Album Reviews

Pianist Holly Bowling’s third studio album, Seeking All That’s Still Unsung, completes a circle—sort of. Her similarly-titled sophomore effort, Better Left Unsung, was wholly comprised of Grateful Dead material and it followed a debut, Distillation of A Dream, devoted exclusively to songs of Phish. But 2019’s brilliant Live at the Old Church stands as the […]

If not for the global pandemic, The Wild Feathers likely would have never put out Medium Rarities – a mix of covers, demos, B-sides and a handful of new songs. The band was set to embark on a major tour with Blackberry Smoke last spring, when COVID put the world into lockdown. Newly free from […]

Bentonia-styled blues was first laid down by artists such as Skip James, Henry Stuckey, and Jack Owens in the 1930s and kept alive principally by Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and a few others that frequent Holmes’ Blue Front Café, which Holmes’ family opened in 1948. And now, Holmes is the elder, mentoring the next generation. In fact, […]

Two-time Blues Music Award nominee Dave Keller is an acclaimed triple-threat: an outstanding singer, an intense guitarist and a talented songwriter. Fueled by his love of deep Southern soul-blues and gospel, his performances ring out with passion, integrity, and uncompromising soul, even more, striking given that Keller is a life-long New Englander.  On You Get […]

Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar are one of the premier soul bands in Canada. Lead vocalist Martin has been nominated for thirteen Maple Blues Awards to date, and that’s before unveiling this project, The Reckless One, Martin’s sixth album, either under her own name, Samantha Martin and The Haggard, or with this 11-piece blues/soul band, […]

Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers were more than just a nameless backing band. Sure, the individual members might not have been household names, but the essence of the band, keyboardist Benmont Tench; bassist Ron Blair, who left the band in 1982, returning in 2003 after Howie Epstein died; and, of course, guitarist Mike Campbell; was known to […]

Twenty-five years ago Goodie Mob released the hip hop classic Soul Food introducing the dirty south to a world wide audience, now they return with the powerful Survival Kit devised to help weather the storm of 2020 and beyond. The Organized Noize produced effort proves Big Gipp, Khujo, Cee-Lo, and T-Mo are older, wiser and […]

With time on his hands, like so many musicians, who cannot tour during this pandemic, Dave Alvin reached into his archives for a slew of tracks that for whatever reason, were never released. Rather unbelievably, this is Alvin’s first album of solo material in 11 years. Now we can enjoy this feast of terrific recordings […]

The Tibbs is a soul band from The Netherlands that first came on the scene in 2012 and built a solid following after the release of the debut album Takin’ Over in 2016. The singles “Next Time” and “The Story Goes” were featured on radio stations in North America and Europe. Another Shot Fired is […]

The sixth album from Larkin Poe deviates from the band’s signature southern rock sound for a lighter take on the Georgia band’s rootsy music. Kindred Spirits is a cover album with eleven tracks of soft, slow acoustic music that allows sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell to put their unique spin on well-known songs. Kindred Spirits […]

For their fifth studio album Lifetime of Comedy, Portland, Oregon folk-rock outfit The Parson Red Heads were faced with the kind of hurtles that many bands have experienced in this year from hell. The album recording was delayed due to the pandemic, which was preceded by the departure of founding guitarist Sam Fowles, who left […]

Duke Robillard’s idea for his latest, Blues Bash, is intentionally a salve for these pandemic-ridden times – “My concept for this album was to make a straight vintage style blues album with no frills or attempt at having catchy hook laden songs. Just straight, vintage danceable blues with plenty of bright sounding Fender guitar a […]

It’s not often when the co-leader of a quintet may have the least recognized name in the unit, but maybe it’s just because most of us, like this writer, are just more familiar with the American musicians. This one from the vaults, unearthed by Dot Time Records is special as it would be difficult to […]

Over the course of the storied rock band AC/DC’s 45 plus year discography, there are two things you can expect with each album: no ballads and a song with the word “rock” in the title. Sure the AC/DC formula is scripted and predictable, but at this point in the game do fans want anything different? […]

Chattanooga’s Strung Like A Horse may have been one of the most popular Americana bands out there to never release a record. That is until now. The wildly popular live act, having shared stages with everyone from Old Crow Medicine Show and Shooter Jennings to Charlie Daniels and Travis Tritt, have finally released their debut, […]

Papa Rosko, like many musicians, has settled in Nashville. However, when he was growing up, he lived in places like Turkey, the Philippines, Mexico, and Canada. At each stop, he absorbed the music that surrounded him. He fell in love with Caribbean music when he lived in Canada and had a friend from Trinidad. On […]

With the bulk of the material written for mid-tempo performances at their speediest, Jules Shears’ Slower lives up to its title. The wordplay however, is lively enough to contrast the generally contemplative tone of the ten tunes and there’s just enough that’s (comparatively) upbeat to render the LP stirring. Certainly the highly-pedigreed rhythm section give […]

One of many highlights from the 2019 Newport Jazz Festival was the opening morning performance from the vocal jazz quartet, The Royal Bopsters, which also featured Sheila Jordan who now at age 91, with the passing of Annie Ross this July, has become the reigning Queen Matriarch of Vocal Bop and takes a turn here […]

At the risk of sounding Pollyanna-ish about the global pandemic that has decimated so much of 2020, there are a handful of “look on the bright side” affects of the worldwide shut down: school violence has obviously been way down, with no schools to go to; the environment is improving, thanks to the world population […]

Trio Grande is the debut that unites three of the most inventive, exciting, and accomplished musicians working at the interface of New York’s contemporary musical culture.  British-born saxophonist Will Vinson, Israeli guitarist Gilad Hekselman and Mexico City native, longtime Queens resident Antonio Sánchez, first came together at the city’s legendary club residencies at the Cornelia Street Café, and the chemistry […]