Entries for April 2012

Americana music is about connection. It’s about how the past shapes the present and often gives us gifts along the way that helps with the journey ahead. Jimmie Dale Gilmore is living evidence. Born and raised in the West Texas Panhandle, he absorbed the music of his land and his times from his family, especially […]

In a world full of cookie cutter singer-songwriters, it’s safe to say Miss Erika Davies stands alone. Ostensively a jazz singer, there is much more to her music. Despite generally sparse instrumentation, sometimes just her voice and a guitar, Davies doesn’t just sing a tune, she creates an atmosphere. Blessed with a wonderfully fine, almost […]

The artwork on blues rockers Hugh Gaskins and the G String Daddies’ new disc makes mention of their dual affection for both the article of apparel and the fat, unwound third treble string on a blues guitar. In a pentatonic “box” scale, a hard-working blues rocker will probably hit, bend, slide, and shake G the […]

A stage is a strange vantage point from which to see the world — all of those faces looking up at you, waiting for the magic to begin, and hoping you’re the one who can deliver it. In all the thousands of times I’ve been on stage as a singer-songwriter, guitarist, band leader, side man, […]

Harold Darling opened the Sign of the Sun bookstore at Adams and College Ave. in San Diego sometime around 1960, catering to the students of San Diego State (then College) with used textbooks and magazines of a political and artistic bent, It was the time of folk music’s all-too-brief tie up with the pop music […]

Like many of you, we’re just a couple of aspiring, undiscovered musicians living on meager budgets and trying to eke out a living, doing what we love to do, namely, making music. It’s a challenge that’s getting harder and harder to meet and in today’s uncertain economic climate, we often find ourselves having to make […]

Attention, Troubadour readers who missed the recent 10th Anniversary Concert or haven’t had opportunity to attend the legendary holiday fests or CanyonFolk parties that pull together so many diverse top local musicians for live performances and impromptu jams. And also anyone who did make it who enjoys great roots music. The San Diego Troubadour 10th […]

What makes a tune or a song “bluegrass”? Well, ask five bluegrass players and you will probably get five different answers, reflecting the fact that defining bluegrass is a subjective, unanswerable question. The mother ship of bluegrass, the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), has deliberately decided not to try and define “bluegrass” for this very […]