Bentley's Bandstand Archives • Americana Highways

Bentley’s Bandstand: November 2023

November 30, 2023December 1, 2023Bill Bentley0

Bentley’s Bandstand: November 2023 By Bill Bentley Luther Dickinson, Magic Music for Family Folk. It’s widely known in modern music circles, especially the crowd that zeroes in on the roots persuasion of the music, that Luther Dickinson is a High Priest of so many styles in that crowd. Being the son of Memphis maven Jim […]

Bentley’s Bandstand: October 2023

October 30, 2023November 16, 2023Bill Bentley0

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 […]

Bentley’s Bandstand: September 2023

September 29, 2023September 30, 2023Bill Bentley0

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 […]

Bentley’s Bandstand: August 2023

August 25, 2023August 30, 2023Bill Bentley0

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 […]

Bentley’s Bandstand: July 2023

July 31, 2023August 25, 2023Bill Bentley0

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 […]

Favorite Albums of 2023 (So Far)

July 7, 2023July 7, 2023Bill Bentley1

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 […]

Bentley’s Bandstand: June 2023

June 29, 2023July 10, 2023Bill Bentley0

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 […]

Bentley’s Bandstand: May 2023

May 31, 2023May 31, 2023Bill Bentley0

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 […]

Bentley’s Bandstand: April 2023

April 28, 2023May 5, 2023Bill Bentley1

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 […]

Bentley’s Bandstand: March 2023

March 15, 2023March 15, 2023Bill Bentley0

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 […]