Thirty-five years ago this month, The Waterboys released the extraordinary album This is the Sea. It was the band’s third album – the make or break point for all the great ones, right – and boy did they make it. This is the Sea culminated Mike Scott’s “Big Music” period, a unique style featuring widely […]
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On August 21, The Waterboys will release Good Luck, Seeker, their fourteenth album (sixteenth if you count Mike Scott’s solo branded records from the 90s). When it comes to The Waterboys, I’m a relative newbie. My band played “Fisherman’s Blues,” of course. But until about a year ago, I didn’t know the ethic of the band […]
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Kinshasa, the fight, hear the lion will roar But the greatest has faded, can’t dance anymore The monster, Foreman, has fists filled with lead first round, maybe 2, he’ll hand Ali his head Look away, I can’t watch, he can’t get off the ropes But you know now, all about that dope Look quick, do […]
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Fans of female singer-songwriters are going to love discovering Charlottesville-based Nan Macmillan’s first release August and the in Between. She explains that the record marks the passage of time between August 2017 and August 2019. It was a transformative period for her. Leaving Charlottesville, moving to Spain, and then returning to Virginia “to set down roots and figure out who […]
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I’ve never been “into” Fiona Apple. For me, the 90s were a musical black hole. I first came to know her at the Ohana Festival a couple of years ago. She played some of what she was working on for Fetch the Bolt Cutters, and a bunch of covers. There was a moment, I remember […]
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Soul Numbers is a gem of a record that most of us probably missed when it came out last spring. It’s the third EP from Seneko, the closest thing – living anyway – to a cross between Lenard Cohen and Lou Reed that you’re likely to find. Classic soul blends with touches of alt country […]
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From the opening organ pad and piano figure, you just know that Super Tiny Disappearing Oceans is out to break your heart. And it does. But somehow, through the struggles that would should make it impossible, hope calls from just over the rise. It “covers a lot of emotionally heavy stuff like mental health, addiction, […]
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Wooden Leg’s recent release Turn Back the World is a live recording from Boston, MA, featuring Jimmy Ryan’s mandolin and vocals backed by a crackerjack band consisting of Mickey Bones (drums), Brian Dunton (Fender bass), Joe Kessler (fiddle & some harmony), and Duke Levine (electric guitar). This release constitutes a comeback of sorts following up […]
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On December 6, the Brooks Dixon Band released Pocket Full of Dreams, the band’s — and its leader’s — first full-length album recorded by engineers Ian Guthrie and Brad Phillips at Studio 101. Brooks previously released some solo EPs. This album just sounds old, and I mean that in a good way. The production is […]
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On October 4, Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley released World Full of Blues, the duo’s third full-length album, on Compass Records. Grammy winner Brent Maher produced the guys this time at his Nashville studio, The Blueroom, adding B3 and some horns to the duo’s resonator/flattop, upright bass and drums configuration. Taj Mahal and Vince Gill […]
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