Album Reviews

Ricky Byrd, who has played guitar with everyone from Joan Jett and Roger Daltrey to Paul McCartney and Ian Hunter, has been sober for more than 30 years now, but on his latest LP (titled appropriately enough Sobering Times), he’s clearly still spreading the message of recovery to anyone who will listen.  The record, a […]

The audio and video content of Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets Live at the Roundhouse mirrors its packaging and vice-versa. A die-cut slipcase and the alternately glossy and flat finish of its subdued color scheme on 2CDS, a DVD and a thirty-page booklet presents much the same range of nuance as this quintet’s performance of […]

Yes, you read the headline correctly. Between these two sessions, there are four CDs, two each. Danish alto saxophonist Benjamin Koppel shows the full breadth of his talents across composed jazz, improvised jazz, as well as classic soul and R&B, while attracting superb players to spur him on. The unit for The Art of the […]

Vermont musician Dustin Glass follows up his debut 2018 album Canvas with an impressive collection of original instrumental compositions on ‘The Space Between’. Recorded in Glass’s home studio, The Space Between features a rawness to the sound that seems to work well for this collection of tunes. Glass handled all the guitar, bass, keyboard duties, […]

For the past 15 years, Austin outfit The Band Of Heathens have embraced a satisfying ethos of “trends be damned, do what feels right.” And they’ve managed to do it mostly on their own, self-releasing their own records and playing a decidedly unique brand of Americana that draws from Blues, Folk, Country and Classic Rock. […]

Grammy-winning bassist, composer, and all-round jazz impresario Christian McBride has already released one stunning album this year with his major opus paying tribute to Civil Rights leaders on The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons, reviewed on these pages. Now McBride brings us another poignant effort, featuring his Grammy-winning big band ((CMBB’s third release) […]

In the past month, much has been abuzz about Charlie Parker’s centennial birthday. Arguably one of Bird’s foremost disciples in carrying on the bebop tradition has been alto saxophonist and composer Charles McPherson, now an octogenarian. Yet, as the headline indicates this is a vastly different kind of project for McPherson who records his groundbreaking […]

Yves Jarvis, the moniker for Canadian musician Jean-Sébastien Audet has already been attached to two stellar albums going into 2020. Now, Jarvis is set to release his third album under that name, Sundry Rock Song Stock. Unlike last year’s, The Same But By Different Means and 2017’s Good Will Come to You Jarvis’ new album […]

War & Treaty’s Buddy Miller-produced 2018 Healing Tide was a stunning, one of the most compelling albums of that year, prompting this writer to comparisons of such classic acts as Ike & Tina Turner and Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell. Yet War & Treaty didn’t emanate from one of the so-called soul centric cities but […]

Last year, Ralph Peterson and the Messenger Legacy released their recording Legacy: Alive Volume 6 at the Side Door, reviewed on these pages. With Bill Pierce, Brian Lynch, Bobby Watson, Geoffrey Keezer, Essiet, and Peterson at the drums. Legacy went on to receive worldwide acclaim and was regarded as one of the top releases of the year and one […]

British rockers IDLES return with a ferocious collection of politically charged mayhem, twelve tracks that tap into the energy, frustration, and anger of the tumultuous year that is 2020. Ultra Mono is the band’s third studio album, and it is very much in step with the previous two releases. Characterized by propulsive rhythms, shouted protest […]

Bette Smith grew up in the rough and tumble neighborhood of Brooklyn’s Bedford–Stuyvesant. Her humble beginnings were mitigated somewhat by her father, a church choir director who once had to protect his kids by running out of the house waving a two-by-four. He taught Bette to sing. He also taught her that a career in […]

An all-female surf band isn’t exactly a common thing, so when you find one, it’s noteworthy. The Neptunas is even more noteworthy simply because of the way the band was formed. In 1994, bassist Pamita Neptuna mailed out flyers for an all-girl surf band. The flyers read, “You don’t have to know how to play […]

From Mike McClure’s first strains in his compelling opener, “I Am Not Broken,” this writer had to check the CD jacket to ensure it was not Steve Earle singing, which isn’t a bad thing. After all, McClure’s native Oklahoma borders Earle’s birthplace of Texas so some of that “red dirt” twang may be common to […]

Portland, Oregon has been dominating news headlines these days for reasons that many cities would like to avoid. Despite the doom and gloom of a pandemic, wild fires and constant protests, the city is, believe it or not, a pretty vibrant place. If you want proof, just look at the music scene, which is burning […]

Almost exactly one year ago we brought you the second album from Bright Dog Red (BDR), a collective from Albany, NY that fuses free improvisation, electronica, jazz, hip hop, psychedelia, noise, and whatever else strikes their fancy. Now the collective has grown from five to seven and they are offering their most ambitious project yet, Somethin’ Comes […]

In 2017 Multi-Grammy Award winner Diana Krall issued two albums, her own brilliant Turn Up the Quiet and her collaboration with Tony Bennett, Love Is Here to Stay. It would appear that the pandemic being what it is, she does not want to stay away from the radar for too long and returns with This […]

Rising UK blues singer-songwriter Malaya Blue caught the attention of Grammy-winning writer Dennis Walker in the past couple of years. You remember Walker from his collaborations with Robert Cray, where Walker won Grammys for Strong Persuader and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Walker also won one for his work on B.B. King’s Blues Summit […]

With a band as prolific as Thee Oh Sees, every new release can seem cumbersome. Since 2003, the band has released nearly 25 albums and gone through several different name changes: OCS, The Oh Sees, Thee Oh Sees, and now Osees. In all that time, the one constant behind the group has been John Dwyer, […]

Steeped in everything from 70s classic rock, satirical lyricists like Harry Nilsson, and current dark indie rock poster boys like Nick Cave, The Demon Rind’s third effort, Something Nice I Want To Tell You, is anything but easily classifiable. The Seattle band takes the album title from a line in their falsetto-fronted song “Lonely This […]