Album Reviews

Joe Puleo isn’t your typical songwriter. When he was young, he was an athlete who competed in wrestling and triathlons, among other endeavors. After that, he started running companies in both New Jersey and Philadelphia. He is also the author of the book Running Anatomy.  Inspired by the story of Gabriele Gruenwald a track star […]

On their strong full-length debut, 2017’s Last of the Acid Cowboys, Evolfo ran the gamut from scuzzy punk bangers to dapper distorted soul chillouts. Their follow-up Site Out of Mind takes a different approach, it is a thematic space rock record that was conceived by the band after a collective psychedelic experience.  From the first […]

Now we have lauded solo efforts from each of the four members of the all-women-of-color collective Our Native Daughters with this bold entry, Wary +Strange, from Chattanooga-bred Singer-songwriter Amythyst Kiah. You may recall her Grammy-nominated song from the collective album, “Black Myself,” which she reimagines in a solo take here.  In addition, Kiah recently picked […]

The Baylor Project, married couple Marcus and Jean Baylor are the jazz/R&B counterparts to the engaging Americana couple War & Treaty.  Generations follows up their two-time Grammy-nominated 2017 The Journey and their third Grammy nod for the 2020 single “Sit On Down.” This new album features nine originals and two covers as the couple delivers […]

K.C. Jones may have gotten her start playing in Cajun bands like Feufollet and T’Monde, but her solo debut Queen of the In Between is an entirely different vibe, blending folk, classic country and even pop for a deeply satisfying release. That’s not to say Jones has completely abandoned the world of Cajun music. Living […]

The newest release from Sleater-Kinney, Path Of Wellness, finds the duo of Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein self-producing for the first time in their career and moving slightly away from the electro-dance-based The Center Won’t Hold while keeping many mainstream influences. Coming through the pandemic Tucker and Brownstein seem to be searching for sound and […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on Livin’ The Apocalypse, the new album from the Vood Glow Skulls, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

One of the great things about music is that you so often find the unexpected. When you think of surf music, places like California come to mind. However, good surf music doesn’t have to come from a place where people go for surf vacations. It can come from a place like Copenhagen. The Tremolo Beer […]

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Amy Helm delivers her third solo album with What the Flood Leaves Behind from an eminently comfortable setting, a place where she’s played live shows many times, her father’s place, Levon Helm Studios (The Barn) in Woodstock, NY. Helm was raised here, spent time in L.A. and a considerable amount in NYC […]

British singer/songwriter Joan Armatrading is almost unbelievably approaching her fifth musical decade. Armatrading has never been easy to categorize as she straddles the lines between blues, jazz, and several in between.  She likes it that way, eager to surprise us with yet another twist or turn such that no two albums sound alike. It’s been […]

One of the great things about the blues is the range. The style spans from the traditional Delta blues that is well suited for a front porch, to hard-hitting blues rock. Black River Delta is a band from Sweden that falls into the latter category.  The band’s album Vol. II caught the attention of blues […]

Jeremy James Meyer has managed to channel the ghosts of Jerry Jeff Walker, John Prine and Guy Clark on his latest, Alive & OK, while also coming off as much more than just a well-stocked jukebox and putting his own unique stamp on the genre. On his second album with a full band, the Seattle-based […]

A musician of less intensity and ingenuity than pianist/composer Brad Mehldau might well be overwhelmed in performing with an orchestra. But if Variations on a Melancholy Theme proves anything, it is those two major components of Mehldau’s artistic persona that complement the virtues of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. As implied by the record’s title, the […]

Okay, it’s not as if pianist Todd Cochran just walked away from recording fifty years ago and made a sudden return. The recording hiatus itself is around ten years, Cochran having played not only with jazz musicians but with Santana, Automatic Man, Peter Gabriel, and Joan Armatrading, to name a few. Yet, the last time […]

Julian Lage makes a major statement by issuing his seventh solo album on Blue Note Records, perhaps the most hallowed label in the history of modern jazz. The very title of the record itself, Squint, bespeaks an effort to increase focus and, as such, it is that rare LP in which creative distillation is the […]

Westward Bound! offers previously unreleased recordings from underrecognized tenor bop giant Harold Land and is being issued for June 12 Record Store Day. As such, it will follow a sequence that first presents a two-LP set on 180-gram vinyl, followed a week later by CD and on August 6 with digital offerings. This, as was […]

What’s it say about a band when a collection of outtakes from their previous studio effort is superior to that album itself? When it’s Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, it’s a sign of humility and self-awareness. 2020’s Naked Garden outshone Turn Off the News (Build A Garden) in both clarity of arrangement and […]

In a life cut too short too abruptly, Tim Buckley was also just a bit overly idiosyncratic to ascend into the upper echelons of contemporary folk music. Yet, as much of an acquired taste they might be, his wide-ranging forays into jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul and avant-garde styles also present ample rewards in the hearing […]

Acclaimed bassist-composer and bandleader Charnett Moffett, as he’s been prone to do throughout his storied career, refines his sound once again for New Love, his seventh leader release for Motema Music and his 17th overall. The album is a celebration of love for a couple and humanity in a broader sense. Moffett and his long-time collaborator, […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on Ordinary Life, the new album from ska punk band We Are The Union, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):