Back in 2020, this column featured 16 folk, pop, and rock artists and bands that deserve wide acclaim but have attracted only cult followings. Here are 10 more. Bobby Charles The late Bobby Charles was a gifted singer who also wrote many memorable songs, including “The Jealous Kind” (Ray Charles, Delbert McClinton, etc.) and “Walking […]
Relatively few albums warrant expansion into box sets that deconstruct their development with alternate takes and mixes, outtakes, and demos. But if any LP merits such treatment, it’s the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, Brian Wilson’s 1966 masterpiece, which is widely and deservedly regarded as one of the half dozen or so best albums of the […]
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Abigail Lapell Sings Her Way to Motherhood, plus a Rockabilly Anthology Sometimes a whisper can pack more punch than a shout. Witness, for example, the music of Nick Drake—or the similarly understated folk recordings of Abigail Lapell, whose atmospheric work might also occasionally remind you of Pentangle, Fairport Convention, or early Donovan. The Toronto-based singer, […]
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You’ve heard of Donald Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill? This writer would rather talk about big, beautiful box sets. Here (listed alphabetically, by artist) are 21 of popular music’s most spectacular gargantuan anthologies, each featuring 10 or more discs. Mildred Bailey, The Complete Columbia Recordings of Mildred Bailey (2000, 10 CDs). You’re probably wondering who the […]
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Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Dale Watson has been railing against mainstream country music for decades. In a 1995 number called “Nashville Rash,” for example, he complained that “I’m too country now for country, just like Johnny Cash.” Added Watson: “[It] breaks my heart to see my heroes fadin’ away / Shoulda known it when they […]
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You’ve likely never heard of Dan Penn and, if that’s the case, one reason is probably that you’re not the sort of person who reads songwriting credits. If you were, you’d know this Alabama native from the many popular songs he has written or co-written—the Box Tops’ “Cry Like a Baby,” Janis Joplin’s “A Woman […]
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Lacking clout when he entered the music business, John Mellencamp acquiesced to his manager’s insistence that he change his name to the ostensibly more marketable Johnny Cougar. But after he began to score hits, the Indiana native started billing himself as John Cougar Mellencamp before finally reverting to John Mellencamp. A new two-CD set called […]
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Buddy Holly and his band released The “Chirping” Crickets, on Nov. 27, 1957, about 14 months before he perished in an Iowa airplane crash. The record, their debut, turned out to be the only album they would make together. But what an album it is. Among the tracks on this LP are the chart-topping “That’ll […]
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Steve Forbert’s 2015 album, Compromised, has recently been remastered and reissued with a new title, a new mix, a new bonus track, and a few musical embellishments. Now called The Things That I See, the set features strong material and complementary backup from a talented quartet that includes NRBQ co-founder Joey Spampinato (bass) and Spampinato’s […]
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In 1978, 11 years after psychological problems caused Brian Wilson to begin withdrawing from music-making, the Beach Boys recorded a Mike Love song called “Brian’s Back.” The track didn’t surface until 1979 (as a single’s B side) and wasn’t widely heard until two decades later, but even if it had been released immediately, the message […]
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