Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run, plus Reggae from the Mighty Rootsmen and the Kingston Lions Several albums in Bruce Springsteen’s discography have proven particularly significant, including 1982’s Nebraska, which showcased a dramatic reversion to unadorned folk, and 1984’s Born in the U.S.A., which turned him into a global superstar. But the […]
Like the Bee Gees, Fleetwood Mac, and a handful of other artists, the late Marianne Faithfull was lucky enough to have had more than one musical incarnation. The first began in 1964, when she scored a worldwide folk/pop hit with the lilting “As Tears Go By,” which was composed by her then-future boyfriend, Mick Jagger, […]
Continue Reading
Since Bob Dylan is arguably the best and most important songwriter of the entire rock era, it’s not surprising that his tunes show up on countless albums by other artists, including many that consist entirely of his compositions. This writer’s collection includes more than 800 Dylan covers, and while not all of them hit their […]
Continue Reading
At least in the States, hardly anyone knows the albums of the British rock band Shack and the subsequently issued CDs from its leader, Michael Head, at least some of which rank among the most underappreciated popular music releases of the last thousand years. Though not quite that good, but well worth attention and even […]
Continue Reading
Grooves & Cuts – July 2025 – Part 2 There has been an overwhelming number of releases these past few months. Some were received late, some slipped between the cracks, but they are worth featuring—apologies for the lateness.This is an essay written for the Michael J. Media Newsletter that many artists, agents & managers should […]
Continue Reading
Reviewers, including this one, have often yielded to the temptation to compare some of today’s artists to folk singer and songwriter Nick Drake, because you can hear his influence in their work. But the truth is, there’s no one quite like him. Drake’s music does hint at his own influences, such as Bert Jansch, the […]
Continue Reading
Bentley’s Bandstand July 2025 Chris Berardo, WILDER ALL THE TIME. This Connecticut-based rocker puts the burning swagger and soulful heartbeats into his songs in a way that shows just how valuable he is. Chris Berardo is clearly a long-termer, and his new album sounds like it came right out of the history books of the […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: Counting Crows’ Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! plus Freedy Johnston and Mike Henderson Counting Crows released nearly a dozen studio and live albums between 1993 and 2014, including six that reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s chart and four that sold at least a million copies each. Things quieted down considerably after that, […]
Continue Reading
An Expanded Edition of Talking Heads’ More Songs About Buildings and Food Late last year, Talking Heads’ label released an expanded edition of the new-wave quartet’s groundbreaking debut album, Talking Heads:77. Now, only a little more than half a year later, we have a similarly enlarged version of their 1978 sophomore release, the flippantly titled […]
Continue Reading
Singer/songwriter Buck Owens, who died in 2006, was the quintessential exponent of country music’s Bakersfield Sound, a rock-infused, back-to-basics style that burgeoned in the 1950s around Bakersfield, California. His music influenced countless artists, ranging from Dwight Yoakam, whose albums include Dwight Sings Buck, to the Beatles, who recorded a version of “Act Naturally,” Owens’s first […]
Continue Reading