Americana
Alison Krauss & Union Station: Arcadia review – a fresh start
The bluegrass star and band reconvene with a new co-vocalist on this slick yet understated set drawing on old-time roots and more recent concerns
Kitty Empire
28, Mar, 2025 @11:00 AM
‘Emotions? They’re no big thing, man!’ Jeff Bridges on satisfaction, silver linings – and his secret life in music
As his lost 70s songs emerge, the Oscar-winner and musician explains how the magic of art keeps him upbeat even after losing homes to LA fires
Laura Barton
21, Mar, 2025 @5:00 AM
‘I ate acid for two months straight. It was the best time of my life’: Americana anarcho-punk Sunny War on booze, drugs and the KKK
She’s the finger-picking blueswoman whose life was changed by the punk band Crass – and went viral for busking while homeless. She talks about ghosts, her ‘smelly’ childhood and fighting the far right
Alexis Petridis
07, Mar, 2025 @9:00 AM
‘I don’t want to retreat any more’: William Tyler on grief, alcoholism and his healing new album
After a painful midlife crisis, the former Lambchop sideman went to rehab, rejected ambition and embraced lo-fi recording. It made for his most startling music yet – with a surprise Four Tet collaboration still to come
Laura Snapes
03, Mar, 2025 @4:00 PM
‘He smashed his iPad and headphones. My lyrics got torn up’: inside Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s explosive duets album
Retire quietly? The idea filled John with horror. Instead, he and Carlile made his best album in decades. They talk tantrums, mortality – and being tactful with Trump
Laura Snapes
07, Feb, 2025 @5:00 AM
Don’t look back: after decades of apathy, A Complete Unknown has turned me into a Dylan nut | Laura Snapes
I went into the cinema without expectation, I left feeling like a besotted teenager and have listened to little other music since
Laura Snapes
30, Jan, 2025 @8:43 AM
Desi rap, deep jungle and truck-stop concrète: five-star albums you may have missed this year
From Jordana’s sprightly soft rock to Pataka Boys’ collagist UK-Punjabi hip-hop, our writers pick their must-listen gems from 2024
Ben Beaumont-Thomas, Claire Biddles, Shaad D'Souza, Jennifer Lucy Allan, Adrian Horton, Tara Joshi, Lauren Martin, Alexis Petridis, Will Pritchard, Dave Simpson, Laura Snapes and Daniel Dylan Wray
27, Dec, 2024 @11:30 AM
The 50 best albums of 2024: No 4 – Clairo: Charm
The singer-songwriter’s best album yet conjures low-lit jazz bars with swelling, sultry songs of attraction and desire, fleshed out with flurries of brass and vintage Wurlitzers
Katie Hawthorne
17, Dec, 2024 @2:00 PM
The 20 best songs of 2024
Here are the year’s most outstanding tracks – from Fontaines DC to Beyoncé via Kendrick Lamar – as voted for by 26 Guardian music writers
Ben Beaumont-Thomas and Laura Snapes
06, Dec, 2024 @6:00 AM
Silkroad Ensemble With Rhiannon Giddens: American Railroad review – homage to a forgotten army of workers
The collective and their artistic director’s classy multimedia project highlights the lives lost and land snatched away in building the US transcontinental railroad
Neil Spencer
22, Nov, 2024 @12:00 PM
Willie Watson: Willie Watson review – a former hell-raiser finds his voice
Known for his versions of old American folk, the singer finally puts his extraordinary voice at the service of his own material
Neil Spencer
27, Sep, 2024 @11:00 AM
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings: Woodland review – 10 exquisite songs of loss and love
Named after their Nashville studio, hit by a tornado in 2020, the duo’s first album together in 13 years picks its impeccable, old-time way through personal and social upheaval
Kitty Empire
17, Aug, 2024 @1:00 PM
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