Album Reviews

Canadian singer-songwriter Lucette bears her soul on her sophomore release, Deluxe Hotel Room, produced by Sturgill Simpson. Checking in at a mere 29 minutes, this music is so searing and impactful, the short dose is plenty; it makes its mark. Simpson’s name obviously conjures country,  but Lucette’s sound is more about fusing R&B, pop and […]

Jimmie Vaughan honed his clean, note-driven guitar style with the Fabulous Thunderbirds in the ‘80s and together with his brother Stevie Ray, Robert Cray, and very few others brought a resurgence of blues to FM radio. Of course, Jimmie didn’t stay with that band long. He left to explore his own approach to the blues, […]

Guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima leads a band of heralded Brazilian musicians on Delicado, a set honoring the traditions of Rio de Janeiro as the center of Brazilian jazz. Fellow guitarist, Larry Del Casale, who often plays with Barbosa-Lima in a duo, joins as well as the Grammy-nominated rhythm section of Duduka Da Fonseca (percussion) and Nilson […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on Kick, the new album from punk rock and roller Dave Hause, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

We hailed Joanne Shaw Taylor (JST) as “several cuts above the rest” of the blues-rock artists on her previous album, Wild, with Joe Bonamassa’s band. Now the British born and raised, currently Detroit resident, steps up her game again with Reckless Heart. Surely, the blistering guitar attack remains every bit intact, and there are a […]

Great Divides is the fifth album for the Seattle-based alt-country rockers Massy Ferguson (MF), who, for lack of a better reference point, are the Pacific Northwest’s version of the Drive-by Truckers, (DBTs) at least in terms of their aggressive, no-holds-barred guitar-driven attack. You would expect a heavy, dense sound. After all, they take their name […]

These past couple weeks, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival web stories were all about big name headliner acts. Of course, The Rolling Stones were due to play there this year until Mick Jagger had his unexpected surgery. Today’s recap included Bonnie Raitt, The Indigo Girls, Santana and Van Morrison. Yet, aside from the […]

Overnight sensation Lizzo brought her big vocals and even more daring outfit to St Paul’s Palace Theatre on 5/5/19. Photos by Billy Brigg.s

The Memphis-born, Chicago blues legend Johnny Shines is captured here at a live show at Washington  University’s Graham Hall in St. Louis In 1973. The recording, now titled The Blues Came Falling Down was overseen by Leroy Jodie Pierson, founder of the legendary label Nighthawk Records, but was never issued until now. The liners and […]

Don’t let the name fool you. The Seattle-based Barrett Martin Group (BMG)is not a law firm or a real estate office. Of course, it’s not, but the staid nature of the name, unfortunately, conjures up those boring references when the music is anything but. It’s demonstrative, thrilling, exotic, and eminently accessible. Barrett Martin is a […]

Adrianne Lenker’s family escaped a cult when she was just 4 years old; with the release of Big Thief’s third album, U.F.O.F., Lenker has solidified her place at the helm of a cult of her own. Adrianne Lenker makes believers out of everyone. A brilliant songwriter and cubist-style lyricist, deconstructing an experience from multiple angles, […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on I Need A New War, the new album from The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

Mention The Last Poets to most people and the likely responses are “You mean that group from the ‘70s?” or “Yeah, they were part of that whole spoken word thing back then with Gil Scott-Heron.” Both responses are reasonable, but many don’t realize that The Last Poets released their first album in more than twenty […]

Southern Avenue returns with their highly anticipated second album, having become a popular act at festivals worldwide since their self-tilted 2017 Stax release, which was honored with a Blues Music Award for “Best Emerging Artist Album.” On Keep On the young quartet brings a refreshing approach to soul/blues/R&B for these contemporary times. They’ve got diverse […]

On Kevin Morby’s most recent, and by far his most ambitious release, he deals with religion (all be it a very limited Protestant Christianity view) in his own self-described ‘not religious in the slightest’ way. Oh My God is a double album which examines that phrase multiple times in multiple fashions, over and over again. […]

The robust vocalist Billy Brandt sings about his adopted city, Seattle, on City Noir, his third CD. Using the film noir genre as a backdrop, he fashions an album of jazz, blues, and soul as he sings of love, loss, and possibility. Brandt is a smoother version of Tom Waits, but perhaps with similar sensibilities. […]

With Out of My Head, Hamish Anderson carefully mixes in elements of folk and pop with the blues-rock roots at the heart of a style that garnered him an opening slot on tour with the like-minded Austin eclectic Gary Clark Jr. Produced, mixed and engineered by Grammy-winner Jim Scott, this second album of the young […]

You’re probably tiring of the “resurgence of jazz,” “jazz now in the hands of creative, young talents,” and phrases that try to capture the excitement of what jazz is right now. Surely, though, the beat must go on. You may have already seen vibraphonist  Joel Ross’s name adorning such projects as the widely acclaimed Makaya […]

The Philadelphia Heritage Art Ensemble (PHAE) was co-founded by current contributor trumpeter Fred Adams who composed four the seven tunes here. The others are from influential Philadelphia jazz artists Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley. The PHAE  on Crossing the Bridge 2 is a seven-eight piece collective where  Fred Adams is joined by the late Kool […]

On their new album Undress, the Felice Brothers waste no time pursuing the implications of the album’s title. But, to hear Ian Felice almost immediately call out both Democrats and Republicans and America at large on the very first track is provocative to say the least. Still, as the electric piano ripples and horns waft […]