Grumpy-Old-Pissed-Off-Man might have been a more apt title for Nils Lofgren’s newest solo album, Old School. He bluntly comes out and says as much via the title tracks first verse:
Vanish Valley made songs here that won’t vanish quickly, capped off by “Lion’s Den” that brings Sparklehorse to mind. They don’t have to get good because they are good.
Indigo Dreams is like many of the other BoDeans albums, and relies on the powerful combination of Llanas and Neumanns’ voices to buttress solid instrumental backing and a good folksy-rock sound. With Llanas now gone and replaced with Jake Owen, it remains to be seen whether the BoDeans will be able to carry forward with such power.
It’s not quite accurate to call Frankie Miller the unsung hero of British rock n’ soul because he had more than just a taste of mainstream recognition, while the crafts-manlike songwriter in him garnered comparable commercial success via movies and television. Yet the emotional undercurrent in the music included in …That’s Who! makes the case he was worthy of more widespread acknowledgement than the compilation’s title wryly references.
But for Bass to be anything other than what it is would be discounting what he’s built over the last two decades. It’s not going to replace Williams’ Stage or Breathe in the jamband canon, but Bass is as quintessentially Keller as the rest of his catalog.
Lotus’ self-titled fourth studio album features the band painting with bigger, broader brushes to create their musical vision. There’s a signature sound in place, the result of a decade’s worth of evolution in both band and equipment, but many of the intricacies that defined the band’s sound have been shaped into grander melodic ideas.
Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles covers this second period of Ray Charles’ career 1959 to 1972 on ABC-Paramount, offering A and B sides of all the singles released by ABC. The hits are here starting with his first #1 for ABC, “Georgia On My Mind” all the way to “America The Beautiful” in 1972.
Opening with an instrumental workout that builds to the lyrical proclamations of “Stand” you witness immediately that MTO Plays Sly is not your ordinary cover album.
Beatles and or John Lennon covers can be horrifying to behold. From the band who plays a song note for note with all the imagination of an accountant, to the performer who absolutely wrecks a classic by making it sound kitschy, the world is littered with songs that have been given something less than the royal treatment. But when placed in the hands of legendary maverick guitarist Bill Frisell, an album full of such John Lennon songs is engaging because the tracks become lyric-less re-imaginings rather than bland retreads or ridiculous send-ups.
Known less as a musician and more for his role as producer (Dawes among other collaborations) as well as avatar for the (re-) burgeoning Laurel Canyon music scene in California, Jonathan Wilson aims to equalize the balance with Gentle Spirit, his second full length (and first widely-distributed) solo album. The beauty of the work is that it captures rather than contrives the tranquility implied in its title, not surprisingly with most of the musicianship supplied by Wilson himself
