Album Reviews

The retro-rocking, Boston-based, GA-20 deliver their first-ever live LP on Colemine Records as the group captured this set in front of a vibrant crowd in Loveland, Ohio.

Arguably though Billy Valentine &The Universal Truth may be Valentine’s breakout moment as Bob Thiele, Jr., son of jazz recording (John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington) and label icon Bob Thiele, relaunches his father’s equally iconic label,

The music of Austin-based five piece The Band Of Heathens may lean more towards Americana and Blues-soaked Roots Rock, but their ethos is decidedly more Punk Rock. The band has remained almost without a label for the bulk of their 17 years, opting to go it alone in true DIY fashion and keeping their entire […]

Chicago’s Cash Box Kings continue as one of the strongest blues acts on the scene because they have all the vital ingredients that define Chicago Blues

The ‘buzz’ around rising pianist Isaiah J. Thompson continues to grow. The Power of the Spirit is his second album and first live one

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on Twenty On High, the new album from singer-songwriter Drayton Farley, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

Last year, four of the world’s top blues guitarists gathered at Louisiana’s famed Dockside Studios to lay down tracks for this collaborative effort between Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia – affectionately dubbed Blood Brothers. While those two wrote the songs and sourced members from each’s band for this new sextet, guitarists, and co-producers Joe Bonamassa […]

On August 11, 1965, an African American man in Watts was pulled over and as was is so often the case, the officers involved in the stop used brute force and even a pregnant woman was kicked. This was the spark that ignited the Watts Rebellion that resulted in six days of civil unrest calling […]

King Khan’s The Nature of Things balance free jazz with an engaging groove

Radical Romantics is a Fever Ray album in that its fixations swarm around Karin Dreijer, all their proclivities, and all their vulnerabilities. It’s also the closest Fever Ray has ever sounded like The Knife

In a move certainly unrelated but similar in concept to Terri Lyne Carrington recognizing female composers in her Grammy-winning New Standards Vol. 1, pianist/composer Eric Reed takes a somewhat parallel path in acknowledging Black and Brown composers whose works should stand as standards. His title certainly evokes Eliington’s “Black, Brown, and Beige Suite.” Up until […]

On their fourth LP, A Colossal Waste Of Light, Portland, Oregon’s Eyelids drift in and out of decades for musical influence. You can hear echoes of everyone from 1970s Big Star to early ‘80s bands as diverse as REM and Echo And The Bunnymen, all gelled together with a modern touch. It seems appropriate then […]

There’s enough joy in New Brunswick-based singer/songwriter Matt Andersen’s aptly named The Big Bottle of Joy to fill multiple parade routes or churches.

Moving On Skiffle reflects Van Morrison as inspired as we’ve ever heard him, certainly since his two albums in 2018 with the late Joey DeFrancesco (You’re Driving me Crazy and The Prophet Speaks).

On their third effort, Rides On, The Nude Party producing themselves for the first time manage to create their most consistent album yet. The vibes may be a little chiller, the songs a little mellower, but little else has changed. The band’s Rollings Stones and Velvet Underground influences can still be heard throughout Rides On, […]

Colemine/Karma Chief Records are re-releasing Kendra Morris’ 2016 EP Babble and adding three new tracks to mark the occasion. The record’s mix of soul, hip hop, and jazz all support Morris’s strong voice as Babble does more than just ambulate along

Drayton Farley is a relative newcomer at least when it comes to recording albums. The Alabama songwriter has released a couple full-length albums and some singles. He definitely draws some comparisons to another Alabama songwriter: Jason Isbell. The comparison is not only found in the vocal tone but also in the way that Farley crafts […]

1959 saw the release of Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus), a foreign film that reimagined the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in the setting of Rio De Janeiro during Carnival. The film would go on to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It would also inspire the […]

Corridors represent a new chapter for drummer/composer Kendrick Scott who returns for his third Blue Note release

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on Should’ve Learned By Now, the new album from Memphis alt-country rockers Lucero, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):