CD Of The Month

WXPN Radio

The premier guide for new and significant artists in rock, blues, and folk - including NPR-syndicated World Cafe ®

Listen Xpo

24/7 Musical discovery. A unique mix of emerging and heritage blues, rock, world, folk, and alt-country artists.

Singer Songwriter Radio

Featuring classics from heritage troubadours to new musicians and bands in the singer-songwriter tradition.

Folk Radio

Folk music radio streaming on the web; Americana, Roots Music, recordings, and stories from folk's best.
Listen Live

Old Crow Medicine Show - Tennessee Pusher - Epitaph

For their new album – Tennessee Pusher – Old Crow Medicine Show enlisted the production skills of Don Was (Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Al Green, Black Crowes, tons more). Strangely, and perhaps owing to Was' skill as a facilitator, I really cannot tell any sonic difference between this album and the ones in their recent past. Pusher is another strong, understated, dusty, rollicking ride through the old-timey string band traditions, with a modern outlook and a decidedly harrowing set of stories.

Their fascination with rural life and all its potential pitfalls in the new millennium continues with tracks like "Methamphetamine", "Motel In Memphis" and the title track. They have the ability to sound mournful and pensive ("Highway Halo") and then turn right around and deliver a tasty boot-stomper like "Mary's Kitchen". As a band, they've never sounded tighter, and the songwriting is progressing as well. There is indeed a certain magic to this band. Unlike many of the other groups of their ilk, OCMS can transfer the energy and immediacy of their busking days right on to the concert stage. Those stages are becoming bigger and bigger, I might add… these guys have consistently continued to increase their live fan base.

Tennessee Pusher doesn't really deviate from their past work all that much, but when you do what you do as well as OCMS does, that isn't really a problem.

Written by Dan Reed

Help Support WXPN

Gotta Hear Song of the Week: “Burning Instinct” by Red Baraat (playing the XPoNential Music Festival in...

Red Baraat have been added to the lineup to this year’s XPoNential Music Festival presented by Subaru, the weekend of July...Read More

XPoNential Additions: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Red Baraat and Matt Pond join 2013...

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes at XPoNential Festival in 2010 | Photo by David Simchock | popdose.com This just in from the...Read More

My Morning Download: “ICU” by Lou Doillon

Photo by Mathiew Zazzo Singer, actress and model Lou Doillon is the half-sister of Charlotte Gainsbourg; her father being director...Read More

Get your prog-rock on: Yes Festival to make only U.S. appearance at Susquehanna Bank Center on 8/3

Progrockers Yes- Steve Howe, Chris Squires, Alan White, Geoff Downes & Jon Davison – bring their 2013 festival to the...Read More

Folkadelphia Session: Field Report

If you haven’t been listening to Milwaukee’s Field Report by now, here’s your chance to make it up with no hard...Read More