When The North Mississippi Allstars' Luther Dickinson began working with The Black Crowes, his partners, brother Cody and bassist Chris Chew, formed Hill Country Revue, whose music is a composite of the raw early sound of The Allstars and the riff-heavy style of Lynyrd Skynyrd,
There's no getting away from it but MSTRKRFT do ever so slightly resemble those French behemoths of dance, Daft Punk and Justice. And not just when it comes an aping of the rock-meets-dance sound but also in the fact that we're dealing with yet another duo.
Bowling Green, Kentucky has never been a hot spot of start-up rock bands, but Cage The Elephant, led by brothers Matt and Brad Shultz have garnered a worthwhile buzz as garage rockers, making them Kentucky’s second most popular rockers behind My Morning Jacket.
The newest release from Richard Swift is The Atlantic Ocean; delivering strings, odd poppy stabs of synthesizer and varying whacky lyrics. The constantly plunking western saloon style piano is omnipresent to a point that teeters on annoyance.
Chris and Rich Robinson revitalized the Black Crowes in 2008 by en-listing two new members who then participated in the recording of inspired original material on the band’s first studio set in seven years Warpaint. The extensive touring that followed, from which this double live CD is taken, finds the quintet even further invigorated…and invigorating to hear.
Thanks to the good guys at Wespac, they have given the Valley two days of much needed roots music. The past six years of the festival have attracted The Black Crowes, Ratdog, Bruce Hornsby, Solomon Burke, Gov’t Mule and Los Lobos to the mainstage. Let us hope they keep attracting this kind of low-key talent to safeguard the McDowell Mountain Music Festival as one of the better kept secrets on the festival scene.
Following the iTunes exclusive Live from Las Vegas – Exclusively at The Palms; Celebración De La Ciudad Natal is the second live EP My Morning Jacket's released just this year. Recorded in Louisville, Kentucky, at their hometown record emporium Ear X-tacy and Waterfront Park (the dual reference to the meaning of the title), this approximately forty-seven minute release is available only at indie record stores, whose customers no doubt form the source of the band’s greatest loyalty.
Sunrise in the Land of Milk & Honey, Cracker’s tenth studio album, is a great David Lowery record, but a bit confusing as a Cracker album.
A magnificent songwriter and bonafide cultural icon, Bob Dylan has never been a truly skilled recording artist in the sense of using the studio as a versatile tool in enlarging the scope of his music. On the contrary, his best recordings are those in which savvy musicians capture their chemistry by instinct, inspired by the great material they’ve been given to play. That’s not what happens on this new album.
Regretfully I must attribute my inability to connect during the Mates of State show to my own personal shortcomings. It could not have been the atmosphere: love, no doubt, was in the air. One expects nothing less from the husband and wife duo who played a double show at the Independent in San Francisco on April 20th and 21st, sharing headlining duties with Jacksonville rockers Black Kids.
