Album Reviews

Neil Young’s performance for Young Shakespeare is absolutely superb. In fact, this is the very kind of show by which this great rock iconoclast elevated his profile around the time of his earliest collaborations with Crazy Horse (in its first incarnation) as well as Crosby Stills and Nash. To that end, the superlative quality of […]

Like every promising Americana artist raised on a steady diet of classic country and Bob Dylan records, the New England native Charlie Treat eventually made his way to Nashville. It’s there that Treat hooked up with Jesse Thompson who helped shape Treat’s 2018 EP and The Comet, his latest, expansive LP. The Comet manages to […]

It’s been a remarkable recent run for the punk-blues artist Sunny War who draws attention for her amazing fingerpicking acoustic guitar skills and her deceptively casual, quiet approach to songs, many of which are topical. While her early independent records cast her mostly in a blues vein, her music encompasses much more as folk, hints […]

A bittersweet moment for the bandleader, drummer/composer Phillipe Lemm, First Steps celebrates the life and musicianship of longtime friend and collaborator, pianist Angelo Di Loreto who passed away unexpectedly in October of 2020. Alongside Lemm’s drums and percussion and Jeff Koch on bass, Di Loreto’s musical voice is woven intrinsically throughout the album’s tracks. Due to Lemm’s […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on Reckless, the latest album from Morgan Wade, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

Hammond B3 organ great Dr. Lonnie Smith adds another to his storied catalog of albums with the mostly live Breathe. During the 2017 celebration of his 75th birthday, just after being named an NEA Jazz Master, Smith settled into the Jazz Standard in New York City for a live recording date. With his steady trio […]

This project defies much description. Nonetheless, we do some of the background information on the participants. Notably, this is the first time you will find Pharaoh Sanders on a recording in 15 years, and in an unconventional setting, to say the least. The project, Promises, is the brainchild of Sam Shepherd aka Floating Points, who […]

Going all the way back to their first record 15 years ago, Boston’s Lake Street Dive have always been tough to categorize. The genre agnostic band has flirted with classic soul, R&B and indie pop over the course of their career, so it shouldn’t be surprising that their latest, Obviously, is just as confounding to […]

Just in case you missed Volume 1 or are wondering just what “Blues Super Group” we are referring to in the headline, The New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Riders are Charlie Musselwhite, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Jimbo Mathus, the late Jim Dickinson, Luther Dickinson, and Cody Dickinson.  This is the second installment of the six from the Dickinsons’ famed Zebra Ranch in November 2007 and this, Volume […]

Let it Shine, is a surprising, expressive new duo album from renowned saxophonist, composer and educator Jeff Coffin and celebrated cellist, vocalist, and composer Helen Gillet. Together these two multi-instrumentalists, Coffin and Gillet, perform a total of 13 instruments, with Gillet occasionally augmenting the sonic tapestry with the looping of her cello. Additionally, several tracks on Let it Shine features […]

Back in 2002 when Built to Spill were on hiatus, Doug Martsch decided to invite some local players to his house to jam. The results were captured as the Boise Cover Band who recorded a collection of cover songs in an extremely relaxed setting and titled it Unoriginal Artists. The album was initially only sold […]

Gentleman’s Dub Club is a band that has moved pretty easily between genres in its 14 years together. From reggae to dub to jazz (with some electronic touches), the band has covered some musical ground. Down to Earth is the band’s eighth studio album. With the band being locked down and unable to tour, the […]

Instead of resurrecting his old band Soul Coughing as he had planned to, Mike Doughty teamed up with longtime collaborator Andrew “Scrap” Livingston to form something new, yet in the same spirit of his previous act with influences from his long solo career. Ghost of Vroom’s debut full length has splashes of electronica, hip hop, […]

With his fifteenth solo album, Sting’s Duets is a fluid journey between other collaborators with touches of inspiration from a plethora of genres, all while boasting that finesse and swagger that’s immortalized in his past work. The collection opens up with a strong three-punch of songs with Melody Gardot, Eric Clapton, and Mylène Farmer. The […]

Vibraphonist Behn Gillece is a longtime staple of the Posi-Tone Records group of musicians, and he is, as some may recognize, a vital cog in the Out to Dinner unit we brought you last month. In the tradition of Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Locke, and the contemporary vibraphonists Warren Wolf, Stefon Harris and Joel […]

Rambling has long been a common bond among musicians. Countless songs have been written about the wanderlust musicians have experienced. Melissa Carper is a musician for whom wanderlust is nothing unusual. She has plied her trade in New York, Austin, New Orleans, and Nashville, among other places. She has been part of bands like Sad […]

On Nashville-based Claire Kelly’s latest, Scenic Route, she opens and closes the record with two versions of an endearingly charming song (“Thank You [Intro Song]” and “Outro”) essentially expressing her gratitude to the listener for making it possible for her to make a living as a musician. The sentiment is surprisingly genuine coming from Kelly. […]

Fans of Greg Skaff may know him as one of modern jazz’s premier organ jazz guitarists through his own trios with hard-grooving greats like Mike LeDonne and Pat Bianchi; or as a veteran first-call sideman, from his early years with soul-jazz titan Stanley Turrentine through decades of work with the likes of Ruth Brown, Bobby Watson, Freddie […]

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Mother Hips, their label, Blue Rose Music, began rereleasing ten of the band’s original albums on vinyl (one album per month). The Hips are currently working on a record of new material to be released at the end of the year as well as an undisclosed project to […]

Ah, the lost album again. Guitarist Wayne Krantz laid down Music Room 1985 alone in a garage studio in the summer of 1985, handling all the compositional and instrumental duties himself. Its six tracks predate his first solo album by five years. As for the short length, what these days would likely be marketed as an […]