Sacred Steel guitar maestro, Robert Randolph has come a long way since the days of leading church worship to becoming one of the most recognized guitar players in the country. Randolph’s highly anticipated third album – We Walk This Road – is a work of art that began over two years ago with roots pioneer and producer extraordinaire, T Bone Burnett
When it comes to Jace Everett there are two types of people: those familiar with his previous two albums and those who have discovered him through the highly popular and critically acclaimed HBO series, True Blood. For those few folks who know of the previous two albums, Everett’s third and latest album, Red Revelations is a major departure in tone and style.
There is a warmth in Jacky Terrasson's piano playing on Push not unlike that which pervades his previous work. But in combination with the playful charm he exudes throughout this disc, along with the simpatico relationship evident with his accompanists, the sensation runs deeper than in the past.
With Expo 86, Montreal’s Wolf Parade has expanded their electro-pop indie rock in size and scope while delivering danceable efforts that their fans will devour. Guitars and keyboards sound grandiose over wordless choruses; large enough to fill up some arenas that band is on the road to headlining. Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug are the most cohesive as song writers they have been in this bands career, coalescing easily throughout and making it more difficult to recognize who wrote which song.
This Brooklyn Sextet hopes to have created your electronica-pop soundtrack to the summer with Travel Book. Motoring in multiple directions, the album has a mission to build, layer and sift through tweaks, sonic-yelps and bleeps while tying everything together with head-bobbing rhythms. The best tracks start simple, piling on sound and beats before letting the combination blossom under Sam Tyndall’s vocals.
One of 2010’s most buzzed-about bands has been The Morning Benders, a group of trendy, Urban-Outfitted prepsters that resemble the unsigned younger cousins of Vampire Weekend. Nattily dressed in cardigans, skinny ties, and Sperry’s, the band has been riding the success of their release Big Echo and parlaying it into a plush opening spots for Black Keys and Broken Bells and late-night appearances on Jimmy Fallon and Carson Daly.
It’s summer, so you might guess that Sunshine Collective should have something good for your ears. And yeah, it’s true, their first album, Wanna Play?, is all you need for a sunny day.
You’ve got me down on the floor,” coos Grace Potter on “Paris (Ooh La La),” the sultry opening track on her self-titled third album with the Nocturnals. And just as she’s revealed more leg and less Hammond B-3 with each album, Potter has also courageously taken those bold steps to mingle her sexuality with her soulful pipes.
Lyrics are not Jackie Greene’s strong suit; hooks and harmonics are. How else to explain the way Greene routinely crafts beautiful roots gems, inspired country blues and frayed-edge power pop with smooth, but ultimately featherweight narratives about bad love, weary yearning and wanton soul searching? It’s not meaty stuff, but it’s delivered with grace and gravitas; Greene says “feel it, anyway,” and you do. It’s a formula that’s worked for him and continues to work on Till the Light Comes, his sixth album and, if not a great collection, surely a nourishing one, with buoyant arrangements and the fullness of a well-oiled band fleshing them out.
Due to some keen marketing and a barrage of advance press, most rock fans now know the back story of Mojo, Tom Petty’s long-awaited return to the studio with his legendary band, The Heartbreakers. Recorded live, mostly on the first take with little to no overdub or tweaking, this corps of rock and roll Hall of Famers live up to their billing with a blistering, bluesy, and furious statement of an album designed to cement their legacy to long-time fans and show a new generation how it’s done.
