Posts by Jim Hynes

[rating=9.00] A colleague of mine spoke to Ry Cooder recently and shared how Cooder describes his music, “…it’s nothing special. All music is the same, all that folk stuff. You just play what you know. Let the other guys play, listen and try to complement them as best as you can.” Obviously, that’s a rather […]

[rating=7.00] Emerging roots-rock band The National Reserve will draw attention with this sophomore release Motel La Grange and their festival-filled spring and summer touring schedule. They aren’t exactly newcomers. Getting their start over five years ago as a bar band in Brooklyn, the band has honed their sound and songwriting to become a popular touring […]

[rating=8.00] Sam Lewis hangs with some big names, having toured with Los Lobos, Delbert McClinton, And Marty Stuart’s band. He’s collaborated with John Prine, Kasey Musgraves, and The Wood Brothers. That’s because Sam Lewis is one talented, soulful cat. This is his highly awaited third album, Loversity; and in a year absolutely packed with strong […]

[rating=8.00] Chances are that you’ve heard multi-instrumentalist Jeff Plankenhorn supporting Ray Wylie Hubbard, Joe Ely, or countless other Texas roots musicians. Unless you’re an Austin resident though, chances are even better that you’ve never heard Jeff Plankenhorn (“Plank’’) as a solo singer-songwriter. Actually, the truth lies somewhere in between.  Sleeping Dogs is Plank’s third solo […]

[rating=7.00] Driving in the Dark, is the rocking, gritty sophomore release from Calgary, Alberta-based singer-songwriter Mariel Buckley. She teamed with a new producer, Leeroy Stagger, for this set of rather dark songs that lie squarely at the intersection of traditional country and Americana. It’s punchier and more roots-driven than her more country leaning debut.   Buckley’s […]

[rating=8.00] Arkansas Dave has some swag. His stage name alone tells you that. This is Dave Pennington, Austin-based blues singer-songwriter’s debut, recorded at the legendary FAME in Muscle Shoals, AL with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section – Will McFarlane on guitar, Clayton Ivey on keys, and Bob Wray on bass. Dave plays guitar, drums, and […]

[rating=8.00] Few artists can take on multiple genres within an album and expect solid results. Joe Goldmark is one of those few.  Perhaps it’s because the Bay Area favorite splits the material between vocals and instrumental tracks, the latter serving as interludes, and invitations to the next kind of sound. In any case on Joe […]

[rating=7.00] As you listen to New England-based singer-songwriter Hayley Sabella’s second full-length album, Forgive the Birds, quiet passages transform to the sounds of wind, rain, or even ocean waves. Her sound slithers between ethereal folk music to Americana, often depending on her accompaniment. It’s rather easy to hear how she wrote these ten tunes alone on her vintage hollow body Gibson but the songs have clever […]

[rating=8.00] Through his almost 30-year career Omaha’s Dana Murray has been a collaborator, sideman, producer or educator, roles that he will continue.  Given his impressive resume, it’s rather surprising that this is drummer Dana Murray’s first solo album – The Negro Manifesto. Murray’s musical career has run the gamut from jam band rock to Broadway […]

[rating=8.00] Bob Rea has been making music for 50 years, but this is only his third recording, the previous coming 7 years ago. His is a vintage style, compared by some to Johnny Cash, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, John Prine, and even Leonard Cohen. Let’s just say he has lyrical elements of each. On Southbound […]

[rating=8.00] Nels Cline has it all figured out. He plays with Wilco for the bigger audiences and makes adventurous avant-jazz albums to satisfy his ever-changing, creative muse. Wilco’s lead guitarist since 2004 began his recording career in 1980 and with this release, Currents, Constellations; under his own name he has delivered almost 50 albums, this […]

[rating=9.00] It’s become a common colloquialism to say, “Who remembers much from the s’70s anyway?”  Let’s go back to 1971 when youngsters were listening to Led Zeppelin, The Who and when first Krist Kristofferson, and then John Prine, then a 23-year-old mailman from rural Illinois graced turntables. John Prine’s self-titled release was indeed a revelation […]

[rating=8.00] Wisconsin’s duo, oft expanded to quartet, Dead Horses, have been steadily building a loyal fan base for eight years now. This is their third release and it cites the moon with circles on the disc cover just as the previous two. Moreover, My Mother the Moon was recorded at Cartoon Moon Studio in Nashville […]

[rating=8.00] Phil Madeira is by turns multi- instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, illustrator, painter, producer, sideman, front man. Madeira, by his own admission, is far from a household name but he’s become a fixture in Nashville and certainly in Americana circles for nearly three decades. He has quietly released five solo critically-acclaimed records, two in 2015, and has […]

Eastern Pennsylvania’s devoted blues community, as well as several fans from New Jersey and New York, showed up in enough force to make the seventh annual Blast Furnace Blues Festival at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, PA  a musical success March 23-15, 2018, despite featuring many unfamiliar names.That’s because, in a thoughtful gesture, the Festival […]

[rating=8.00] Rod Picott is a multi-faceted writer. This double CD set of songs, Out Past the Wires, is the inspiration for an accompanying book of short stories. While we deal only with the music in the review, note that less than three years after his previous release, Fortune, Picott has become a published poet, written […]

[rating=9.00] When you win a Grammy as Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite did in 2014 for Get Up! an encore is certainly called for. In No Mercy in This Land the collaborative duo reaches even deeper into spare, haunting country blues, with touches of soul, gospel, and shuffling blues. This is an album that could […]

[rating=9.00] We are reaching the point where many of our favorite artists are pausing to reflect, as if to ask whether they would record their beloved songs the same way again. We’ve seen this with artists who have re-recorded entire albums (i.e. Lucinda Williams) or taken their greatest hits into a live format with new […]

[rating=8.00] True to her reputation as a singular interpreter, Bettye LaVette will turn heads again with Things Have Changed, putting her own spin on Bob Dylan’s songs much the way she did on her Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook. Despite achieving legendary status, this is the veteran soul singer’s first album release on a major […]

[rating=8.00] Vermonter Caitlin Canty finds Nashville to her liking on her fourth release, a mostly dark, brooding but ultimately hopeful work, Motel Bouquet. Produced by Punch Brother banjoist Noam Pikelny, who in return recruited some of Nashville’s best session players, this could be Canty’s breakthrough. Like her previous work, it’s a blend of folk, dark […]