Split Enz CD Packshot

Music Reviews: Split Enz’s ‘ENZyclopedia,’ plus ‘Instrumental Hits of the Rock ’n’ Roll Era’ and Newly Restored Frank Sinatra Concerts

Neil Finn’s Crowded House wasn’t the first New Zealand band to make a mark beyond the southern hemisphere. That distinction goes to the experimental art-rock group Split Enz, which Neil’s older brother, Tim, and fellow songwriter Phil Judd formed in 1972. The group, which experienced numerous personnel and stylistic changes over the years, broke up […]

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Jimi Hendrix Bold as Love Box Contents

Music Reviews: Jimi Hendrix’s ‘The Axis: Bold as Love Sessions,’ plus Bobby Charles, Dr. John, and Nina Simone

Music Reviews: Jimi Hendrix’s ‘The Axis: Bold as Love Sessions,’ plus Bobby Charles, Dr. John, and Nina Simone “Well, I got this guitar, and I learned how to make it talk,” sings Bruce Springsteen in his iconic “Thunder Road.” No knock on Bruce, who plays his instrument masterfully, but if that line applies to anyone, […]

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Rich-R-Tone

Music Reviews: ‘The Rich-R-Tone Folk Star Story,’ plus Willie Nelson, Jeb Loy Nichols, and Jonathan Richman

The Rich-R-Tone Folk Star Story, plus Willie Nelson, Jeb Loy Nichols, and Jonathan Richman Germany’s Bear Family Records deserves plaudits for compiling and releasing exhaustive box sets from some of the best-known figures in early country and rock music. But the reissue label warrants at least as much praise for unearthing and taking a chance […]

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Nebraska 82

Music & Film Reviews: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska ’82,’ plus Diane Hubka, the Kasambwe Brothers, and Terry Klein

Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska ’82,’ plus Diane Hubka, the Kasambwe Brothers, and Terry Klein Hot on the heels of Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, the movie about the making of 1982’s Nebraska, comes a greatly expanded edition of that LP. Called Nebraska ’82, this release includes four CDs and a Blu-ray disc. Much of it constitutes […]

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Best of Françoise Hardy

Music Reviews: Françoise Hardy Reissues, plus Bill Scorzari, Rosy Nolan, and Jamie Granger

Think of French chanteuse Françoise Hardy as her country’s answer to England’s Marianne Faithfull. Like Faithfull, Hardy, who died last year, possessed an alluring, angelic voice and had a penchant for moody pop/rock songs. She also had a visual presence and sense of style that turned heads. Mick Jagger, Faithfull’s boyfriend in the late 1960s, […]

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Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

Movie and Music Reviews: ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,’ plus Pavlov’s Dog and the Dream Syndicate

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, plus Pavlov’s Dog and the Dream Syndicate Like the recent A Complete Unknown, which limns only the first chapter of Bob Dylan’s career, a new film about Bruce Springsteen doesn’t try to tell its subject’s entire life story. Instead, it zeroes in on one pivotal period, which it uses to […]

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Power to the People Cover

Music & Book Reviews: John Lennon’s ‘Power to the People’ Box Set, plus Cindy Walker, Maia Sharp, the Cowsills, NRBQ, and Graham Parker

  A large and lavish box set devoted to one of John Lennon’s least favorably reviewed periods might seem ill-advised, and in some ways it is. But Lennon lovers will find interesting material in the new Power to the People, and even casual fans will discover some pleasures here. The collection, which Sean Ono Lennon […]

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Dylan's Circle

Music Reviews: ‘Jac Holzman Presents Dylan’s Circle’ and Frank Zappa’s Expanded ‘One Size Fits All,’ plus Dallas Burrow, Rags Rosenberg, and the Far West

Jac Holzman Presents Dylan’s Circle features folk, rock, and blues performances compiled by Elektra Records founder Holzman and Ted Olson, who previously produced such notable albums as Tell It to Me: Revisiting the Johnson City Sessions and On Top of Old Smoky: New Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music. As Olson writes in the booklet that accompanies […]

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Philadelphia Hits Collection Vol. 1

Music Reviews: ‘The Philadelphia Labels Hits Collection 1957–62,’ and James McMurtry’s ‘The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy’

By the mid to late 1960s, England and California had become the world’s most-talked-about musical hotbeds. However, earlier in that decade and in the latter part of the 1950s, Philadelphia was a much bigger disseminator of rock and pop. Besides being home to Dick Clark’s influential American Bandstand TV show, the city housed a handful […]

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Doc Pomus—You Can't Hip a Square

Music Reviews: Doc Pomus Demos, plus Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks, the Third Mind, and the Brothers Comatose

Music Reviews: Doc Pomus Demos, plus Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks, the Third Mind, and the Brothers Comatose Back in the so-called Brill Building era, before acts like Bob Dylan and the Beatles rewrote the rules and started penning their own material, a large percentage of the hits on Billboard’s charts were composed not by […]

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