DOWN HOME MUSICThe Stories and Photographs of Chris StrachwitzBy Joel Selvin with Chris Strachwitz It’s 1959 in Houston and the summer is beyond hot. Around Dowling Street the blues feels like it’s everywhere. But the king of Dowling, even then, was playing on the corner sidewalk sitting in a kitchen chair, with a big can […]
Bentley’s Bandstand: October 2023By Bill Bentley The Americans, Strays. It takes a lot of belief to name a band The Americans. And that’s exactly what Patrick Ferris, Zac Sokolow, Jake Faulkner and Tim Carr prove without doubt on STRAYS, their latest collection of songs. The band has been together since 2010, releasing a handful of […]
Continue Reading
Bentley’s Bandstand: September 2023 By Bill Bentley Gregg Hill, Bayou St. John. There is sometimes a singer-songwriter who has eluded the spotlight. They write and sing moving songs of beauty and depth, but don’t get recognized as much as they should. Gregg Hill’s new album BAYOU ST. JOHN should be a collection of songs that […]
Continue Reading
Bentley’s Bandstand: August 2023 Jake Andrews, Train Back Home. There are times in a musician’s life when all the circles come together and they can take off on what really does sound like a magic carpet ride. Guitarist Jake Andrews, who started performing while he was still in grade school and sat in with Albert […]
Continue Reading
Bentley’s Bandstand: July 2023 By Bill Bentley Paul Carrack & The SWR Big Band, Don’t Wait Too Long. There have been years when swinging singer and keyboard monster Paul Carrack had the go-to knack to be where the hits happened. After his early years in British band Ace, followed by tenures at the microphone with […]
Continue Reading
FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2023 (SO FAR) By Bill Bentley Jim Brunberg, You. Deserve. More. & Other Sequels. If this is a sequel to anything, let it be the two lost treasures of Jake & the Family Jewels in the 1970s. Dreaming is believing and hearing is all. Shoes tied tight. John Cale, Mercy. When it […]
Continue Reading
Bentley’s Bandstand: June 2023 Jim Brunberg, You. Deserve. More. & Other Sequels. Once every few decades an American singer-songwriter emerges from the sidelines to stake a place right up front in the music madness. Very often they are so unique there is no way to describe them, let alone pigeonhole them. In the early 1970s […]
Continue Reading
Bentley’s Bandstand: May 2023 By Bill Bentley Clarence “Bluesman” Davis, Shake It for Me. In so many ways it feels like the blues, that music which started in a world of hurt and moved through changes that helped turn the world around, is shrinking. Yes, there are plenty of players that still take on that […]
Continue Reading
Bentley’s Bandstand: April 2023 By Bill Bentley Walter Bishop Jr., Bish at the Bank: Live in Baltimore. Pianist Walter Bishop Jr. was one of the all-time finest pianists in jazz, even though he doesn’t have as well-known a reputation as many other players. That might be because Bishop often pursued teaching positions in colleges, or […]
Continue Reading
BENTLEY’S BANDSTAND: MARCH 2023 By Bill Bentley Barbara Blue, From the Shoals. By this time, it’s common knowledge that the recording scene in Muscle Shoals, Alabama is sacred ground for soul music. Going back to the early 1960s when soulster Arthur Alexander started pumping out hits from the Shoals, the small town has been a […]
Continue Reading