Posts by Jim Hynes

[rating=8.00] If Jason Isbell is not yet a household name, he is at the top of the list when one mentions “Americana” these days. New West Records, likely wishing he was still on their roster, is smart enough to capitalize on Isbell’s success and take us back 11 years to Isbell’s first solo album after […]

[rating=8.00] Billy Price has emerged from a regional star in Pittsburgh to an international blues star. It’s about time. Few, if any singers today, can bring the combination of passion and vocal range that Price does on his soul-blues tunes. Although he is mostly a high tenor, he can bring the falsetto too. Propelled by […]

[rating=7.00] Cut Throat Finches are a young band from Ft. Worth, TX. described by one writer as sounding like Nathaniel Ratcliffe fronting the Raconteurs. Their rather unique blend of soulful vocals, western stylings and Brit-pop influence belies most of the music one would associate with Texas; it’s mostly shimmery pop. Cut Throat Finches are releasing […]

[rating=10.00] Those of us that have the box set Coltrane – The Classic Quartet – Complete Impulse Studio Recordings now find that the although the collection will never be obsolete, it now needs updating due to original, never-before -heard compositions recorded seemingly for a studio album in 1963.  Sonny Rollins has provided the quote that […]

[rating=9.00] Iconic living legend saxophonist Charles Lloyd keeps exploring as he now moves into his ninth decade. This release, Vanished Gardens, his fourth upon his return to Blue Note, again pairs him with two extraordinary guitarists who often play together, Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz (pedal steel and dobro). The two have played on Lucinda’s […]

[rating=7.00] Two-time Grammy-winning producer Tom Hambridge spends most of his time in his adopted home of Nashville producing records for Buddy Guy, Kenny Neal, Mike Zito and countless others. And, he finds some time to play drums in his own band, compose songs mix records, master records, and balance the various projects that are on-going. […]

[rating=7.00] Furious Seasons is a three-person orchestra, releasing their second album, Now Residing Abroad as a trio and the sixth under the band’s name. Leader, singer-songwriter David Steinhart has been a mainstay in folk-pop circles in L.A. for over 30 years, having founded Pop Art in 1984 and Smart Brown Handbag in 1993. The Furious […]

[rating=9.00] Kamasi Washington has not only taken the jazz world by storm.  He’s moved well beyond it, bringing in a new generation of non-jazz lovers too. Heaven and Earth, the follow-up to the widely heralded 2015 Epic, is comprised on two halves, runs for two and half hours, and is available in a double deluxe […]

[rating=8.00] Jeffrey Foucault gives this one more breathing room, emerging from the beautiful, stark darkness of his previous release, the wonderful Salt As Wolves.  This time out, with Blood Brothers Foucault and his cohorts aren’t in a bluesy mode but instead fuse elements of folk, country, R&B, and slights hints of gospel and rock n’ […]

[rating=8.00] Too often in this cruel music business the best musicians are under-recognized and/or underappreciated. Steve Dawson – master guitarist, songwriter, producer, and label head for Canada’s Black Hen Music is a prime example. In addition to his many sideman and producer efforts, Lucky Hand is Dawson’s eighth solo album and his first fully instrumental […]

[rating=8.00] Buddy Guy’s partnership with producer and songwriter Tom Hambridge has made him quite successful, as we now find Guy in his eighth decade. And, according to Guy, one of the last original Chicago blues legends, with this release, The Blues Is Alive and Well. Listening to Guy sing the blues makes one wonder who […]

[rating=8.00] R+R = NOW is a collective, brought together by Robert Glasper as a genre-smashing outfit that speaks out not as much in a protest mode, but more about expressing resiliency and hope.  Each member is a player, composer, and producer on their own, so they are individually visionary. Combining them makes for album with […]

[rating=8.00] Until his relatively surprising Grammy win in 2016, many of us were not familiar with Fantastic Negrito (a.k.a. Bay Area-based artist Xavier Dphrepaulezz (pronounced Deh-frep-aw-lez). Now he encores that winning album, The Last Days of Oakland, with the highly anticipated Please Don’t Be Dead, another assault on the sweeping tides of gentrification and the […]

[rating=8.00] Phil Cook delivers the kind of informal gospel-flavored album you could easily associate with a southern church or simply a bunch of friends singing on a back porch. The informality proves engaging for Phil Cook’s People Are My Drug, a work that taps into Cook’s affection for NOLA rhythms and his drawing together many […]

[rating=8.00] Nicki Bluhm had a nice six-year stint going with her band, The Gramblers, playing large venues, mega festivals, and sharing the stage with top grossing acts. Then her marriage to husband and bandleader Tim Bluhm fell apart and Nicki had to figure out her next move. She wrote the life-chronicling songs for To Rise […]

[rating=9.00] On the surface, this may seem like an odd pairing of two legends. Their voices couldn’t be more different with Alvin’s low and rowdy baritone offset by Gilmore’s high lonesome warble. Consider also Alvin’s blistering blues guitar attack with Gilmore’s mellow folk-country approach. The liners pose these kinds of dream duets: Bobby Blue Bland […]

[rating=7.00] Mentions of dreams are sprinkled through Radio Sounds, veteran Nashville guitarist Tony Keats’ debut album as a singer-songwriter. It’s fair to say Keats has been wanting to go in his own direction for some time now after spending a decade on the road in the Southeast, playing gigs and waiting tables, never losing sight […]

[rating=7.00] The first thing that strikes you when listening to Clarence Bucaro is his clear, soulful voice, one that could keep your attention for hours on end. Then, as you move more deeply into Bucaro’s Passionate Kind his songwriting and storytelling become compelling too. Bucaro is a literary writer, one who reads plenty of classic […]

[rating=9.00] Gretchen Peters consistently raises the bar and somehow manages to surpass it with each album.  Her previous outing, 2015’s Blackbirds won the International Roots Album of the Year. This time she retains many of the same backing musicians and co-writers but focuses on female characters from teenage girls to old women to deliver another […]

[rating=7.00] Jason Boland & The Stragglers embrace country music mostly for one of its key foundations – storytelling.  On their new release, Hard Times Are Relative, the band challenges our relationship with our past and our acceptance of the inevitability of change. This is intelligent, provocative fodder delivered with a danceable, edgy honky-tonk fervor that […]