Saliers recently announced medical conditions that affect her vocals
Mike Richmond is the co-founder of Athens, Ga.’s Love Tractor, one of several great bands to come out of the South in 1980s that initially benefitted from—then ultimately shriveled beneath—R.E.M.’s looming college-rock shadow. Newbies should dive right in with the 2021 reissue of the group’s best album, 1989’s Themes Of Venus. It was so good, apparently, that it sent Love Tractor into hibernation not long thereafter. The band wouldn’t reappear until 2001.