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Lawrence Dye: King of the Creeper 150,000 miles—that’s equivalent to six trips around the Earth’s equator or 50 trips across the United States. It’s also the number of miles that Washington County, Va. resident—and septuagenarian—bike rider Lawrence Dye has racked up on the Virginia Creeper Trail. Dye, 78, celebrated his 150,000th Creeper Trail mile pedaled [...]

Read about the latest tunes from Keller Williams and other artists you can download for free in this month’s Trail Mix.

Each month, Trail Mix aims to turn you on to artists from around the Southeast that you might not know about. Every month we’ll offer a new free 10-track compilation download of regional acts that you can take on your next adventure. Make sure to take a listen and, if you dig what you hear, [...]

Just last August, we profiled The Corduroy Road, the folk-rock band out of Athens, Georgia, and dubbed them the next big thing to come out of that fabled Southern music city. High praise, to be sure, and well justified, but now we are worried. Have we created a jinx? We certainly hope not, as we [...]

Chat with Sam Quinn and you’ll find that he is quite witty, armed with a self-deprecating humor that is both charming and engaging. Strap a guitar on him, though, and Quinn metamorphoses, oozing melancholy with every minor chord and quavering lyric. Quinn rose to the forefront of the indie folk scene as a member of [...]

On the strength of their first two records and a relentless touring schedule over the last few years, The Infamous Stringdusters have established themselves as one of the hottest acoustic acts in the country. With the recent release of their latest record, Things That Fly, they are branching out, displaying an evolution in their songwriting [...]

Crazy Heart Director Scott Cooper Celebrates the Film’s Two Oscars Native Virginian and first-time director Scott Cooper was the catalyst behind the film Crazy Heart, adapted from the book by Thomas Cobb. Cooper, raised in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, wrote, produced, and directed the tale of Bad Blake, a washed up country singer whose [...]

The Drive-By Truckers are in the midst of an impressive run. With Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, the band released one of the most critically acclaimed records of 2008. 2009 saw the issuing of a rarities record and—finally—a live CD/DVD combo chronicling the Truckers’ first appearance on the vaunted Austin City Limits stage. 2010 brings The [...]

Former UNC-Chapel Hill playwright student turned folk crooner Joe Pug has served notice – the next great young voice on the American songwriting scene has arrived. Pug’s voice mesmerizes, echoes, and aches over the coffee shop intimacy his acoustic guitar creates. Look for Messenger, Pug’s full length debut, to be on lots of “Best of” [...]

Will Kimbrough is a poet who happens to play guitar. Wings, his recent release, proves again that his songs can roam from the achingly emotional to the giddily funny. Part of the collective of songwriters that make up the rich—and underappreciated —East Nashville scene, Kimbrough delivers another collection of songs the delve deep into the [...]

In the spirit of complete disclosure and unrepentant bias, I must admit to being an unabashed Trent Wagler fan. Adrienna Valentine, the 2009 release from Wagler and Jay Lapp, last year earned the distinction of being, at any given moment, the record most likely to be found in my CD player and it was, by [...]

Trent Wagler Tours on Two Wheels Take a look at Trent Wagler’s tour schedule and you can see that the talented Virginia-based singer-songwriter is going to be spending a lot of time in the van. In this energy-conscious age, that translates to a lot of carbon emissions. Inspired to lessen his footprint, Wagler and band [...]

Ray Wylie Hubbard is a true Texas bad ass. His voice growls like a diesel engine that’s been on the road a few hundred miles too long. He sounds like he snacks on gravel and chases it with kerosene cocktails. And his songwriting reflects the brutal honesty found in his voice. The songs on his [...]

Feral Fire marks the sixth album release from Murfreesboro rockers Glossary. There is an authentic garage band spirit to Glossary, and the band plays with a gritty honesty that comes from over a decade making great, under-the-radar rock and roll music on its own terms. For Fans Of Drive-by Truckers, Bloodkin, Lucero Prime Cut “The [...]

The Buzz: Nathan Blake Lynn spent four years tearing up the road with jamgrass genre-benders Bawn in the Mash. Now traveling solo, Lynn’s songs are returning to a simpler fashion, built by just a man and his guitar. His latest writing reflects his recent residence on the banks of the Mississippi River, where the spirits [...]