Album Reviews

[rating=7.00] Caroline Rose boasts a quirky kind of persona. Where once she would have been branded as New Wave, now her sound fits firmly in the echelons of modern pop. Her new album Loner suggests she’s not as withdrawn as the title suggests; expressive, outgoing and obviously engaging, she casts a bold persona that’s flush […]

  [rating=8.00] By their seventh album, most bands are winding down into a comfort zone that will largely appeal to the core base of fans they developed earlier on in their career. Screaming Females buck this trend with their latest LP, All At Once, by deftly forging their most striking identity yet. All At Once […]

[rating=7.00] Its cover photo of the band radiating all the easygoing informality of a family get-together, Three From The Road is replete with the kind of easygoing exchanges of ideas that can abound at such events. And the expressive yet disciplined improvisation of John Mayall and his bandmates takes a variety of forms throughout the […]

[rating=8.00] This is a rather pleasant surprise, never having heard of Patrick Coman. Yet, when the producer credits denoted guitarist Peter Parcek and drummer Marco Giovino, Coman’s Tree of Life certainly seemed worthy of a listen. It’s an eclectic mix of roots and blues material that did not disappoint. Parcek also plays lead guitar and […]

[rating=9.00] Janiva Magness has tried many different styles across what is now her 14th album Love Is An Army. Acoustic blues, powerhouse blues, and Americana have all been staples for her. Her 2016 effort, “Love Wins Again” garnered a Grammy nomination. With no less than 26 Blues Music Award nominations and seven wins including Entertainer […]

[rating=7.00] Like photos of Soulive on their website, Cinematics, Vol. 1 is a long way from the close-cropped haircuts with suits and ties of the trio’s early days. And other changes wrought over that passage of time are equally evident with the release of this title the debut of the band’s own imprint: it’s available […]

[rating=7.00] Creating something exquisite can require so many factors to serendipitously fall into place and fit just right. Right location, right time, right inspiration, right atmosphere. That was the case when three musicians came together to begin working on songs at a house outside Austin, TX after meeting on tour. Jonathan Meiburg, lead singer of […]

It’s fitting the main color scheme of Dave’s Pick’s Volume 25 is a bright deep orange. Binghamton, NY 11/6/77 is yet another cull from the treasure trove from whence came Cornell May 1977, a remarkably true-to-life recording by Betty Cantor-Jackson that finds the band on the proverbial fire during a show spreading throughout the three […]

[rating=9.00] When Marlon Williams’ excellent and critically acclaimed self-titled album was released two years ago the narrative around it was predictably uniform, is a Kiwi the greatest hope for Americana country and folk music? The New Zealander’s sound was easy to fall in love with as he evoked the great 50s and 60s voices of […]

[rating=9.00] Eddie and the Cruisers is an ill-fated, 1983 movie about a New Jersey, rock’n’roll band that falls apart in the second act: inexplicably, the plot pivots from something legible to a Scooby Doo-style mystery that leads Tom Berringer on a car chase through a castle made of scrap metal in the middle of an […]