Album Reviews

Destroyer, the vehicle for singer/songwriter Dan Bejar, has never been short of ambitious experimentation. The artist’s thirst for breaking the mold has led to some memorable moments throughout his thirty-year career, his most recent being his daring indie rock exploration, 2022’s LABYRINTHITIS. Three years doesn’t seem that long, but the sand in the hourglass of […]

Janiva Magness is not only among the top blues vocalists but also an uncompromising song archeologist. She digs deeper than most song interpreters, realizing that she has to see herself in the story if she’s going to sing it. Across her sixteen preceding albums, she has written material too, but mostly, she is the blues […]

The Small Kingdoms is, by all appearances, one person: Darren Guyaz. However, listening to the debut album of Who I Am, which labels itself “chamber pop,” one could be forgiven for thinking there were many more people behind the sound. Ripe with lush harmonies, strings, and a myriad of instruments, the album soars over a […]

Brooklyn-based four piece The Tumblers are certainly not hiding their folk-pop influences on their debut, Tangerine. There are plenty of songs here that seem to take a cue from bands like The Lumineers, The Head And The Heart, and Noah Kahan. But there are also rowdier moments on the record that show the band clearly […]

For more than a decade, Justin Osborne has been fronting Susto, putting out a solid mix of Indie Rock and Americana across five records. The Susto Stringband is a fantastic experiment and evolution of his work, reworking seven songs from his cannon as bluegrass numbers, while adding in two new songs to the mix. The […]

When you’re an established institution like Alison Krauss & Union Station, you can take 14 years off and pick up again as if you never left. Heck, The Rolling Stones had an 18-year hiatus. Of course, Krauss kept herself busy touring with Robert Plant, and the members of Union Station are a team of band […]

Nuthin’ Fancy represents Lynyrd Skynyrd’s third recognition in a row to its musical roots. The (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd) debut of 1973 contains a homage to the late Duane Allman in the form of ‘”Free Bird,” while a year later, Second Helping included a tribute to J..J. Cale by way of a cover of “Call Me The Breeze” (significantly positioned as […]

Is, the tenth album by Louisville’s My Morning Jacket, continues the band’s pattern of inspired yet accessible rock music. The five-piece band has been unchanged since 2005’s Z, anchored by founding singer/guitarist Jim James and bassist Tom Blankenship, along with longtime guitarist Carl Broemel, drummer Patrick Hallahan, and keyboardist Bo Koste. Though every other My […]

Kinky Friedman was never a prolific songwriter (running for governor of Texas and writing detective novels does take up a chunk of time). Still, his late-career musical renaissance has been impressive over the last ten years. Starting with the mostly cover song effort The Loneliest Man I Ever Met (2015), continuing with new originals for […]

Folk music is certainly at the core of Charlie Treat’s superb new album, Dawn Is Breaking, but it’s also so much more. Along with Americana, there are moments of jazz, indie pop, and rock influences weaved throughout, as well as the telltale echoes of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash – specifically in the lyrics. Treat’s […]

In Austin, Texas, the name David Ramirez is fairly ubiquitous on the local public radio station, KUTX. Ramirez has played countless shows in the “Live Music Capitol” over the past two decades and was even named “Songwriter of the Year” in 2020 by The Austin Chronicle. David Ramirez has long been an artist unafraid to […]

Lonnie Holley is nothing short of a modern-day renaissance man. In an era where everyone can be a multi-hyphenate, thanks to the looming, fast-paced advancements of technology, Holley seamlessly transitions between his mediums with the spirit of a world that has passed while carefully examining the future. Holley unapologetically approaches his craft with a curious […]

Kindred spirits pianist and composer Vijay Iyer and the iconic creative trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith have forged a telepathic and deeply spiritual connection through their three-plus decades of intermittent collaborations. Defiant Life is their second duo recording for ECM, following 2016’s A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke. Iyer states – “This recording session was conditioned […]

By the early 1970s, Joe Pass had already built a strong reputation as a jazz guitarist, but his career was nearly derailed by a long struggle with heroin addiction. After completing rehab at Synanon, he found a second wind, and Virtuoso was the perfect vehicle for his resurgence. Joe Pass’ “Virtuoso” is a landmark jazz […]

When Russ Lawton (drums), Ray Paczkowski (keys), and Scott Metzger (guitar)—collectively known as LaMP—piled into Ben Collette’s Tank Recording Studio in Burlington, VT, last summer, it was obvious they were going in with a genuine groupthink mindset.  “If there is a theme to this record, it might be the three of us”, Paczkowski states in the liner notes to the […]

Celia Cruz’s Tremendo caché is a brilliant showcase of the remarkable partnership between the legendary “Queen of Salsa” and visionary producer Johnny Pacheco. Their collaboration represents a pinnacle moment in salsa music, illustrating a dynamic partnership rooted in mutual respect and undeniable chemistry. Originally released in 1975, the album beautifully captures the synergy of Cruz’s […]

For Coheed and Cambria’s eleventh album, the prog-rock veterans return to the Amory Wars saga while adding a new introspective flavor. All but one of the band’s albums are concept albums set during the fictional Amory Wars. This epic sci-fi storyline branches out into a series of novels and comic books by frontman Claudio Sanchez […]

To mark the centennial of the birth of the “Queen of Salsa”, Celia Cruz, Craft Latino is celebrating by reissuing some her best-loved and most influential albums throughout 2025. The celebration kicks off with a reissue of Cruz’s North American solo debut Son con guaguancó. By the time Son con guaguancó was released in 1966, […]

Since the late 1990s, Jason Boland and his longtime band The Stragglers have blended elements of classic country, bluegrass, and Southern rock, never straying too far from the formula that allowed them to steadily build up a strong fanbase. They’ve also managed to ignore the various fads that have dominated popular country music radio. While […]

Bone Bells is the third collaboration between pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and electric guitarist Mary Halvorson, two kindred spirits who continue to evolve their collective sound. Courvoisier has now begun writing the duet pieces specifically with Halvorson in mind.  As in their previous works, this is clearly a split effort as the pianist composed four pieces […]