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Our latest posts
  • [ February 20, 2026 ] Something for the weekend: Toad the Wet Sprocket “California Wasted” Tracks
  • [ February 20, 2026 ] Live Review: Midlake + The Bretheren, Electric Ballroom, London – 6th February 2026 Live Reviews
  • [ February 20, 2026 ] Anniversary Cheers: Slim Dunlap’s “Every Little Word” is a reissue of his two solo albums 30 years on, with added extras Anniversary Cheers
  • [ February 20, 2026 ] Exclusive AUK Mini-Gig: BIRD AUK Mini-Gigs
  • [ February 20, 2026 ] Classic Clips: Chris Whitley “Big Sky Country” – Live At Les Nuis L’Emission, 29th February 1992 Classic Clips
HomeReviewsBook Reviews

Book Reviews

Americana UK reviews the latest books broadly related to the americana genre, overseen by AUK Books Editor Tim Martin

Before Elvis book cover art
Book Reviews

Book Review: Preston Lauterbach “Before Elvis (The African American Musicians Who Made the King)”

January 24, 2025 Gordon Mackay 0

In this new book, ‘Before Elvis‘, subtitled ‘The African American musicians who made the King‘ author Preston Lauterbach brings together the stories of five African-Americans who, the author suggests, were major influences in Presley’s early career […]

cast album cover
Book Reviews

Book Review: Todd Almond “Slow Train Coming: Bob Dylan’s Girl from the North Country and Broadway’s Rebirth”

January 16, 2025 Tim Martin 1

When he reviewed the London production of ‘Girl from the North Country’ in 2018 AUK’s Jonathan Aird said: “Did an all-singing all-dancing Bob Dylan show ever seem likely? Still no. Does Girl from the North Country […]

Book Reviews

The Gordon Sharpe Americana Book Award 2024

January 10, 2025 Tim Martin 0

This is the second year of our tribute to our late colleague Gordon Sharpe. We felt that an award which recognised the cream of the new books we’ve reviewed over the previous year was a fitting […]

Book Reviews

Paperback Riders: Willy Vlautin’s short audio fiction

December 9, 2024 Tim Martin 0

Willy Vlautin has now produced three spoken word albums. Some of them connected to his novels, some of them standalone. As the first has a festive theme, and is narrated by Vlautin, who has also narrated […]

Book Reviews

Book Review: Kenneth Womack and Kenneth L. Campbell “Bruce Songs: The Music of Bruce Springsteen, Album-by-Album, Song-by-Song”

December 2, 2024 Jonathan Aird 0

Well, this is a hefty tome, an oversized hardback running to more than 250 pages, with something of the whiff of the academic about it – a meticulous study of Springsteen’s officially released oeuvre, to date, […]

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our latest posts

Something for the weekend: Toad the Wet Sprocket “California Wasted”

Tracks
February 20, 2026 1

Live Review: Midlake + The Bretheren, Electric Ballroom, London – 6th February 2026

Live Reviews
February 20, 2026 0
Slim Dunlap at The Mad Riplle Hootenanny 27thNovember 2007

Anniversary Cheers: Slim Dunlap’s “Every Little Word” is a reissue of his two solo albums 30 years on, with added extras

Anniversary Cheers
February 20, 2026 0

Exclusive AUK Mini-Gig: BIRD

AUK Mini-Gigs
February 20, 2026 0
Chris Whitley from a 1990s benefit concert in New York City

Classic Clips: Chris Whitley “Big Sky Country” – Live At Les Nuis L’Emission, 29th February 1992

Classic Clips
February 20, 2026 1

  • Something for the weekend: Toad the Wet Sprocket “California Wasted”
  • Live Review: Midlake + The Bretheren, Electric Ballroom, London – 6th February 2026
  • Anniversary Cheers: Slim Dunlap’s “Every Little Word” is a reissue of his two solo albums 30 years on, with added extras
  • Exclusive AUK Mini-Gig: BIRD
  • Classic Clips: Chris Whitley “Big Sky Country” – Live At Les Nuis L’Emission, 29th February 1992
  • Rose’s Pawn Shop “American Seams”
  • Charley Crockett makes it a hat trick of albums in a year with “Age of the Ram”
  • The latest AUK podcast is available now featuring Katherine Priddy and Band of Heathens
  • Awolk “Into The Void” – sometimes the void looks back
  • Video: Tenderness “The Salt Flats” – living in the moment of gentle panic
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  • Peter Thompson: Hi Matt, Thanks for taking the time to comment. You make some good points and you make them well. I…
  • Matt: Peter, The songs are good, and I respect your opinion, but I really question first, your definition of "Americana" and…
  • David Walker: I've been listening to John Hiatt since I encountered him in Nashville back when "Bring the Family" was fresh and…

Latest interviews

Interviews

Interview: Mean Mary answers six of one and half a dozen of the other

February 18, 2026 0

The banjo is a glorious instrument that can do a lot of ill in the wrong hands. It’s not easy to proudly, confidently pluck out some hot licks and really hard to play it with the […]

Behind the Songs

Behind the Songs: Polite Company “Please Go Wild”

February 17, 2026 0

Alan Gregg is a native Kiwi transplanted to North London with a spotty resumé to his credit. Not intending to be impolite, but prospective employers might be taken aback, curious as to what he has been […]

Interviews

Interview: Jim White on Trey Blake and the backstory of “Precious Bane”

February 12, 2026 2

If you’ve heard anything about Jim White, you’ve probably heard about the surfing, the modeling, the cab driving, and the unlikely way David Byrne changed his life with a record deal. You’ve heard about the junk […]

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Tracks

Other Brother Darryl “The ballad of Joni and Graham” – Laurel Canyon times

October 30, 2024 0

On this latest single from Other Brother Darryl we find ourselves in an interesting place as the seven piece Other Brother Darryl look back to a simpler time which is embodied, for them, in the love […]

Album Reviews

The Great Western Tears “Tales From Tallows” (Independent, 2016)

December 20, 2016 0

Back in May of 2015 I reviewed the debut EP from Oxford’s The Great Western Tears giving it a big thumbs up and noting them as a band to watch out for. Well here’s the album […]

Tracks

Something for the weekend: Seth Avett “Laughing River”

November 4, 2022 0

That’s it for another wet and windy week from us dear reader and we leave you with a new song from a new album from one half of the Avett Brothers, Seth Avett. Avett once made […]

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