I’ve only recent caught on to the wonderful music that Ponderosa is putting out.  Based out of Atlanta, Ponderosa aren’t afraid of wearing their influences on their sleeves and adding subtle twists to their sounds to create something that’s unique in its own sense, but still straddling close to home base.  It’d be easy to say that they’re a My Morning Jacket/Band of Horses knock-off because quite frankly they’ve got astounding amounts of similarity, guitars that are laden with delay and reverb and equally ethereal vocal melodies driven home by powerful harmonies.  However, if your only drawback is sounding too much like another stellar band then my opinion is that you’re doing something right.

Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale are singer-songwriters who've each written hits for country and rock acts, and have enjoyed extensive solo careers as performers and producers. Buddy and Jim is their first collaboration, a mixture of original songs and covers from earlier decades of country, rock, folk and soul music.

Like death and taxes, there’s one thing a traveling musician can always count on: Eventually, you’re bound to get pulled over. But rather than swallowing their pride and paying the fine, mischievous buddies Corb Lund and Hayes Carll have developed a strategy. The duo penned a clever story-song called “Bible on the Dash” to spread the word. Listen closely to this exclusive CMT Edge performance and see if you think the boys will get away with their master plan.

Read the full article at CMT Edge.

Savannah Stopover is a three-day music and arts festival that takes place in Savannah, Ga., one of the most quintessentially Southern towns. Next year’s festival is scheduled to take place March 7-9 and will feature over 70 bands, most of which will be on their way to SXSW, which will be held the following weekend in Austin, Texas.

This year’s Stopover lineup was recently announced, and some of the notable artists confirmed to appear include of Montreal, The Whigs, Mac Demarco, Delicate Steve, Ben Sollee, Ponderosa and many more. Performances will be held at clubs and venues throughout Savannah.

Max Gomez can’t believe his life. The singer/songwriter from Taos – who now lives in California – has had an amazing past six months.

Since wrapping recording and mixing his upcoming album, “Rule the World” in May, Gomez has landed some great opening gigs.

“I just finished opening for John Hiatt and Patty Griffin on two separate tours,” he says during a recent interview. “It was an amazing experience and I learned so much from both of these legends in music.”...

For the second year in a row, Paste teamed up with our friends at Sennheiser for intimate recording sessions at Newport Folk Festival. The latest installment of the series from the Paste Ruins features Houston singer-songwriter Robert Ellis. His sound, which takes a fresh approach to acoustic guitars and classic banjo music, has garnered attention since he self-released The Great Re Arranger in 2009.

Ellis joined us to perform “Comin’ Home” from his 2011 release Photographs. You can catch this charming rendition here.

The hottest thing coming out of Houston these days seems to be Buxton. Besides getting heaps of local praise, the indie-rock outfit was named by Esquire as a band to watch in 2012, and they’re more than living up to that billing. This year saw the release of Nothing Here Seems Strange, the group’s debut for the alt-country label New West. This LP followed nearly eight years of patient evolution from the band, moving from garages and songs recorded in bedrooms to a hard-working touring act.

Read the full article and listen to the track "Tarzan And Jane" at KUT.

When you get Hayes Carll and Corb Lund in a room together, the interview pretty much takes care of itself. This is a pair of scruffy, skewed, stone-country singer-songwriters — Carll hailing from Texas and Lund from Alberta, Canada — who’ve gotten in the habit of chipping in on each other’s albums of late.

Lund was a guest on Carll’s “Bottle in My Hand” last year, and the two of them teamed up for the rollicking road warrior duet “Bible on the Dash” on Lund’s latest album, Cabin Fever. So when it seems like they’re veering off topic, it’s really just an extension of their chemistry as performers and their insatiable urge to crack each other up. Be forewarned, the entire conversation was peppered with laughter.

The British folk singer talks about his electrifying new album

Click to listen to Richard Thompson's 'Good Things Happen to Bad People'

The British folk singer-songwriter/guitar god Richard Thompson cut 16 tracks for his latest record, Electric – out February 5th on New West Records – in a speedy, spontaneous four days at producer Buddy Miller's home studio in Nashville.  "I thought it would be good to have [the album] sound fairly garage, if you like – slightly trashed out. I think it is, in a good way," Thompson tells Rolling Stone. "[It's] the opposite of smooth."

Here, you can check out "Good Things Happen to Bad People," a track the singer says is "pretty representative" of the album's amped-up electric gems. "It's a jealousy song," Thompson explains of the propulsive, dreamy rocker. "It's not that far removed from some of the great old blues songs that cover the same area. I think I was thinking of those in some ways when I wrote it. It's fiction; it's not based on anything personal. I hardly have a jealous bone in my body... my wife is glaring at me as I say that."

Electric proves a logical next step from Thompson's Grammy-nominated 2010 effort, Dream Attic, a record of then-new material that was cut live on the road. The singer says that's due to the rapid-fire, in-the-moment informal approach to recording at Miller's house and the producer's relaxed style.

"It was a very organic process, a very unselfconscious process, and I think that's a kind of halfway house between the last record and a real recording studio," he says. He adds of Miller, "He's very non-egotistical. He likes to make everybody comfortable; he likes to fill in whatever role is required in the studio."

Taking advantage of Nashville's resources, Thompson and Miller tapped Music City mainstays like Alison Krauss and fiddler extraordinaire Stuart Duncan to appear on Electric. Krauss lends vocals to the meditative, acoustic duet "The Snow Goose," the album's penultimate track. Duncan also made an impression; Thompson raves of him, "He's just an amazing musician. I'm not surprised that he sort of hangs out and does stuff with Yo-Yo Ma and people... What amazes me is how in tune he is."

Next spring, Thompson will appear as part of a package tour with Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. Despite his standing as the bill's lone Englishman, the singer shouldn't have any trouble fitting in; in September, the Americana Association bestowed Thompson with its Lifetime Achievement Songwriting Award. "I was surprised, because I don't think of myself as Americana," Thompson says, "but then, I think Americana is more about roots music rather than American music. So I was quite honored that they would think of me, especially because I'm a foreigner."

Instead, Thompson muses that he may call his work "Anglocana." "It's sort of a parallel style," he jokes.

Read the full article at Rolling Stone.

Olivia: Finally! When the guys got out of their van, they said, “We recognize y’all!” Nobody has recognized us yet and I’ve never heard anybody in real life say “y’all”.
Connie: Kalen and JT were talking to us a lot before the interview. Usually we don’t get to hang out and talk much before starting interviews.
Olivia: We thought their manager had a cool name. I went to 6th grade camp in October and there was a camp counselor named Jeremiah too.
Connie: They gave us t-shirts and CDs!
Olivia: Next time Ponderosa comes to Columbus we want to go onstage and introduce them to the crowd.