Freight
Train Boogie Links
Here you find some of my favorite and most useful music related sites.
I hope you enjoy them and I especially hope that you will let me know about new
sites that I've missed, and I know there are many of them. There are so
many artists and labels that could be added... suffice it to say, if you're looking for a site about anyone or anything just Google it!
| Artist Sites | Fan
Sites | Music Stores | Music 'Zines
| | Radio Sites | Record Companies
| Misc. Sites | |
Artist Sites | |
Blue
Rodeo | A pretty nice site for this underrated Canadian
band. Lots of band information here. |
Johnny
Cash | What can I say, he's the original Man
In Black! |
Rodney Crowell |
(includes every song of his covered by other artists) |
Dolly
Varden |
A fine young roosy pop band from Chicago with a
nice site. |
Fred Eaglesmith |
|
Steve
Earle | A very well done site, with lyrics, tour info,
etc. |
Joe
Ely's "Letters To Laredo" | |
Frog
Holler | A good band out of rural Pennsylvania. |
Robbie
Fulks |
Pretty cool website. It even has many of his song lyrics and guitar chords) |
Jimmie
Dale Gilmore | The one and only Texas Zen Cowboy. |
Emmylou Harris |
This looks like it may be a fan site. |
John
Hartford | A tribute to the recently deceased "Renaissance
man". |
Terri Hendrix |
|
Larry
Hosford | A great singer from the central coast of
Calif. |
Ray
Wylie Hubbard | Tour stuff, bios, and all from this
great Texan. |
Jim
Lauderdale | |
Buddy & Julie Miller |
|
Billy
Joe Shaver | Features tour dates, discography and dedicated
to Billy Joe's son, Eddy. |
Son
Volt | Mainly a big record label site, but they do
have tour dates and audio samples. |
Southern
Culture On The Skids | This site is as good and crazy
as the band is! Tour info, RA, etc. |
Greg
Trooper | A great singer-songwriter with a very nice
website. |
Jerry
Jeff Walker | A living "Progressive Country"
legend. |
Dale
Watson | Austin's tattooed Hard-Honky-Tonker. |
Wilco | The
band's official site, includes lyrics, tour info, merchandise, etc. |
Lucinda
Williams | Fairly nice stuff with tour info, etc. |
|
Fan Sites | |
Junior
Brown | |
Iris
DeMent | (well done, lots of info and trivia) |
Steve
Earle "Unofficial Site" | |
James
McMurtry | (links to reviews, bios, other JM
fan sites and tour info) |
The
John Prine Shrine | (very comprehensive) |
Lucinda
Williams | (an un-official Lucinda site) |
|
Music
Stores | |
amazon | They
not only sell CD's, but books, videos and more. Their catalog is large and
their prices are great especially for books. |
The
Last Record Store |
A great "local" store,
to me anyway. Their site is updated frequently and they can order and ship anything.
