Doug Freeman

Hayes Carll and the Band of Heathens capture Southern-fried synergy

Relentlessly raw songwriter resets on seventh LP

On debut EP Homemaker, Lili Hickman, Madison Baker, and Caelin reach queer country transcendence

Rambling troubadour is caught between the hustle and the dream on his 15th LP

Crazy Love (Super Secret)

’Bama band becomes a festival headline act not a moment too soon

“When I first moved to Nashville, I had this idea that I was gonna sing at some bar and get discovered,” laughs Tiera Kennedy. “I thought I was gonna have that kind of story.” Kennedy exudes a contagious joy even when discussing the hustling highs and lows of the music industry she’s experienced over the […]

On the surface, Melissa Carper and Theo Lawrence might seem like country’s odd couple. She’s a queer hillbilly twanging, rustic Ozarks gal, and he’s a suave Ameripolitan honky-tonker from France. Pairing the two Austinites together, however, produces its own kind of magic, a chemistry captured at the outset with the playful parry and thrust of […]

Sunday peaked at 94 degrees and wrapped somewhere in the 40s – we’re used to it. In cutoffs and sweaters, the Chronicle music team caught hedonistic electroclash, rambunctious UK garage, and two killer rock & rollers from Cardiff, among others, at the end of SXSW’s first – now only – weekend. Outside these fresh discoveries, […]

With South by Southwest downsized to a week this year, it was unclear just what impact it might have on Luck Reunion. The Thursday festival on Willie Nelson’s Spicewood ranch traditionally fell in the middle of SXSW Music, and certainly took advantage of the annual influx of artists to bolster its lineup. But it turns […]