over-the-top can now be yours. For this CD, Australian composer Robert Kral compiled and combined his best cues from the …

Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man is about as good a movie as you will ever see in the feel-good, underdog-triumphant genre. It’s also a very good fight picture. And it’s more than that as well. Along with a richly layered performance by Russell Crowe – all the more impressive because he …

Although rap and electronica are not my usual beat, I think I manage to explain why I like the selections below. In between, you’ll find a self-described “bunch of average middle-aged people” who call themselves Key Lime Pie. Next to strawberry-rhubarb, that’s my favorite kind of pie, so they have …

For a superb collection of science fiction and fantasy suitable especially, but by no means exclusively, for teens, you need look no further than this wonderful new anthology. The first in what I hope will be an annual series, the book was compiled by veteran anthologist Patrick Nielsen Hayden and …

Well, rock me over with a feather - Styx's new CD is damn good.