FEW BLUESMEN AS AUTHENTIC (AND AUDACIOUS) AS BOBBY RUSH: Bobby Rush came from Louisiana and Arkansas, fled to Chicago, played the blues,...

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION’S NEWEST MUSEUM SHOWS RELICS OF SOUL, GOSPEL, COUNTRY AND MORE The National Museum of African-American History...

LEGENDARY STAX COLLECTION SHOWS OFF GOOD-NEWS GROOVES One of my favorite soul albums is actually a gospel album. The Gospel Truth: The...

Nashville songwriter laments modern-day lynching, finds family in blues and Americana "Picked up by some folks Took to me to the woods...

Los Angeles-based master guitarist Ry Cooder’s remarkable 2018 album The Prodigal Son is perhaps the best--out of his many--records that...

Two of Nashville's best emerging singer-songwriters, Mary Bragg and Kyshona (Armstrong), brought their show to Eddie’s Attic, the music...

Rosanne Cash told the audience at the Ryman Auditorium how she’d spent 40 years mostly avoiding playing her father’s songs. But the...

Yola’s melodies and vocals soar on her new record, Walk Through Fire, the most country-soul-focused album of the year (as far as I know),...

Memphis is one of the most culturally rich destinations in America, and today’s touristy Beale Street is the least of the reasons why. My...

My good friend and writer John Gehring and I spent Memorial Day visiting the Mississippi Delta and Memphis, where we ventured to lots of...

Mavis Staples brought one of her pre-80th-birthday concert celebrations to Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on May 15, celebrating her more...

Cosmic-country crooner Jim Lauderdale is another of my favorite artists and a great example of how country and soul music can intertwine....

Rosanne Cash brought her beautiful and smart music to Atlanta on April 6, sprinkling a wide-ranging set of her older songs and classic...

I fell in love head over heels with soul music after finding my way to the great singer-songwriter William Bell. His first album, The...

A new blog about the crossroads of American music Welcome to Soul Country, my place for musings about how black and white American music...

Smashing night at the Ryman marks new documentary, salutes depth of country music “To me, it’s soul music. It’s white man’s soul music,...