Album Reviews

In the newest installment of Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle reviews The Wind, the new album from Kentucky roots rockers Eric Bolander, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

[rating=7.00] American Dream is the third album by California folk band Rainbow Girls, but it is the first with the band’s new scaled-back lineup. Now a trio consisting of Erin Chapin, Caitlin Gowdey, and Vanessa May, Rainbow Girls delivers an album of ten socially conscious indie folk songs. Stripped down to a point of being […]

[rating=8.00] The first question some of you may have as I know I did – what is Rule 62? It takes its name from Alcoholics Anonymous excerpt that can be summed up quickly as “Don’t Take Yourself Too Damn Seriously.” It’s this principle that guides her work. Whitney Rose journeyed to Nashville, collaborated with her […]

[rating=10.00] You can’t improve a great record by remastering it, but the folks at Dolby claim they’ve gotten close. R.E.M.’s 1992 masterpiece, Automatic for the People, is the first album ever remixed with the technology, best known for its powerful surround-sound in movie theaters. Available only on the four-disc deluxe anniversary package, the Dolby mix […]

[rating=8.00] It would be great to say that after 25 years of relative obscurity, Pistoleros are ready to break into the big time. After all, they have the wherewithal to substantiate any ability to do so, not to mention a legacy that ought to make them more than also-rans in the Americana pantheon. It’s notable […]

[rating=9.00] The late Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown would probably be proud of Samantha Fish’s approach. The oft cantankerous Brown would frequently snub basic blues; embracing his brand of “American music” which included country, Cajun, jazz, and blues. Still only in her late twenties, Fish could easily have built a career as a guitar shredding blues woman. […]

In the newest installment of Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle reviews All American Made, the new album from country songstress Margo Price, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

[rating=9.00] Jim Byrnes soaked in the blues in St. Louis as an adolescent but has lived in Vancouver ever since he returned as a Vietnam vet. With thirteen years or so of a partnership with master guitarist and producer Steve Dawson, Long Hot Summer Days is their seventh album together. While Byrnes may be a […]

[rating=8.00] Terry Ohms started as a side project for Vulture Whale, the Birmingham, AL-based indie group who fused southern rock, punk, and general rowdiness. Under the Ohms moniker, the band’s frontman Wes McDonald has released several projects, this, the A Lot More Than Enough’, the latest of which features plenty of hooks and psychedelic excursions. […]

[rating=9.00] The overtly religious phase of Bob Dylan’s career may in fact be its most misunderstood phase and that’s saying something given the controversy this man’s stirred up over the years. Yet the period chronicled on Trouble No More – The Bootleg Series Vol. 13/1979-1981 contains some of the Nobel Laureate’s finest recordings and most […]