Robert Baird

In football there's a saying to describe an unexpected outcome: "That why they play the games." The recorded music equivalent might be "That's why you have to listen to the records."

A successful exercise in recording vastly different sounds.

Lots of in-the-moment twists and turns and a general sense of going with what felt right.

This kerfuffle oughta sell a few more Welch/Rawlings records, though.

One of my favorite South by Southwest moments over the 28 years I have attended was the early-1990s performance of Arthur Alexander who was literally sobbing before his set was done. In 1993, after many years out of the music game, Alexander, with the help of a lot of talented friends, made Lonely Just Like Me for Elektra Records, a swansong he never thought possible. Convinced he'd been forgotten, his triumphant performance in Austin just after the record was released, in front of a wildly enthusiastic crowd, moved him to tears. A few weeks later he was gone.

I tend to gravitate towards Stephen Foster and Scott Joplin.

The Dickinson brothers are traditionalists and modern proponents of the kind of music that was celebrated in American Epic.