They also have a great vinyl selection, send them your want list. |
Miles
of Music | This is the best place for Alt.Country CD's
especially hard-to-find import and independent labels. Run by a very nice and
musically knowledgeable bunch of people. Many of their new releases include short
reviews and their prices are great too! |
Smart Choice Music |
An English site, I believe, with an emphasis on lower prices on American Americana CD releases |
Texas
Music Roundup | This site features a select amount
of Texas record labels. |
Village
Records | This site feature lots of new and some obscure
Americana releases including imports and singles. Some used CD's too. They also
have a print catalog. Recommended! |
|
Music
'Zines | |
Alt-Country-NL | There
is a huge Americana fan base in the Netherlands. Bart Ebisch has had tihs up for
many years. The only catch is it's in Swedish. |
AmericanaRoots.com |
A new and well-designed site with weekly CD review podcasts and frequent news updates. They also stream a radio show with good sound quality and many new releases. |
Americana
UK | "The British home of Americana and alt-country" |
Austin
Americana | Home of the free Music alternatives eNewsletter,
on-line weekly calendar, links to bands and venues, reviews, and much more. |
Country
Standard Time | A good site, lots of news and reviews,
it's kept up to date. A little heavy on the Nashville side but still worth a look. |
Flying
Shoes Review | "A quarterly review that is dedicated
to shining a light on obscure singers-songwriters and poets amongst us." |
Guitartown | A
nice little website featuring news and reviews of the thriving North Carolina
roots music scene. |
Hickory Wind |
a mostly-Americana music blog, very amusing! |
In-Store
Magazine | (Alt-Country Section) "The Release
and Review Magazine." Caters to alt-country, folk, alternative, mainstream,
and gospel. |
Insurgent
Country Homepage | A huge site from Germany, including
tons of artists links. |
No
Depression | The ND people have finally been putting
some effort into making their website to coincide with their fine print magazine. |
Pure Music |
Mostly Americana magazine with reviews and some fine exclusive interviews. Run by Frank Goodman out of Nashville. |
Root
'n Round | A fun site with some very funny links. |
Roots
66 | "Your online source for authentic Americana",
including blues, bluegrass and swing. |
The
Rural Route Twangzine | A very nice site, lots of reviews
and lots of attitude! I like this place, sorta kindred spirits, I think. |
Twangin'! | This
is a good site that seemed to be dormant for awhile but now they're back up and
running... I think. Not unlike my own site, good reviews with full track listing
and instrumentation. Real nice layout too. Check 'em out! |
|
Radio
Sites | |
Americana
Music | This site is sort of a clearinghouse of links
to Americana radio stations, both commercial and non-commercial stations which
contain Americana music programming. They also have some related links to venues
and events. |
The
Arctic Cactus Hour | A good Alt.Country radio show
from public KNBA, out of Alaska. No audio, but weekly playlists of their show. |
FAT Music
Show | Similar, format-wise to KPIG, but this is a
weekly 2-hour radio show that is syndicated to radio stations. They hope to go
online sometime. They also feature audio interviews and playlists. |
Hicks,
Hillbillies & Honky Tonks | Part of yet another
collection of online stations... auxradio.com. They actually do a pretty
good job! |
Imagine
Radio | You have to download their software, but it's
worth it, if only for their K-FAT/Americana station. No deejays, but the
song and artist's names are noted along with a "witty" or informative
sentence about the song. And you can rate the songs. Pretty good format to surf
by. |
KCUV
Radio | A fine AM statio rom Denver, CO that streams
24/7 and has nice Americana mix of music. Recommended! |
KPIG Radio
Online | The greatest Alternative Country radio station
I know of, they are funny and irreverent and they have live streaming audio available.
The "Pig" broadcasts out of the Santa Cruz/Monterey area of northern
California. |
Midnight
Flyer | A weekly 2-hour Blues show available to radio
stations. The site has many RA archive shows and Blues CD reviews.
Produced and hosted by the great radio veteran Norman Davis. |
The Miller Tells Her Tale |
Run by Karen Miller out of UK, she does a weekly podcast with many fine independent Americana artists. The grreat thing about podcasts is that you can subscribe to them and get weeekly downloads to put on your favorite MP3 player or phone. |
Progressive
Torch & Twang | A college radio show from Michigan,
now heard live on the web, they also have a great page with links to many great
artists. |
Radioio Country |
Just started in 2005, good songs and free! Programmed by Rob Bleetstein. |
TexasRebelRadio.com | Pretty
much what it sounds like, lots of Texas artists and some "classic" songs
but they also mix in some pop crap. The actual station is KFAN from Fredericksburg,
TX. |
Third
Coast Music Network | A great site put together by
a bunch of deejays from San Antonio, TX. Very fun stuff here including a huge
collection of artist's links. |
Twang
Box | |
Twangcast.com | |
Twang City |
|
Uncle
Sherman's Homepage | Uncle Sherman is a weekend deejay
at KPIG and is a genuine character! His site is fun and well designed and also
has some great links. He also has a "XXX" Nasty song radio show that
is quite fun! |
|
Record Companies | |
Bloodshot
Records | ( The Riptones, Waco Bros.,
many more) |
Compadre
Records | Bill Joe Shaver, James McMurtry, |
Dead
Reckoning Records | (The Dead Reckoners, Mike Henderson,
Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch) |
Dualtone Records |
|
Eminent
Records | (Rosie Flores, Greg Trooper) |
E-Squared
Records | (Steve Earle, Cheri Knight, Marah, The V-roys) |
Freedom
Records | |
Glitterhouse
Records | A German label and mail order house.
