On this edition of The Americana Spotlight, I feature Austin Collins & The Rainbirds.  Austin joins me to talk about his new album, Wrong Control, which marks the band's third release.  I've seen Austin several times live over the years and have always enjoyed his sound both vocally along with the rock laiden guitar work.  Wrong Control captures the best of both worlds both on the vocal tracks and instrumentation.  It's an excellent album which I would highly recommend picking up especially if you lean towards the more heavy side of Rock (Son Volt, The Bottle Rockets, etc) If you will be around Austin, Texas in March make sure you catch one of the band's seven shows during the upcoming South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival in mid March.  You can learn more about Austin and also pick up his album over on his website www.AustinCollins.net. Click here to easily subscribe to all of our great podcast shows on iTunes.

On this week's edition of The Americana Spotlight, I interview Brandon Sampson who is the lead singer for the Rochester, MN band Six Mile Grove.  Their latest CD entitled Steel Mule came out in 2009. In the interview, Brandon talks about the impacts of his small hometown of Lyle, MN on the band as well as his ties to long time Johnny Cash guitarist Bob Wootton.  You can learn more about Six Mile Grove at their website www.sixmilegrove.com.

On this edition of The Americana Spotlight, I talk with Slaid Cleaves about his new album "Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away".  This album, in my mind, is a masterpiece while the subject matter is not always easy to digest it's a reflection of the past few years in America as captured by Slaid. This album is a bookmark of life, love and loss.  I would encourage you to listen to this edition of the Spotlight and then head over to SlaidCleaves.com to pick up the album.

On this edition of The Americana Spotlight, we focus in on the Richmond, VA band the "Wrinkle Neck Mules".  Join host Gregg Geil as he interviews the band and plays the title track off the album "Let The Lead Fly". You can find out more information on the Mules by visiting www.WrinkleNeckMules.com.

On this edition of The Americana Spotlight, I put the spotlight on the trio roots rock band out of Austin, Texas named PorterDavis.  The band released their debut studio album which was produced by Gurf Morlix and in March 2009 picked up 3 Austin Music Awards for: Best Roots Rock Band, Best Drums and Best Instrument Miscellaneous. You can learn more about PorterDavis at www.loveporterdavis.com

On this edition of the The Americana Spotlight podcast, I interview the one and only Scott Miller.   Scott recently released a new CD entitled "For Crying Out Loud" which marks a new chapter in his life after launching his own record label and leaving Sugar Hill Records.  For more information on Scott Miller, you can visit http://www.TheScottMiller.com.

After a short hiatus, I'm bringing back the Americana Spotlight show which is a short audio podcast comprised of a 5-10 minute artist interview followed up with a song.  This week I put the spotlight on the San Antonio, Texas based band Two Tons of Steel.  The band recently released a new CD called "Not That Lucky" which has been up on the Top 10 Americana Radio charts for the past few weeks.  I interview front man, Kevin Geil, to talk about the band and the new CD.   If you haven't noticed yet, Kevin and I have something in common with our last name. You can learn more about Two Tons of Steel at http://www.TwoTons.com.

Join Gregg Geil for this edition of the Americana Spotlight to talk with Angela Easterling, an east coast singer/songwriter.  Angela released her new CD last week entitled "Black Top Road" which was produced by Will Kimbrough.

Join host Gregg Geil as he interviews Monty Byrom & David Neuhauser from the band Big House. Big House is a Bakersfield, California based band made up six musicians: Monty, David, Sonny, Tenner, Ron and Chuck. The band found popularity out in California in the mid 90's which led them to Nashville in 1997 with an MCA Nashville record deal. Big House released two albums on MCA which led to a few hits on Billboard's Country Chart. Two albums into the MCA deal, the band broke up. Ten year's later, they have reunited with a new album entitled "Never Ending Train" which was released in late 2008. You can find more information about the band on http://www.bighouserecords.com.