Hearing the Emmylou Harris album Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town inspired North Carolina-raised Tift Merritt to write and perform her own brand of roots music. Merritt released her debut album, Bramble Rose, in 2002 and has since become an important figure in the singer/songwriter and “adult alternative” scenes. On Sunday, September 7, Merritt [...]

You probably know Robyn Hitchcock’s name but you probably can’t hum one of his songs. For more than 30 years, the English singer/songwriter has actively recorded and performed while flying under the radar of commercial success. But while Hitchcock’s songs don’t resonate across the FM airwaves, he has garnered immense respect among his peers. The [...]

J. Whitson and his brother have been taping some of the fantastic bands that have appeared at Birmingham’s Bottletree Café for a while now. They did that in anticipation of airing their footage on Alabama Public Television, for a show called “We Have Signal.” Wednesday night, at Bottletree, they’re hosting a preview of sorts [...]

This worthy cause/benefit will be our Weekly Pick for Thursday, August 21, but we wanted to go ahead and give you a heads-up.

Alfredo Colin is a married father of four who has worked at La Paz Restaurant in Crestline for the past 10 years. Last Wednesday, Colin had to have a large [...]

Langford speaks to column: Mayor Larry Langford addressed a column in Birmingham News that describes Langford’s plan to bring electronic bingo to Birmingham as “misguided.” Langford said that “whenever Birmingham asks for something, you can always count on an editorial” to tell the council how to vote.
“If they’re against gambling so much, how come [...]

After the DNC in Denver, the Republican convention is bound to look like a Bland Old Party. In this week’s “Column,” Courtney Haden notes that if doing U-eys was an Olympic sport, the Republican nominee could compete for the gold:
“If you don’t like John McCain’s position on something, just wait,” Haden writes. “He’ll conjure a [...]

On Saturday, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and the Medill School of Journalism announced the winners of the 13th annual Altweekly Awards at the association’s convention in Philadelphia. Birmingham Weekly’s ‘War on Dumb’ took first place for best political column in the 55,000-and-under circulation division.
The weekly column by staff writer Kyle Whitmire examines political culture [...]

Louis Zaden, the alternately cantankerous and effervescent proprietor of Lou’s Pub, was found dead in his home Thursday morning. He was 59.