By Bill Bentley Alabama Slim, The Parlor. The true blues from the back alley is coming to an end. While this isn’t a judgment, it’s going to feel pretty empty when it’s gone. Alabama Slim is one of the last of the breed, born in 1939 in Vance, Alabama. He lived a life that really isn’t there anymore, working […]
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Leeann Atherton, Fallen Angel. A somewhat hidden treasure in Austin, Leeann Atherton can walk a lot of different avenues, from soul to rock to country to blues, and come out shining bright wherever she is. Her recent album is a stunner, includes some of the best musicians who call anywhere home, and needs to be heard. This is a […]
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Allman Brothers Band, The Final Note. When it’s time to bow down in worship to musical outfits from the 1970s that really set the rock world on fire, it might be good to start with the Allman Brothers Band. Between Duane Allman and Dicky Betts’ mesmerizing guitar gyrations, dynamo double drummers, visionary bass runs and […]
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Matt Berninger, Serpentine Prison. The National has been a major league band for 20 years, even before they were popular, and lead singer Matt Berninger has proven himself over and over to be one of the most moving interpreters alive of modern songs. Yet his first solo album goes to a place not many people […]
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By Bill Bentley Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite, 100 Years of Blues. When Elvin Bishop whips out his Big Dog red Gibson guitar and Charlie Musselwhite begins blowing on his Seydel Mississippi saxophone harmonicas, it is clearly all over but the shouting. This a Southern-bred pair that is not kidding around. Between them, they’ve played […]
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Bentley’s Bandstand: September 2020By Bill Bentley Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Just Coolin’. Leave it to drummer Art Blakey to know how to tear up a bandstand full of hot-blooded players. Blakey was one of the seminal musicians who took over the jazz world in the early 1950s with a sound that could not […]
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Dedicated Men of Zion, Can’t Turn Me Around. When gospel music comes rolling out of the ozone and takes over, it always feels like a bigger presence has arrived to visit. There is a bouncing glory in the music, and a committed zeal in the songs. Like there is a higher calling in the house, […]
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By Bill Bentley Bob Dylan, Rough and Rowdy Ways. “Today tomorrow and yesterday too / the flowers are dying like all things do…” Bob Dylan has done hoodooed the hoodoo man on his heart-splitting new album, which begins with the aforementioned words, and lets it be known he sees the end and doesn’t […]
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By Bill Bentley Marshall Chapman, Songs I Can’t Live Without. When it’s time to throw some black cat bones and light the voodoo candles. this new Marshall Chapman album would be a good listening companion. The woman whose voice often sounds like it’s coming from the other side of the spirit world rounds up some favorite songs […]
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By Bill Bentley Joe Ely, Love in the Midst of Mayhem. Is it possible after 50 years to make the very best album of a long and illustrious career? If you’re Joe Ely it absolutely is. With this new release, recorded in the long shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of Texas’ favorite sons comes […]
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