Album Reviews

Solo albums from singer-songwriter and distinctive blues guitarist Rick Holmstrom have stretched out over three decades and three labels often spaced years apart. After at least two solo albums in the 2007-2012 period with M.C. Records, Holmstrom now returns with his first self-released album on his own label, LuEllie Records, See the Light.  The label […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on Open Door Policy, the latest album from The Hold Steady, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

The self-titled, full-length debut from Bones Owens hits hard with his blend of ’60s garage-rock, Hill Country blues, and swampy roots-rock – just call it rock, stomp, and swamp for short. Don’t think country based on the cover photo where he dons a white Stetson, yet Owens has plenty of the outlaw spirit. With production from […]

This writer last checked in with the forty-plus-year music veteran Curtis Salgado with his acoustic 2018 duet album, Rough Cut, with Alan Hager and previously with his full band effort, 2016’s The Beautiful Lowdown, widely hailed as his career-best. Yet, there is a dearth of Salgado content on these pages until now.  Welcome to “the […]

Yes, sometimes things do come full circle. And yes, musical exploration has more than its share of coincidences. This writer picked up the classic Blue Note release, Joe Henderson’s Mode for Joe, recorded in 1966, during the holidays, noting that the drummer was Joe Chambers. That same Joe Chambers, who began his career at Blue […]

Austin Crane, the man behind Valley Maker, brings us When the Day Leaves, his latest work with long time collaborators Amy Goodwin and Trevor Spencer. Where his previous album Rhododendron was written and inspired by the cultural changes surrounding the 2016 Presidential election, When the Day Leaves was more inspired by personal changes around moving […]

This past Black Friday’s Record Store Day saw a limited-edition clear vinyl of the archival recording of legendary folk singer Fred Neil, entitled 38 McDougal which is now available in CD and digital formats. These sessions with just Neil and his longtime accompanist Peter Childs, took place during the same period as Neil’s legendary seminal […]

Multi-instrumentalist Tash Sultana’s sophomore effort Terra Firma bumps along, dripping with layers of early 90’s R&B, indie rock, and dream pop escapism. Playing all sounds while delivering floating vocals, Sultana is a musical force over the fourteen neo-new jack swing and soul/pop offerings.      The record starts on the acid jazz high note of “Musk”, a […]

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians release their new album, Hunter And The Dog Star, this week via Thirty Tigers. In many ways, this is the second album in the group’s new phase of existence, having come together with plenty of reunion fireworks with Rocket in 2018. Though they have never really ceased being a musical entity, there have […]

Songs and albums about love are nothing new in music. Although, with as contentious as our society has become, an album about love may seem like something of a novelty. Reed Turchi’s new solo endeavor I’ve Chosen Love is an album in two parts. The first part is the one that centers on love. The […]

Since 2014’s underwhelming Teeth Dreams, The Hold Steady has released just one record, 2019’s Thrashing Thru The Passion, a strong return to form for the Brooklyn-based sextet. However, during those years lead singer Craig Finn delivered three solo records (as well as a collection of outtakes, a comic book, and more) remaining busy with his […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!, the latest album from eclectic rocker Aaron Lee Tasjan, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):  

Again new label Le Coq Records takes a page out of the fabled Blue Note history, creating an in-the-moment recording session in just one day amongst three of its core musicians, three of the biggest names in jazz. Pianist Bill Cunliffe, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta. If you’ve been following, label founder/producer Piero […]

James Bradshaw, better known as Pony Bradshaw, has managed to carve out a new niche genre of “North Georgia Southern Gothic” on Calico Jim, his latest LP. Across 10 haunting tracks, Bradshaw creates a deeply affecting cast of characters that reside in the same place he now calls home: North Georgia, in the foothills of […]

Seeing the term thrash-jazz had this writer scrambling for reference points.  As Jimi Hendrix taught us, creating one’s own genre can lead to much success. What’s especially revealing about Cameron Graves’ Seven is that he stands apart from the heavy electric fray surrounding him, choosing to play the acoustic piano rather than synths or Rhodes. […]

In the tradition of female trailblazers such as Katie Webster and Marcia Ball, 17-year-old 2020 Boston Music Award Winner, pianist and vocalist Veronica Lewis comes across as anything but precocious on her debut, You Ain’t Unlucky. Lewis absorbed all those sounds not only from her female idols but it’s clear she owes to Otis Spann, […]

Back in 2019, slowthai performed his Mercury Prize performance while holding the severed head of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a move that worked to invigorate his supporters and further surround the young rapper in controversy. A stunt like that perfectly sums up the tone of slowthai’s debut, Nothing Great About Britain – confrontational, dynamic, […]

The Barlow is a band that describes its sound as “Colorado Country.” It is a healthy blend of outlaw country, Americana, and a fair amount of rock. In their time as a band, one band The Barlow has supported is Austin honky tonkers Mike and The Moonpies among other acts. That particular pairing had quite […]

This is the second release from the jazz ensemble Out to Dinner with just two of the five members returning from the debut. While that effort focused more on the music of Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter, Play On (Posi-Tone Records) directly honors the vintage Blue Note era of the late ‘50s and ‘60s and […]

Jillette Johnson is an artist who started writing music at age eight. By the time she was a teenager, she played three-hour sets of original music at a restaurant near her home in New York. To say that music has been a labor of love for her is an understatement. Like all of us, Johnson […]