Catch A Fire-Bob Marley & the Wailers

Music Reviews: Bob Marley and the Wailers’ ‘Catch a Fire’ Revisited and a Power Pop Anthology, plus Van Duren and John Vincent III

Music Reviews: Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Catch a Fire Revisited and a Power Pop Anthology, plus Van Duren and John Vincent III An Expanded Edition of Bob Marley & the Wailers’ ‘Catch a Fire’ Bob Marley & the Wailers’ Catch a Fire is aptly named because it helped the reggae giant’s music catch fire […]

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Frank Zappa's -Overnite Sensation

Music Reviews: Frank Zappa’s ‘Over-nite Sensation’ Box Set, the Feelies’ Velvet Underground Tribute, and More New Releases

  A 50th-Anniversary Edition of Frank Zappa’s ‘Over-nite Sensation’ Over-nite Sensation, which first appeared in 1973, ranks among Frank Zappa’s most significant and accessible releases up to that point. The record wasn’t quite what its title suggested, but it did give Zappa his first gold record and one of the biggest chart successes of his […]

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Bob Dylan-Complete Budokan

Music Reviews: Bob Dylan’s ‘The Complete Budokan 1978,’ plus Dori Freeman, Mike Zito & Albert Castiglia, Kristen Grainger & True North, and Peter Rosendal

When it first appeared in 1979, Bob Dylan’s Live at Budokan garnered mixed reviews. It did go gold and receive some praise, particularly in Europe, but many listeners derided its radical rearrangements of classic material as well as its use of backup singers and brassy, big-band instrumentation. Dylan may have been in Japan, but it […]

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Jimi Hendrix -Hollywood Bowl

Music Reviews: Jimi Hendrix at the Hollywood Bowl, plus Little Feat, Jon Dee Graham, the Resonant Rogues, and Danny O’Keefe

Music Reviews: Jimi Hendrix at the Hollywood Bowl, plus Little Feat, Jon Dee Graham, the Resonant Rogues, and Danny O’Keefe Jimi Hendrix released only four albums during his too-brief lifetime, but new LPs, CDs, and box sets have continued to appear in a steady stream in the years after his 1970 death. Today, more than […]

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Cranberries-To the Faithful Departed

Music Reviews: Cranberries, plus Lee Gallagher, the Three O’Clock, Sylvia Tyson, and Emma Wilson

Cranberries, plus Lee Gallagher, the Three O’Clock, Sylvia Tyson, and Emma Wilson   The Cranberries’ third album, To the Faithful Departed, garnered decidedly mixed reviews when it first appeared in 1996. Some critics loved it, but others panned the musical and lyrical changes it introduced, with Rolling Stone, for example, giving it one-and-a-half stars out […]

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Lynyrd Skynyrd-Fyfty

Music Reviews: Lynyrd Skynyrd, plus Leon Rosselson, Half Stack, Robert Finley, and Chest Fever

Music Reviews: Lynyrd Skynyrd, plus Leon Rosselson, Half Stack, Robert Finley, and Chest Fever Lynyrd Skynyrd has never been quite as innovative or important as the jazz-influenced Allman Brothers, its most obvious competitor for the title of King of Southern Rock. That said, the Jacksonville, Florida–based group has played a pivotal role in popularizing the […]

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Bob Dylan - Mixing Up the Medicine

Book and Music Reviews: ‘Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine’ plus the Third Mind, Robert Rex Waller Jr., and Luke LeBlanc

God knows, no shortage exists of books devoted to Bob Dylan and his music. There are album-by-album critiques, songbooks, scholarly works, biographies, a memoir, and other writings from the bard himself. There are also Q&A collections, including yours truly’s Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters. Believe it or not, there’s even a book that describes […]

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