The triple-LP Europe ’72 is a highlight in the Dead’s extensive live catalog, and 40 years later Rhino is presenting a companion set of unreleased material for those who just can’t get enough. (For the truly obsessed, however, the label also just issued a massive, 73-CD set of the entire European tour.) Included here are [...]
Revelation Road comes from an artist who knows exactly what she wants and how to get it, and can come up with an end product that displays brilliantly the worth of the work put into it. This may be a country record ostensibly, but Alabama native Lynne, who has a musical and spiritual kinship with [...]
Martino has been recording for almost 50 years, originally as sideman to such funk-jazz greats as saxophonist Willis “Gator” Jackson and organists Brother Jack McDuff, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Don Patterson, and Trudy Pitts. When he began leading his own sessions, first with 1967’s El Hombre, he delved into Middle Eastern modes, unorthodox time signatures, and [...]
As music evolves and grows, it sometimes hits roadblocks. That has been a problem in the past with the blues. Eli Cook’s latest album takes a stab at helping the music evolve. It’s not an earth-shattering turn by any means. Any fan of the blues will recognize the patterns and the structures of the songs. [...]
This double-disc contains some of the most challenging guitar music recorded in the past year. While the four featured guitarists – Alex Machacek, Wayne Krantz, Jimmy Herring, and John McLaughlin – all shine, it’s Krantz who really steals the show. It opens with two cuts from Machacek, an Austrian fusion player who shows a penchant [...]
The Cash Box Kings are part of the multi-ethnic, crossgenerational, Chicago-based community of musicians that includes the Killborn Alley Blues Band, guitarist Billy Flynn, producer/multi instrumentalist Gerry Hundt, and other like-minded souls. Like the others, the Kings put as much fire into country blues like the title track as they put back porch soul into [...]
The teenagers who began the Bearfoot Bluegrass Band in 2006 have matured into young adults. As they’ve matured, so has their music. Even their name has changed slightly; it’s been shortened to Bearfoot. The name change coincides with a change in personnel. Two of the original band members, mandolinist Jason Norris and singer/fiddler Angela Oudean, [...]
Antiseen celebrates 30 years of raw, southern punk-and-roll with their latest CD. It’s an impressive milestone for any band, much less a rag-tag group of fringe-dwellers. Is that part of the reason New Blood sounds as vital and throttling as anything the band’s done. The scruffy underdog factor? Maybe. But there’s no denying the strength [...]
The doom-rock scene is experiencing a resurgence, and there’s plenty of good ol’ Sabbath-begot heaviness around to jack up your big ’70s-styled headphones down in the basement. This Richmond, Virgina, five-piece does it especially well. Windhand just gets it more right, as it were, than what’s been unleashed lately. The requisite doom elements are here; [...]
Florida native Easton Corbin earned justified acclaim for his 2009 debut album Roll With It, revealing his twangy traditional voice and obvious debts to George Jones, Merle Haggard, and the late Keith Whitley. Carson Chamberlain’s spare, economical production accentuated those assets. All Over the Road retains the sound, with Brent Mason and James Mitchell handling [...]
