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1 week ago | 
americanahighways.org | John Apice |Gary Schwind |Bill Bentley |H. R. Gertner
C. Daniel Boling featuring Tom Paxton – It Matters
I’m at an age where ‘60s radical folk songs just sound out of place now. Despite today’s volatile environment, I’m relieved to listen to 2 veterans (Tom Paxton & C. Daniel Boling) who open with new music that’s more optimistic & fun. The rousing “Hidey-Ho” with its catchy “every day I wake up it’s a darn good day for me” is charming.
The duos blend their voices as slick & tasty as the flavor of dark chocolate & salty potato chips.
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3 weeks ago | 
americanahighways.org | Bill Bentley |Gary Schwind |Steve Wosahla
Allison August AUGUST MOON. There’s a blossoming of blue-eyed soul music sweeping around the corners of popular music now, and if you listen closely to singers like Allison August it’s possible to hear the same spirit of glory that roared over America in the 1960s. This woman reaches all the way down to find the ever erupting essence of a style that has marked the greatness of America for over a dozen decades, and AUGUST MOON feels like a new super step forward.
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1 month ago | 
americanahighways.org | Elise Cady |Gary Schwind |Bill Bentley |Andrew Gulden
Sean Magwire – Echoes in the WindSean Magwire has a new Americana album releasing this week, Echoes in the Wind, which is brimming with soul searching and deep truthful observations. Hailing from heartland country in Indiana, Sean has nestled in the Northeast and writes songs that are quite stunning and observational in the same vein of gems that John Prine mined.
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1 month ago | 
americanahighways.org | Jeff Burger |John Apice |Bill Bentley
The 20th Anniversary Billboard Chart 20th July 1960 is the latest in a series of anthologies based on the music industry magazine’s sales rankings for a particular week. Earlier compendiums have included such titles as The JFK Inauguration Hot 100 20th January 1961 and American Bandstand: US Top 100 5th August 1957. The new set covers the week that marked 20 years since the publication began printing full-page charts in 1940.
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Nov 28, 2024 | 
americanahighways.org | Bill Bentley
Bentley’s Bandstand: November 2024
By Bill Bentley
Jeremie Albino, OUR TIME IN THE SUN. Sometimes there is a musician who walks into the front of the crowds and makes their presence well-known on the first verse of the opening song on a new album. It’s instantaneous, and can’t be plotted. It’s because the artist has a strength of soul which is overwhelming. Even if it’s a quiet power, it’s obvious there is no going back.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
americanahighways.org | Bill Bentley
Gregg Allman Band, UNCLE SAM’S. It doesn’t take long for Gregg Allman’s well-tested road band to hit the monkey nerve and go for the gusto. There is something so pleasingly swinging about this octet that once the first song, “Midnight Rider” kicks in, it’s all over but the shouting. Maybe that’s because as a charter member of the original Allman Brothers, there is no way to walk away from that aggregation and not have the boogie tattooed all over the soul. And Gregg Allman absolutely has that.
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Sep 30, 2024 | 
americanahighways.org | Bill Bentley |Americana Highways
Milo Binder, The Unspeakable. Milo Binder, surely a spin-off of Joseph Heller’s CATCH-22 character Milo Minderbiner, is one of the great American solo artists of the past half-century. Binder’s most recent album was 33 years ago, and this follow-up is more than worth the wait. It is such a microscopic beauty of how life and music and all the other oddities of being on this planet spin into a mixed-up wonder of the heart beating at its best.
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Sep 12, 2024 | 
austinchronicle.com | Bill Bentley
Bill Campbell When a mountain disappears from our world, it feels like we are moving toward the end. When it’s a musical landmark like blues guitarist Bill Campbell, who passed away on September 6, it can be a deceiving event because so many people never even realized the mountain was there. Born and raised in Smithville and Austin, Campbell was as powerful a presence in the area as anyone who ever played the most righteous of Texas blues, but he was easy to overlook.
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Aug 29, 2024 | 
americanahighways.org | Bill Bentley |Kinsey Haynes
Bentley’s Bandstand: August 2024By Bill BentleyRandall Bramblett, PARADISE BREAKDOWN. There really aren’t many blue-eyed soul brothers as strong as Randall Bramblett. He has been writing and recording songs for his never-ending solo career for 50 years, always surprising listeners with a deep-seated ability to strike a new ability to go right to the center of the heart. It’s not an easy task, especially to keep the level of accomplishment at such a never-ending way to become airborne.
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Jul 31, 2024 | 
americanahighways.org | Bill Bentley |John Apice
Bentley’s Bandstand July 2024By Bill BentleyDave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore, TEXICALI. These two musical brothers have always had a strong connection. Dave Alvin covered the rock & roll waterfront a little more than Jimmie Dale Gilmore, but Gilmore dug into country a bit deeper than Alvin did coming up. But in the end they were both fanatics for each style, and when they got together it really was the perfect match.
