These are hard times. These are dangerous times. But the best albums of 2010 offered the old promise that music can be redemptive, vital, and important. So as we move into 2011, Crux of the Biscuit submits its picks for the 11 best albums of 2010.

Now, there were albums I would… Read full post »

What is the real difference between famous people and the rest of us? I have no idea. But sometimes I think the major difference is the ability for the famous to actively pursue childhood dreams of pop stardom. While most of us are confined to inflicting our mediocre singing to shower… Read full post »

Don Van Vliet died today.  

He had been retired from music about a decade when I first heard of this strange and idiosyncratic artist. Even though Captain Beefheart hadn’t released any new music since the early 80s, his music is still surprising and rare. It’s like listening to a uni… Read full post »

“Well, I've already had two beers
I'm ready for the broom
Please, Missus Henry, won't you
Take me to my room?
I'm a good old boy
But I've been sniffin' too many eggs
Talkin' to too many people
Drinkin' too many kegs
Please, Missus Henry, Missus Henry, please
Please, Missus Henry, please
I'm down on… Read full post »

Talk about a day late and a dollar short.

I totally missed the boat on the whole Joni Mitc… Read full post »

Life is incredibly busy here, and unfortunately I haven’t been able to spend much time blogging, reading, and commenting here on Open Salon. Sorry all.

Anyway, here’s a lazy, self indulgent, and completely unnecessary retrospective post celebrating Crux of the Biscuit’s blogive… Read full post »

^{“I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them…” – Bob Dylan}

There’s a telling scene in D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary Dont Look Back, which documented Dylan’s British tour in early ’65. The young singer Donov/… Read full post »

To say that contemporary country music is a primarily white musical genre is unremarkable. It’s also rather obvious to assert that country music is b… Read full post »

 So, uh, it’s probably best to get this out of the way before continuing on with our series on Bob Dylan. Although this will be painful, it’s best if we just come clean with it, right up front. Admit it, and move on.  

Here’s the thing readers: Bob Dylan is… Read full post »

Drawing from the same mythic and romantic American folk well that other indie-folksters have been drinking deeply from (think Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Avett B… Read full post »

“O where ha you been, Lord Randall, my son?

And where ha you been, my handsome young man?”

“I ha been at the greenwood; mother make my bed soon,

For I’m wearied wi hunting, and fain wad lie down.”

--Lord Randall (English/Scottish ballad, 16^th century)

   &… Read full post »

I remember first getting into Scott-Heron about ten years ago. I had mentioned an affinity for Beat poetry and jazz to a prof one day after class, and suddenly here is Gil Scott-He… Read full post »

Harry Smith on Chubby Parker's  "King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O (Froggie Went A-Courtin')":  "Zoologic Miscegeny Achieved in Mouse/Frog Nuptuals, relatives approve!" 

What a great, romantic song! It's got it all man: Zoologic m… Read full post »

                         

 
There's a moment in the middle of Alberta Cross' hard-driving and spectacular single ATX where guitarist/vocalist Petter Ericson Stakee howls darkly, "how does it fe/… Read full post »

Link in the Chain (roots and beginnings) 

American folk music.

Blind Lemon Jefferson, Doc Boggs, Buell Kazee, Mississippi John Hurt, Clarence Ashley, Cannon’s Jug Stompers, the Carter Family—these artists, among many others, didn’t invent folk music, but they are responsible f… Read full post »

The research staff at the Rock and Roll Hall of Shame has spent long and hazardous hours exposed to songs that are considered crimes committed against rock. This includes good bands gone band and bad bands that got...badder. 

To aid our prosecution we enlisted the help of our friend and… Read full post »

                      THE DYLAN FILES:

1. Link in the Chain (roots and beginnings)
2. 1961—1964     The Folk Years
3. 1965—1966     T
… Read full post »

 What ever happened to the boogie? If you’ve asked yourself that question when contemplating music of th… Read full post »

Boiling Springs is our little village. Originally settled in the 1730s, Boiling Springs became a popular weekend destination during the late 19^th century. It remains a popular weekend retreat. Pe… Read full post »

Are you still holiday shopping? Do you know any aspiring writers? Here are four gift ideas for the writer in your life, or for anyone who simply loves a great story. 

The New Kings of Nonfiction (ed. Ira Glass)(2007)

               … Read full post »

Well, here it is: the ten worst songs of the decade. We were unable to provide a bigger list as there was a lot of dreck released this decade; our heads are hurting, and I have an/… Read full post »

Charles Brockden Brown is America’s first important novelist. Arthur Mervyn, Ormond and Edgar Huntly are fascinating studies in not only the writing of the ear… Read full post »

 Music is like the shorthand of history. Listen to the opening chords of “Johnny B. Goode” and one is able to conjure images of fin-tails, greased hair, and sock-hops. Or take a song like “For What It's Worth” and it is hard not to imagine hippies, protests, and love-ins,… Read full post »

 I’ve been spending the past few hours working on the second post for my “Decade in Music” series: The Decade’s Biggest Moments in Music—the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (hint: “nipplegate” is there).

See the first post in the series, The 50 Best Songs o… Read full post »