Album Reviews

After six long years, Mike Gordon has finally added another notch to his solo discography belt. Flying Games (out 5/12) represents the sixth solo studio effort from the longtime Phish bassist and follows up his critically-acclaimed 2017 release OGOGO. Picking up where OGOGO left off, and with the same Grammy-winning engineer/producer Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, The […]

By now, everyone is familiar with the stunning photos of California’s most recent Superbloom. It’s a spectacular occurrence that takes place after the heavy rainfall of Spring washes away the memories of the more dreary seasons, and a particularly wet winter allowed for 2023’s Superbloom to be one for the history books. Ironically, the cities […]

In keeping with his mastery of that rare instrument that is the slide trumpet, Steven Bernstein has nurtured an unconventional but nonetheless impressive reputation for himself over the years. Collaborations include his membership in Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble band as well as studio and stage appearances on Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey’s Race Riot Suite.  Coexisting with […]

The overriding question after listening to folk-blues artist and musicologist Michael Jerome Browne’s Getting’ Together is just where did he find some of these songs? Surely the likes of Mississippi John Hurt and Booker White are no-brainers but honestly, who has ever heard of Black Boy Shine, Rube Lacy, Bayless Rose, or Big Charlie Butler? […]

The journey that soul man Bobby Harden had to take to arrive at his latest release is nothing short of a well-tuned movie script. Harden grew up in the humble town of Youngstown, Ohio, and followed his love of performance and soul music right to New York City where he began coming into his own […]

Friends turned bandmates turned married couple The Rough & Tumble carry on their vagabond folk/Americana tradition with Only This Far, their latest full length. The constantly-on-the-road duo continue to put beautiful melodies and everything-but-the-kitchen sink instrumentation into their songs. The list of instruments on this one far outnumbers the musicians, with the accordion, ukulele, banjo, […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on Drive It Like It’s Stolen, the new album from Dave Hause, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

Due to an unfortunate car accident involving members of the band, the Morning 40 Federation’s lone Jazzfest show was delayed. Thankfully a fully healthy group eventually played The Rabbit Hole in the Lower Garden District as the large crowd was treated to upbeat, brassy, party rock from the legendary New Orleans outfit on May 5th, […]

Renowned singer-songwriter and activist Bruce Cockburn indicated a decade ago in his memoirs, Rumours of Glory, that he felt creatively spent but that disposition has certainly changed. Sure, his prolific rate has slowed with just three albums since, and this latest, O Sun O Moon, the 35th album for the 77-year-old Cockburn, is his first […]

The Paris-based collaborative The Salt Collective is probably best classified as a “revolving door supergroup.” Founded by French guitarist and songwriter Stéphane Schück, the core group also includes Benoit Lautridou on drums and Fred Quentin on bass, with various musicians coming in and out of the studio to stand in front of the mic. One […]

The living legend bassist Henry “The Skipper” Franklin is best known for his releases on the Black Jazz label. The label Real Gone enjoyed some success reissuing 1972’s The Skipper and 1974’s The Skipper Comes Home and is now doing the same for more obscure Tribal Dance, released in 1977 on the little-known Catalyst label. […]

Saxophonist and composer Joe Lovano and his trio mates, stalwart pianist Marilyn Crispell and fellow Cleveland native Carmen Castaldo on drums, sally forth for the third time under the Trio Tapestry banner for Our Daily Bread. Lovato seems to be comfortable and well ensconced by now in the ECM family, not only through these brilliant recordings but through last […]

The Bohannons return with their fifth album, Night Construction, a mix of different southern rock sounds as the group deals with reentering back into the world after Covid, in their own way.   Led by Marty and Matt Bohannon, the quartet (drummer Mike Gault and bassist Justin Colburn) kicks off the record with the instant high […]

Durand Jones has been a long-standing figure in the modern soul scene for a decade now. His passionate vocals echo with heritage and forethought alike as his elastic falsettos stretch across arrangements that play on 60’s soul tropes as much as they reimagine the genre. Jones has been fronting his band, The Indications, for three […]

The producer/artist collaboration between Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Rodney Crowell on The Chicago Sessions isn’t exactly a marriage made in heaven, but it is a logical meeting of the minds. As a member of Uncle Tupelo, the former helped configure what came to be known as alt-country in the late Eighties into the Nineties, while the latter, in a […]

Five years in the making, Ruthless – the debut LP from Wisconsin’s Waldemar – is a beautifully atmospheric album of Indie Rock with elements of folk and Americana mixed throughout.    The vision of singer-songwriter Gabe Larson, Waldemar takes its name from his grandfather. The band is filled out by Larson’s brother, Nick, drummer Colin Carey, […]

Consider that on the last three Jeff Coffin releases as a leader (when not touring with Dave Matthews Band), we’ve heard him in duets with cellist Helen Gillet on 2021’s Let It Shine, in a large ensemble packed with guests and Coffin on a wide array of instruments in his 2022 Grammy nominated Between Dreaming […]

Three years after the release of their eponymous debut, the all-female supergroup Artemis returns with most of the lineup intact save two substitutions.  While Melissa Aldana and Anat Cohen have departed, presumably, to concentrate on their own roles as bandleaders, the fiercely aggressive tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover, and the lyrically inclined multi-reedist Alexa Tarantino have […]

You Must Change Your Life, the latest LP from David Wax Museum, could have very easily been the band’s swan song, with David Wax – one half of the duo – being rushed to the hospital for a heart condition in late 2022, signing a waiver as he’s being wheeled away and not sure if […]

In what appears to be somewhat of a recurring theme of late, be it a dissolved marriage or seeking a new sense of purpose, the revered singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell checks all those boxes. She’s put the first two of those behind her in the expansive, mostly joyous rebirth of spirit in her ninth studio album, […]