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A Furthur Update
Checking in with the Deadheads two years after Jerry Garcia's death. [2]
Paul Gerald

Image Isn't Everything
John Fogerty was unpretentious before unpretentious was cool. [3]
Rich Collins

Love's Life
Poppy Z. Brite focuses her worst-dressed intellect on the sleazily fascinating life of Courtney Love. [4]
James DiGiovanna

Rock, Tar, Asphault
Reviewing all those shows you shouldn't miss. [5]
Kevin Klein

Something Personal
The Indigo Girls swing for the fences. [6]
Michael McCall

Flat Attendance
Suppose they brought Monk, Brubeck, and Roland Kirk to Nashville--and nobody came? [7]
Rick Béziat

Old Folk
The "sacred text" of folk music, Anthology of American Folk Music, has been rereleased, and Mike McGonigal talks about it with music critic Phil Elwood in this Profile in Pop Culture Greatness. [8]
Mike McGonigal

Letters at 3AM
Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music is the soundtrack of slavery and its aftermath. [9]
Michael Ventura

Working Class Hero
After 21 years of hard work in Austin, Stephen Doster finally has an album. [10]
Andy Langer

Record Reviews
Tribute albums: homages to the Police, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie & the Banshees, and more. [11]

Turn Up That Noise!
An eclectic survey of recent recordings. [12]
Stephen Grimstead

Rhythm & Views
Various U.K. punksters, various U.S. railroad bards, Element 79. [13]

Tiny Tunes
Our music editor gets an earful of the newest disks by Tom Garulnick and Polvo. [14]
Michael Henningsen

Now What?
If you go gaga over the sultry smoothness of a symphonic glissando, just wait till you experience our transitions to cool and useful music links on the Web. [15]

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That sentiment is echoed in this article about the post-Garcia band and its legions of Deadheads. Though it's a shame to see the patchouli industry take such a blow, the writer concludes that everybody -- both the remaining band members and their loyal legions -- could be spending their energy doing better things.

Like listening to John Fogerty. Yeah, you heard me right, John Fogerty. Over a decade after his Centerfield album, the former Credence Clearwater Revivalist has come hippety hopping back into the scene with an album called Blue Moon Swamp. An interview provides insights into Fogerty's songwriting inspiration.

That's all nice and good, but wouldn't you rather have insights into Courtney Love's inspiration? Thanks to biographer Poppy Z. Brite, now you can -- and boy, what inspiration. Love's early life was hardly debutante material, but it does make for some ribald reading -- if you enjoy that sort of thing. Which I know you do.

But with some bands, it's not a question of inspiration, it's a question of translation. That is to say, how in the $@&!# do you make sense of their lyrics? Pavement is a prime example: with lyrics like "Maybe she is, maybe she is not/Maybe I'm/Maybe I'm a rocket, and I'm gonna stop it ... bop bop badda bop/Debris Slide." Thankfully, in this interview, the band explain themselves.

Let's see what else we've got this week. Hmm, this article about the Indigo Girls looks promising. It explains how the folk-rock duo have managed to maintain a strong fanbase while only putting out personal songs that aren't geared towards radio airplay. And oh, while we're on the subject of folk, check out this article about the recently reissued Anthology of American Folk Music series. Or read this one for a slightly different perspective. Both are quite good.

There are also pieces about an old jazz concert featuring Thelonious Monk, Roland Kirk, and Dave Brubeck; an in-depth article about guitarist Stephen Duster; but most important, we've got album reviews galore. Such as:

• tribute albums for The Police, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Kurt Weill, The Misfits, Rainer Ptacek, Bruce Springsteen, and Jimmie Rodgers

• Those Darn Accordions!, Corn Fed, and The Manhattan Transfer

• Music Club, The Element 79, and Classic Railroad Songs

• The Tom Guralnick Trio, and Polvo

Now excuse me while I heed Jerry's advice and go get a life.

Talk Back
If anything in this section offends, annoys or perturbs your senses, here's your place to scream like an angry punk rocker.