You can immediately tell what light-year a Joe Satriani album is traveling in by the way the first song definitively captures you with your first listen. The vibrations of his initial entrance are defining points of both his live shows and studio records which electrify listeners time and time again.
When the title track of the new Michael Franti & Spearhead album The Sound Of Sunshine takes off, you might catch yourself thinking that our favorite soldier of peace has gotten a little formulaic. The chukka-chukka-strummed acoustic guitar and walloping backbeat combined with a gotcha-singing-along-the-first-time-through chorus can’t help but remind you of “Say Hey (I Love You)” off 2008's All Rebel Rockers.
Jenny Lewis writes incredibly good pop songs that are fairly upbeat, intellectual and catchy. Her voice is an instrument with which to be reckoned, and every time I’ve seen her perform in the past has been a delightful and exciting experience. Unfortunately, this show seemed unrehearsed, emotionless and disingenuous. I would have rather stayed home and listen to the record and reminiscing on the great times I’ve seen her play with Jonathan Rice and they didn’t make the audience feel used and part of a big joke.
Railroad Earth made its first stop in Wilkes-Barre, PA with Donna the Buffalo, and loaded up with new songs to test upon the crowd. Being a ‘musical guinea pig’ is great – having new material tested on the crowd is always interesting and, when it’s good, it’s great.
Neil Young has just about done everything in his 50 career: country, new-wave, CSNY, Crazy Horse, Pearl Jam, rockabilly, proto-grunge, acoustic folk, rock operas, films, and the list goes on. But it took until 2010 for Young to do something entirely different – record an album without any backing musicians.
Laura Cortese is a singer/songwriter who plays a mean fiddle and has put together an all female string quartet to record her Acoustic Project EP. The group of players consists of Natalie Hass on cello, Brittany Haas contributing the 5-string fiddle parts while Hanneke Cassel strums and plucks the 4-string fiddle. The style of tunes presented by the ladies ranges all over the folk world. There are acoustic pop such as “Perfect Tuesdays”, old rural traditional numbers like “Greasy Coat” and a Celtic flair that emerges on “Women Of The Ages”.
Fresh off a summer tour with his band Galactic, Stanton Moore kicked off a new run with The Stanton Moore Trio. The first stop was Boston for a gig at the newly renovated and expanded Paradise Club. The current Trio lineup was to include Will Bernard on guitar and Robert Walter on the Hammond B-3, with Stanton behind his Gretsch kit, but on the Boston show at least, the B-3 was handled by Wil Blades.
The title of Peter Case’s new album sounds more like a command the more you listen to it. A raucous rock and roll affair (in a mini-lp package right down to CD sleeve) Wig! is decidedly different than the generally low-key, folk-styled recordings Case has done over the last few years, but it’s no less credible.
It’s a challenge to get through this album sitting down and I imagine that is just what Behrens and Turner envisioned. Just like Rajon Rondo ran circles around NBA defenses last year, so too will his namesake of an album run through your head and leave you in wonder and awe.
Once again music lovers and beer enthusiasts alike found their way to Telluride Town Park for the 17th Annual Telluride Blues and Brews Festival. Not just any mountain town can pull off three days of blues, great beer with not a drop of snow, sleet or rain in sight. Telluride couldn’t have dreamed of better weather for this year’s festival. Maybe it was mother nature’s way of saying thanks for making this year’s event the greenest of them all. Over 26 metric tons of carbon waste was offset this year through use of solar cells, recycling efforts and transportation coordination.
