Lance Cowan is on a roll. A music publicist for decades, he only recently reinvented himself as a folk/Americana recording artist. But he has now issued three excellent albums in as many years, and the latest of these is arguably his best. Called The Air That You Breathe, it cements his reputation as an affecting […]
Fisherman’s Blues, the fourth and best-known album by the UK’s Waterboys, signaled a quantum leap for an already excellent band. The result of three years of studio work, this 1988 LP found the group expanding its focus from alt-rock to embrace country, folk, gospel, and soul as well as traditional Irish, Scottish, and Celtic music. […]
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The Rolling Stones’ last album of new material, 2023’s Hackney Diamonds, was their first such CD in 18 years. Now, a little less than three years later, they’re back with Foreign Tongues. They must have realized that at this point, waiting another 18 years to record again wouldn’t work out so well. Time is not […]
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To say the Cyrkle got off to an auspicious start would be a major understatement. This 1960s pop-rock outfit was the first American band signed by Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who named the group. (John Lennon provided the spelling.) In 1966, the Cyrkle served as an opening act at 14 U.S. Beatles concerts, including the […]
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Music Reviews: Sad Daddy Ozark Shine plus Two Vintage Soul Albums This writer pays attention anytime the ultra-talented Melissa Carper’s name shows up, and it shows up often these days. The singer, songwriter, and upright bass player has been adding to her discography at a steady rate. She has also been recording with Kelly Willis […]
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Pete Ham, who died by suicide in 1975 at age 27, achieved considerable success during his lifetime as the lead singer and a principal composer for England’s Badfinger. The extent of the Welsh power pop musician’s talent has become even more evident in recent years, however, thanks largely to a series of albums from Miami’s […]
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There’s a reason George Thorogood & the Destroyers’ discography includes more than half a dozen live albums. Their high-octane, sax-spiced, blues-rock works best in a concert setting, where audiences seem to energize Thorogood, and he interacts with them as well as he does with his guitar. The latest recorded evidence of that is on the […]
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After issuing his first album in 1973, Bruce Springsteen spent more than a decade building a deserved reputation as the best live act in rock and roll. During that time, however, his discography consisted solely of studio albums. If you weren’t lucky enough to have seen him in concert, all you knew of his stage […]
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Willie Nelson Is Still Going Strong It’s remarkable that Willie Nelson is still making records nearly three decades after the age when the average American retires. But it’s even more remarkable that those LPs contain some of the best work of his long career. Dream Chaser, which arrived shortly after Nelson’s 93rd birthday, is his […]
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The Lovin’ Spoonful, whose origins the Mamas and the Papas chronicle in their hit “Creeque Alley,” ranks among the most notable products of New York’s Greenwich Village folk explosion. Combining elements of that genre with blues, pop, rock and roll, and jug band music, the group scored seven consecutive Top 10 hits—five in 1966 alone—including […]
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