About

My name is Donald Teplyske, and I try to keep this blog-of-sorts as active as possible. The Fervor Coulee blog has been going now for four years, and in reading the “About” feature recently, I figured it was due for an update.

I am a freelance roots and bluegrass writer with reviews and features appearing regularly in The Red Deer Advocate and The Lonesome Road Review http://lonesomeroadreview.wordpress.com.  I also write for Country Standard Time: http://www.countrystandardtime.com/countrymusic.asp and maintain a sister blog to Fervor Coulee called Fervor Coulee Bluegrass at http://www.countrystandardtime.com/blog/fervorcouleebluegrass/. Until its demise, I also wrote for the fine publication Bluegrass Now for seven years, writing numerous reviews and a few features, one of which- on Dale Ann Bradley- was the cover story. I am honoured to be a member of the large Polaris Music Prize  voting group. This is a group of music writers, journalists, broadcasters, and such charged with the responsibility of listening to, nominating, and eventually shortlisting the ‘best Canadian album of the year.’ So far, those I back haven’t fared so well, but I’ll keep advocating for the roots music albums I believe are worthy of consideration.With a recent relocation, I recently gave up my Red DeerAdvocate column, but intend to continue writing for the various websites and will, most likely, be doing more writing than ever in the coming months.

Please contact me at fervorcoulee@gmail.com  if you have a project I should consider for review.

I now live and write in the lovely County of Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada.

My listening is all over the place and in a typical month-  just to provide some perspective- I might listen to albums from Kasey Chambers, Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, Town Mountain, Rodney Crowell, Tony Booth, Bob Marley, Ron Sexsmith, Dave Alvin, Joy Lyn White, Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, Fred Eaglesmith, Prefab Sprout, Caroline Herring, John Boutte, Bruce Springsteen, Sam Lewis, Idyl Tea, Balsam Range, Maria Dunn, Kelly Hogan, Mike Plume Band, Nick Lowe, Love Sculpture, Joey Ramone,  Alison Krauss & Union Station, Hoyt Axton, Gillian Welch, Old Crow Medicine Show, Audie Blaylock & Redline, Guy Clark, Katrina Leskanich,  John Wort Hannam, Steve Forbert, Bobby Osborne & the Rocky Top X-Press, Jon Langford, Jim Lauderdale, Diana Jones, Corb Lund, Kirsty MacColl,  Dale Ann Bradley, Tom Robinson, Antsy McClain, ThePretenders, The Faces, Three Dog Night, John Stewart, Del McCoury & the Dixie Pals, Steve Earle, Paul Thorne, Lee Rocker,  Northern Sould compilations, and much more. Yes, I spend much too much time listening to music. But, it is what I do when I’m not teaching, eating, watching television, reading, or sleeping. I am most attracted to music that hits me in the belly…and that is a fairly large target but little hits dead center.

What I always come back to is roots music: classic folk singers, blazing bluegrass pioneers, Texas singer-songwriters, real blues music, modern acoustiblue innovators, striped down reworkings of rock staples, country singers from when country singers sang country, music from the land of the Scots, ‘world’ music (whatever that is), Americana…these are the musics I love. And they are the music I choose to write about in the hopes of sharing something that causes someone to seek out music they might not have otherwise encountered.

I hope I’m able to add something to your day- a gravel road you can embark down while exploring your own musical journey.

I want Fervor Coulee to be a place where I can share my writing and thoughts about roots music. Some of the writing will be material published elsewhere, and some of it will be exclusive to the site. I have thirteen years of writing in my archives, and I hope to add-over time-some of the sharper pieces I’ve written.

I deliberately do not use a ‘rating’ system for my reviews. I have done so in the past, but have found that it is hard to be consistent and make the ratings mean something. I am in the process of revising an older system I found some what valuable, and therefore may be adding a five-point scale at some point in the future. [Revised note: Nah, ain't gonna do it. I do like the Paste 100 scale, but even that seems sticky. Should that reissue of Jesus of Cool be a 83 or an 84? Hmmm...]

About the name: Fervor was the name of the first Jason & the Scorchers album…alright, the first nationally released Jason & the Scorchers album…and was a significant album for me on first listen. As far as I can tell, when I first heard the album at work (ROW Entertainment, Edmonton) my music path was forever altered. Coulee, is a coulee and I was raised-for a while- near one. Fervor Coulee.