Album Reviews

Fifteen years ago, Alice In Chains did the unthinkable: they released an album with a new lead singer, William DuVall, stepping into the immense shadow of Layne Staley. Black Gives Way to Blue, released in 2009, was a pivotal moment not only for the band but for their fans, who were grappling with the loss […]

Sensational. Hair-raising. Breathtaking. Brilliant.  Since bursting onto the scene in 2017, countless writers, bloggers, critics, etc. – yours truly included – have exhausted nearly every superlative available to try to describe the monumental impact Billy Strings had on live music. And for good reason. After all, Strings’ meteoric rise through the musical ranks is, quite simply, unprecedented […]

There is an off-the-cuff nature to several of Walter Smith III’s album titles – “casual,” “return to casual,” and now this latest one – “Three of us are from Houston, and Reuben is not.”  Yet, Smith and his bandmates mostly play with an enthusiasm that belies any such notion. On this outing, beyond paying homage to his hometown, he convenes […]

An object of great affection since its release over a half-century ago, the Beatles’ Abbey Road (released 9/26/69) has only grown in prominence since it was issued. In the fifty-five-year interim, this final studio recording of the iconic group has arguably supplanted 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as the quartet’s landmark effort, equaled and (perhaps only) surpassed […]

“Gentle,” a stunningly beautiful song, begins Naima Bock’s latest album, Below a Massive Dark Land. “Gentle” opens on a plucking note, throbbing beneath Bock’s evocative, sing-song vocals. As the song takes shape, it drifts on bagpipe-like textures leading into reeds and brass surfaces.  “He came into my life when / I was young / He […]

Breakup albums are so common among singer-songwriter types that it’s fair to call them a genre staple. While several jazz vocal albums may be in that same category, it is rare to find an instrumental jazz album wholly devoted to separation and loss. Yet, saxophonist Wayne Escoffery released Alone a few weeks ago, and now […]

JD McPherson returns with his first collection of original songs in six years on Nite Owls. The ten tracks strip down his sound a touch but keep the retro rocking vibe alive by interestingly rounding up new genre influences that McPherson incorporates.  Gone are the boogie-woogie piano rolls and brass blasts, but in their place […]

It seems like hyperbole to suggest that the trio of electric guitarist Bill Frisell, pipe organist Kit Downes, and drummer Andrew Cyrille have opened up a whole new sonic vista, but Breaking the Shell is truly unique. Rarely has any album been more meditative, and rarely, if ever, has this configuration of instruments been on record.  It takes a daring […]

It’s been 15 years since Superdrag – the stellar Knoxville alt-rock band that only had one single but a slew of brilliant albums – last put out a proper studio LP, but their frontman has continued to release the occasional solo record with a sound more or less reminiscent of his former band. His latest […]

When Bettye LaVette proclaimed Randall Bramblett “the best writer I have heard in thirty years” on the fully Bramblett-penned, Grammy-nominated LaVette!, she likely turned more than a few heads and had the uninformed rushing to their favorite streaming platform to find out just who Randall Bramblett was and is. While he is a certifiable Southern […]