These guys put out great CD's by American artists that American labels won't touch. |
HighTone
Records |
(early Buddy Miller, Hot Club of Cowtown, Bill
Kirchen, early Dale Watson, many more) |
Koch Records |
(Robert Earl Keen, Hacienda Brothers, |
Little
Dog Records | (Pete Anderson, Scott Joss, Lonesome
Strangers, Joy Lynn White) |
Lost
Highway Records |
(Lucinda Williams, Whiskeytown, Willie Nelson, Robert
Earl Keen) |
New
West Records |
(Slobberbone, Jon Dee Graham,
Dwight Yoakam, Delbert McClinton) |
Oh
Boy! Records | (John Prine, R.B. Morris, Todd Snider) |
Rounder
Records |
(Tons of artists, especially bluegrass and traditional) |
Rykodisc
Records | (Kelly Joe Phelps, Kelly Willis) |
Sugar Hill Records |
(Nickel Creek,
Guy Clark,
Sonny Landreth, many more, esp. acoustic/bluegrass) |
Thrill
Jockey | (Freakwater) |
Warner
Bros. Records | (Iris DeMent, Fairfield Four, Son Volt) |
Yep Roc Records |
(Dave Alvin, Robbie Fulks,Caitlin Cary & Thad Cockrell plus many rootsy rock acts) |
|
Misc. Sites | |
AltCountryTab.com | This
is an accomplished site with guitar chords and lyrics to loads of Alt.Country
and Americana songs. It actually got me to get my guitar out from under
the bed to strum through a Whiskeytown tune. Very cool, a must for guitarists! |
Americana
Music Association | A loosely affiliated group of industry
leaders who share the idea of coordinating, sharing, and developing resources
to expand the audience for Americana music. |
Americana
Music Pages | Kind of a general Americana music information
clearinghouse including radio and artists links, etc. |
Corporate Country Sucks |
This is a TV show on
Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV). Their site has video clips of interviews with guest like Robbie Fulks and Bap Kennedy. |
The
Gavin Report's Americana Charts | The Gavin Report
is a radio trade publication that recognizes and promotes Americana music. Their
chart will give you an idea of what the over 80 commercial and non-commercial
radio stations are playing. |
Here's
The Twang | A good page with a new article every other
week, and links to archive articles. A part of Country.com, which is a part
of TNN, which is a part of CBS... actually they suck now... don't bother! |
Ice
Magazine | The definitive source for new releases.
What's coming out and when. |
The
Indie Contact Bible | A good source for independent
artists, labels, websites, etc. Promote your music to the world! |
Merlefest | One
of the best acoustic and roots music festivals. Held in Wilkesboro, North
Carolina. Named after Doc Watson's late son, Merle. |
Pollstar | You
can do a search or your favorite artist and get current info. Type in an artist
below. |
Songs.com | A
huge site featuring independent and small label artists, including audio samples
and ordering information. |
The
Strawberry Music Festival | There is a Spring and a
Fall version of this festival which takes place in the mountains just outside
Yosemite National Park in California. To get a taste of how great this festival
is, just look at their list of past Strawberry artists. But it's more then the
music, there is a certain Strawberry magic that exists at these festivals. They
are currently booking for the festivals and the site has updated artist bookings. |
Taxi | An
independent A&R company helping unsigned bands, artists and songwriters get
record deals, publishing deals and placement in films and TV shows. |
Y'All.Com | Great
URL, great site. Celebrating the South and all that is fun about it. |
The
Ultimate Band List | A huge and comprehensive list
of not only bands and other recording artists links, but also record labels, fan
sites, and almost everything else related to music. |