Album Reviews

Rob Laufer, L.A.-based sideman, producer and songwriter-for-hire, as well as being the musical director of the renowned Wild Honey Orchestra is stepping forth with his first album, The Floating World, in nine years. Laufer could just as easily point to his busy schedule but also claims the hiatus is also due to a mental block of […]

“I never had a hangover I liked,” Jason Hawk Harris sings on “Cussing at the Light,” the second song on his superb full-length solo debut, the aptly titled Love & The Dark via Bloodshot. It’s a somewhat understated statement, but one that reflects his ability to take what he’s given and then rally and rise above […]

The book on sacred steel legend Robert Randolph has always been that his music is more on the secular side of the aisle than the religious, but on Brighter Days, there’s plenty of incredible music—gospel, rock, and otherwise—that’ll pretty much keep everybody happy, and bowing their heads in gratitude. Sacred steel refers to the electric […]

The Grateful Dead’s embrace of serendipity often extended beyond the improvisation journeys they embarked upon while inhabiting the concert stage. Witness the conception and execution of the “Wall of Sound,” the pinnacle of the band’s pursuit of optimum audio in a live setting, or their initiation of an independent record label, by which they could […]

Having just seen the exciting jazz-funk-dance collective Mwenso & The Shakes open this year’s Newport Jazz Festival, it’s fair to say that a recording will only do partial justice to a band that puts on a thrilling and visual show too. Fortunately, their debut, Emergence (The Process of Coming into Being), captures a live performance […]

When you think about bands that have been around for multiple decades, The Hickoids is probably not the first band that comes to mind. However, this is a band that has paid its dues and made the rounds dating back to the mid-80s. On their new album All the World’s a Dressing Room: Live in […]

There’s that scene in Batman Begins, where Liam Neeson tells Bruce Wayne, “If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely.” “Which is?”, Wayne queries. “Legend, Mr. Wayne.” It’s a thought impossible to repress when thinking […]

Love the Moment with Oscar Hernández and Alma Libre is an ensemble recording by the bandleader of the three-time GRAMMY® Winning Spanish Harlem Orchestra.  One of the true giants of Latin jazz, the composer and pianist joins with Justo Almario on saxophone/flute, Oskar Cartaya on bass, Jimmy Branly on drums, Christian Moraga on percussion, and special guests Gilbert Castellanos on trumpet and Dayren Santamaria on violin on ten Hernández […]

This writer has two impressions of rising saxophonist Ben Flocks. The visual impression is a barefoot, casually clad Flocks bouncing around the stage with his playful bandmates in Sammy Miller & the Congregation at the recent Newport Jazz Festival. The second is the music from this gorgeous concept album, Mask of the Muse. In fact, […]

Over the past few years, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors have gradually assumed the role of populist troubadours, a fan-friendly ensemble that cultivates good vibes and a catalog of unimposing tunes well suited for their accompaniment. With their decidedly agreeable new album Dragons they further that stance, offering a set of songs that mostly plough […]

Fresh off his first win for the 2019 BMA for Best Acoustic Album (with Joe Louis Walker and Giles Robson), after multiple nominations, keyboardist master Bruce Katz goes alone on the acoustic piano for a full-length, purely instrumental album for the first time. Katz, of course, has a storied pedigree as a bandleader, sideman, and […]

Bobby Rush is more than a living legend. He is a living miracle. At 85 years old he not only continues to tour but still has the dancing moves that would make Mick Jagger, his junior by ten years or more, envious. Bobby’s statement to this writer is one of the best musician quotes heard, […]

One of many appealing aspects of Idaho-based Eilen Jewell’s music across her previous seven albums has been the great guitar work of Jerry Miller.  This, her eighth album, and first in four years, Gypsy, is perhaps the most guitar-centric of any of them because for the first time Jewel plugged in too. It also marks […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on An Obelisk, the new album from New Jersey punk rockers Titus Andronicus, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

It’s hard for any band to make itself noticeable. The chore is that much more difficult for a band from Nashville, where musicians are a dime a dozen. On their new album Loaded and Rollin’, Flying Buffaloes gives you 10 songs that will make you take notice. This album is billed as “classic rock meets […]

On the opening banger “Denver Haircut”, Craig Finn sings over ringing guitars “It doesn’t have to be pure, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just sorta has to be worth it”; Thrashing Thru the Passion is. It has been five years since The Hold Steady’s last release, the forgettable Teeth Dreams, and now the […]

The genre-hopping Taylor McFerrin keeps good company and is a quick study. Love’s Last Chance, his second full-length and first since his 2014 debut Early Riser, is the first with his own voice on it as his previous was peppered with guest vocalists. Not only does he do all the vocals, excepting Anna Wise accompanying […]

Cancel the Sun is the third and most aggressively sounding recording from a band led by co-leaders with rich pedigrees. Kami Thompson is the daughter of folk-rock royalists Richard and Linda Thompson and sister of Teddy. James Walbourne has had stints with Son Volt, The Pogues and The Pretenders. So, it can’t exactly be called […]

Rarities and novelties abound among the one-hundred forty-eight tracks that comprise The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings, but at the heart of this latest Bob Dylan archive-title lie the five complete concerts comprising ten of the fourteen compact discs. Chronicled on film by Martin Scorsese with Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story, these […]

When most people think of vintage Chicago blues record labels, Chess, Delmark, Kent, Veejay and others pop to the top of the list. For those folks, collectors, and intent followers of Chicago’s black music scene, this 4-CD set from Cadillac Baby’s Bea & Baby Records, that reveals Chicago’s “underground” music in a sense is both […]