The Rosetta Stone of Dick Dale’s brand of surf guitar is 1962’s Surfer’s Choice, which, even though it was his first album, was largely a collection of the singles he’d already released on his own Deltone label. Having already reissued that classic on CD, Sundazed now issues the four albums that followed his signing to…

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Even though Waters was undoubtedly the most important blues artist in Chess Records’ stable (indeed, the most influential bluesman of his generation), when you look back on his discography, most of his albums for the label imposed some sort of gimmick. Muddy the acoustic folkie, Muddy surrounded by brass, Muddy in London, Muddy in Woodstock.…

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John Sebastian and David Grisman first ran into each other in the early ’60s, when Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park was the epicenter of the national Folk Boom. They were both recruited by guitarist Stefan Grossman for a recording project to be dubbed The Even Dozen Jug Band – in hindsight, somewhat of a supergroup,…

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Formed in Detroit in 1997, the all-female Gore Gore Girls have undergone personnel changes with each of their CDs, with singer/guitarist Amy Gore the only constant. On this, the group’s fourth release, she is joined by drummer Nicky Styxx, bassist Carol Anne Schumacher, and lead guitarist Marlene “Hammer” Hammerle. The distortion and decibel level suggest…

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Larry Carlton and Robben Ford share a special relationship. Carlton helped the young blues-slinger learn some of his licks and techniques when he got the gig backing Joni Mitchell. As he writes in the liner notes, “He had a unique approach to playing the blues (mixing bebop notes and phrasing). Man, could that kid swing!”…

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The best way to avoid people second-guessing your selections is to issue an artist’s work in its entirety. Not only are there no “glaring omissions,” there are no omissions at all. In the case of Chuck Berry, this is definitely the right call, since, even in cases of tracks that are somewhat substandard, this is…

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When Yoakam put the twang back into country music in the mid ’80s, his mere existence was a tribute to his chief influence, Buck Owens. And in 1988 he brought the then-retired Owens back to live performing – and, with their duet on “Streets Of Bakersfield,” the top of the charts. That Yoakam would record…

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Years ago, in a BBC documentary about his former bandleader, bassist Noel Redding held up all the albums that Jimi Hendrix released during his lifetime (five, not counting Cry Of Love, which he was working on at the time of his death) alongside a huge stack of posthumous releases of varying quality and provenance –…

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The story of the former singer of Texas’ 13th Floor Elevators was well known to rock fans, who’d given him up for lost prior to his miraculous comeback of the past few years. In fact, his already nebulous mental state was going from bad to worse, as illustrated in the documentary “You’re Gonna Miss Me.”…

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John Fogerty is the rare case of a songsmith who can use the same elements and devices repeatedly, even recycling and permutating earlier licks and melodies, without it ever wearing thin. Sure, it’s familiar; that’s why it feels so good. Which is not to say that he has nothing new to say. As he proved…

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