Album Reviews

Los Coast has already developed a reputation as one of Austin’s best rousing, live bands and now deliver their long-awaited debut, Samsara, on the prestigious New West label. Their sound is an intoxicating mix of a whole slew of genres, (too many to include in the headline) that includes R&B, blues, indie rock, new wave, […]

Few EPs made an impact like the collaboration of Calexico and Iron & Wine’s In the Reins from 2005. Although it took all this time for their respective schedules to align, they are now delivering their first full-length album, Years to Burn. The collective names are a bit of a mouthful but it’s essentially a […]

Every self-respecting music lover with any history inevitably encounters artists with credible bodies of work nonetheless confounded by the lack of recognition. Take Robin Lane, for instance: the woman had some cachet when she moved from California to Boston–after all, she sang on Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s seminal 1969 album Everybody Knows This Is […]

This is the twelfth album from Gerry Gibbs, the multi-instrumental leader of his trio Thrasher People. Unlike anything he has ever produced before, this epic, 19-part suite pays tribute to many cultures throughout the world, thus the title Our People.  It sounds like a full orchestra when in fact it is the work of five […]

Erotic Reruns, the fifth album by Brooklyn trio Yeasayer, is the band’s most accessible album to date. For better or worse, it has less experimentation than previous efforts, leading to fewer standout moments but also none of the missteps that have popped up from time to time. It is a collection of hook-laden indie pop […]

[rating=7.00] March 28th, 2018, the world of music suffered an unfathomable loss when Caleb Scofield, bassist of the band Cave In, died in a car accident at the age of 39. Caleb’s song-writing, bass-tone and skilled chops defined Cave In’s unique musical sound, and later in their career (and in their live show), Caleb’s thunderous […]

After fifty years of making music, James Taylor has become one of the best-selling artists of all time. In 1970 he had his breakthrough with the song “Fire and Rain”, which he then followed up with his version of the Carole King song “You’ve Got a Friend”. The latter took him to No. 1 on […]

A slightly more tuneful counterpart to Time Fades Away, Neil Young’s Tuscaloosa sounds markedly slightly less startling than that record, especially with hindsight on the infamous ‘Ditch Trilogy” of the Seventies that also included Tonight’s The Night and On The Beach. But this previously-unreleased, near an hour-long collection of eleven relatively short tracks, also fill […]

One gets the impression that a musician in need of a song or two could give Gary Nicholson a call and have a response the very next day, maybe even within hours. That’s likely happened more than once too. Nicholson’s name appears on 600-some recorded songs across country, rock, and blues from Willie Nelson, to […]

This collaboration between two giants could likely only happen live in a special setting to produce the drama and improvisation contained in The Brown Beatnik Tomes – Live at BRIC. Bassist Ron Carter (who just turned 82) not only played in Miles Davis’ vaunted Quintet but holds the Guinness-certified most-recorded jazz bassist in history with […]

The heated pop and slap of congas that opens the title track of Santana’s Africa Speaks conjure memories of the vintage likes of 1970’s atmospheric Abraxas, a favorable impression that solidifies over the course of the sixty-plus minutes that follows. It’s a far cry from the commercial likes of 1999’s Supernatural with its mainstream hit […]

Duff McKagan, fresh off of an extremely successful reunion tour with Guns n’ Roses, is now celebrating a new venture. The Seattle-born, multi-instrumentalist and now solo artist has just kicked off his first tour in support of Tenderness, his stripped-down, soulful and well-crafted first solo album. With the help from Shooter Jennings and his band, […]

I’m The Smile is Charlie Roth’s eighth album, which just goes to prove that great talent can reside under the radar for many of us until that artist is put in the right situation. This right situation for the native Minnesotan on I’m the Smile is collaborating with some of the best musicians in Texas […]

Grammy winning saxophonist and educator David Sanchez has a new album of originals, inspired by the melodies and rhythms coming from, as the title Carib implies, the Caribbean region, notably Puerto Rico and Haiti. Sanchez, of Puerto Rican descent, is deeply moved by the cultural and music in the Pan African countries, especially these two […]

It’s no secret that when Rickie Lee Jones, one of the great songwriters of her generation, comes up against walls in her own writing, she turns to the great, luminous tunesmiths before her for inspiration. Jones, an artist of innate honesty and vitality, is too in sync with her muse to force the issue – […]

Veteran LA-based singer-songwriter Eleni Mandell’s 11th studio album, Wake Up Again, finds her juggling the roles of musician, mother, teacher and student. While Mandell will admit to the difficulty of multi-tasking, she was able to focus this effort on what she experienced from teaching and giving assignments to women inmates at prisons in the Los […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on It Is What It Is, the new album from ska punks Madaline, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

Occasionally this writer will return to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers classics: 1964’s Free for All or 1961’s A Night in Tunisia, marvel at the joy and passion of the playing while thinking that we don’t often hear those kinds of fiery performances much anymore. Along comes Ralph Peterson’s Messenger Legacy with this double-CD […]

The Traveler, the ninth studio album from the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, picks up where 2017’s Lay It On Down left off. Guitar prodigy Shepherd again focuses on tightly crafted blues-rock songs, forgoing excessive six-string histrionics in favor of a subtler approach that favors composition over licks and solos. The ten-track album features eight originals […]

Sam Cohen is a musician who dabbles in multiple sonic worlds, producing records and playing with the likes of everyone from Bob Weir to Cee-Lo Green. Cohen’s newest release, The Future Is Still Ringing In My Ears is a grand testament to his skills as well as a conscious evolution as he pairs with Danger […]