Bentley’s Bandstand: September 2022By Bill Bentley Dave Alvin, New Highway: Selected Lyrics, Poems, Prose, Essays, Eulogies and Blues. At this point in his long and rollercoaster ride of a career, there’s not much that Downey, California’s favorite son hasn’t done. From a blues-soaked early education in Los Angeles clubs, forming the Blasters in the late […]
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Bentley’s Bandstand: July 2022By Bill Bentley Bhi Bhiman, I’ll Sleep When I’m Famous. “We might be helpless but we’ve got an open heart…” Those are the words that start this musical provocateur’s totally fascinating new album. Though Bhi Bhiman is originally from St. Louis, he really does sound like a captain of the entire universe. […]
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Bentley’s Bandstand June 2022By Bill Bentley Nicki Bluhm, Avondale Drive. Nicki Bluhm has been heading for making this album for many years. After other solo albums and some with Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers releases, Bluhm found herself at a crossroads. She had moved from San Francisco to Nashville alone, in many ways starting over […]
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Bentley’s Bandstand: May 2022 By Bill Bentley Johnny Ray Daniels, Whatever You Need. When the higher powers of the music business make a man wait until he’s 76 years old to make his own first album, there isn’t much left to say except WHATEVER YOU NEED. That is the name of Johnny Ray Daniels’ soul-kicking […]
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Bentley’s Bandstand: April 2022 By Bill Bentley The Americans, Stand True. Some bands have the perfect name. Like The Americans. One, it’s a true fact that the group is made up of Americans. But even more importantly, they have a sound that comes right out of the nation’s soul. There are no trickinations or shortcuts […]
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Bentley’s Bandstand: March 2022 By Bill Bentley Sarah Borges, Together Alone. There are certain modern troubadours who don’t back down. Ever. It’s just not in their nature. For the past 20 years, Sarah Borges is one of those perennial pushers who write and record songs of high import, and then take to the endless highway […]
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Bentley’s Bandstand: February 2022By Bill Bentley The Campbell Brothers, John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. Sacred steel music started peaking in popular circles about 20 years ago, and thanks to the Campbell Brothers and Robert Randolph became something of a sensation. Of course, like most sensations the popularity has died down but the style of pedal-steel […]
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Bentley’s Bandstand January 2022 By Bill Bentley Dion, Stomping Grounds. When a person is so well-known they get to go by a single name–think Prince for the epitome of that honor–it’s usually a strong sign they’ve created their very own identity. Dion was one of the first in those ranks during the budding years of […]
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Reissue City: 2021By Bill Bentley With the advent of Compact Discs in the mid-1980s, it seems like the reissue business became a roaring behemoth in the music biosphere. The tsunami of releases turned the pricey box sets into a brand new division of many record labels, and listeners had a chance to live in whatever […]
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Favorites of 2021By Bill Bentley It’s the time of year when it’s fun to look back, rummage through all the releases of the past 12 months and see what rises to the surface as music that will last forever. And help put some of the glide in the stride of the present. To each his […]
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