Album Reviews

Willie Nile is one of the most honest, driven songwriters in rock but remains under the radar for way too many as indicated by the word in the title – “uncovered.” His body of work across four decades, and especially in the most recent decade, lends itself to a diverse array of interpretations as evidenced […]

Jerry Joseph’s The Beautiful Madness could just as easily be titled “The Brilliant Madness.” Yes, this should be a contender for Album of the Year in roots-rock circles. It is stunning. Produced by his friend, and now fellow Portland, OR resident Patterson Hood, who recruited his own Drive-by Truckers to back Joseph. The album is […]

Buzz Osborne and Trevor Dunn have crafted a masterful, intimate acoustic record.

The return of New York Cities hardcore punk legends No Redeeming Social Value finds them continuing their party hard blasts of raw adrenaline on Wasted For Life while also dealing with pain and societal issues. Their first studio full-length in over a decade proves the long-running NYHC crew hasn’t lost a step. The dynamite title […]

It’s rare when the lead-in to an album is a cello solo. That lets you know right away that Sheridan, Wyoming’s The Two Tracks are not your average Americana band. Their unique sound has earned the respect of versatile musician and producer Will Kimbrough who produced their previous effort Postcard Town and returns for Cheers […]

Cuban pianist and composer Kemuel Roig may be better known in Christian and New Age music circles but the pianist has toured with the renowned Arturo Sandoval for eight years. So, although Genesis is his fifth album, it’s his first jazz album as a leader. He’s tapped quite an impressive array of talent that join […]

Don’t even try to tag a label onto the music of the Boston based band, Twisted Pine. The group’s bass player, Chris Sartori gave it a try and the best he could come up with was ‘neo-folk indie soul avant jazz jam grass-icana’  -a phrase he admitted doesn’t easily roll off the tongue. If you […]

Cover albums tend to be a product of a foundering career. At a point when critical appraisal has dried up and popularity is about to follow, musicians can count on releasing a few covers to bide their time and prolong the inevitable. Even in the best-case scenarios, when more successful artists employ an album of […]

Bruce Hornsby has come a long way since the halcyon days of the Range & the Noisemakers. Where once there were catchy hooks and thumping John Molo-fortified beats, there now lay atonal études atop of dissonant soundscapes. While casual fans of the Williamsburg, VA native, yearning for the familiar strains of “The Way It Is” […]

With Long Day in the Milky Way, her eighth album, Kris Delmhorst wants to impart some hopeful messages for all of us immersed in this dreary world brought on by the pandemic. As with her previous album, Shotgun Singer, producer Sam Kassirer ((Laura Cortese, Lake Street Dive, Dustbowl Revival) returns to deliver, by now, his […]

It’s not unusual for a musician to come from a musical family, and Skylar Gregg certainly comes from a musical family. They moved to Nashville (where else?) so her dad (a songwriter) and her mom (a pianist) could pursue their musical paths. Skylar is following her own musical path with the release of two previous […]

Like many, during uncertain and emotional times Emma Swift turns to Bob Dylan songs for inspiration. Rather than sparking new songs in her mind they lead Swift to take a stab at recording her own versions. Blonde on the Tracks are her interpretations of Dylan songs ranging from 1966’s Blonde on Blonde to 2020’s Rough […]

Ex-Sudanese, now Australia-based Gordon Koang’s story is every bit as interesting as his music. Unity is Koang’s eleventh album and first since obtaining residency status in Australia. Koang was born blind and has more to complain about than the sum of a small town of people yet he is a fountain of positivity, always smiling, […]

Two-time GRAMMY® Award-winner Fantastic Negrito is back with his third album, Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? As we’ve heard from the genre-fusing artist, he continues to fuse elements of hip-hop, R&B, funk, soul, and rock ‘n roll into his signature style. Inspired by and reminiscent of the socio-political albums coming from black America in […]

Just two weeks ago we heard Matt Rollings’ amazing keyboard work on Mary Chapin Carpenter’s new release, The Dirt and the Stars. Now the Grammy-winning producer and pianist issues Matt Rollings Mosaic, his first album in 30 years with a mind-blowing list of guests that reads like a lineup for the Americana Music Awards., representative […]

For a lot of people, banjo music invokes a response similar to Homer Simpson when he shouted, “Aaah! Hillbillies!” Granted, a lot of banjo music like bluegrass originated in the hills. But there is far more to bluegrass and banjo music than a bunch of guys in dirty overalls, as Gangstagrass proves.  Gangstagrass is a […]

Alison Mosshart, frontwoman of The Kills and The Dead Weather has a new multimedia project. A photo/art collection titled Car Ma which showcases her fascination with muscle cars, tire tracks and Americana, connected to the spoken word album Sound Wheel which takes snippets of Mosshart’s poetic thoughts from the book and augments them with odd […]

Singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards has such a steep career trajectory that she fell into that unenviable category of artists where producers, industry types and others were telling her how she should sound, and what she should be doing next. It all became too heavy a burden to bear so she dropped out, choosing to run her […]

It’s not that guitarist Bill Frisell doesn’t often play with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston; he’s just never enlisted the two of them for a trio album. Sometimes it takes a while. While pianists Chick Corea and McCoy Tyner and fellow guitarist John Scofield adopted the trio format early in their discography, Duke […]

It’s been three years since Washed Out’s last release Mister Mellow showed fans a slightly different approach to the Chillwave sound. On Mister Mellow, Ernest Greene experimented more with sounds that touched on psychedelia and beats that bordered on hip-hop. With the release of his new album Purple Noon (Sub Pop), Greene brings the sound […]