On January 8, Petite League released its fifth full-length album Joyrider. Petite League is a Hall-and-Oates-H2O kind of partnership between Lorenzo Gillis Cook who writes and sings all of the songs and plays all the guitars. On prior releases, but not the Joyrider album, he also did the art. Henry Schoonmaker plays the drums. Zeke […]
Continue Reading
A new edition of Sign O’ the Times, Prince’s brilliant and remarkably eclectic 1987 double album, easily earns its “super deluxe” billing with a long list of bonus goodies. Delivered in an LP-sized slipcase, the set includes an excellent remaster of the original album on two discs, plus six additional CDs: one with remastered single […]
Continue Reading
On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of his death on January 10th, I am moved to pen this tribute to one of music’s biggest icons of the last fifty years, one whose influence extends beyond genre – the man and artist known as David Bowie. As a punk rocker in the 1980s, I viewed […]
Continue Reading
Country music is at an interesting crossroads right now with a tug of war between the mainstream establishment and the ever-growing Americana movement that highlights various traditions under the encompassing country music umbrella, including bluegrass, folk, and gospel. As we have seen play out over the course of country music history, this tug of war […]
Continue Reading
By Bill Bentley Alabama Slim, The Parlor. The true blues from the back alley is coming to an end. While this isn’t a judgment, it’s going to feel pretty empty when it’s gone. Alabama Slim is one of the last of the breed, born in 1939 in Vance, Alabama. He lived a life that really isn’t there anymore, working […]
Continue Reading
I’m willing to bet that we don’t have a whole bunch of disco devotees traveling with us on Americana Highways. There just isn’t a lot of crossover seen between the two genres. But for every commonly accepted musical opinion, there’s always at least one dissenting voice. In this case, that voice belongs to none other […]
Continue Reading
In case you missed it, Mike Felten’s release in October 2020, Fast Mikey Blue Eyes (Landfill Records), is a bluesy treat. The album was recorded mixed and mastered by Victor Sanders. Musicians on the enterprise are Mike Felten on vocals and guitar; Pete Mazzeri on bass; Gary Landess and Brad Elvis on drums; Corky Siegel and Harmonica Hinds on harmonicas; […]
Continue Reading
A remarkable new box set lets you listen in as Joan Anderson, an obscure folksinger from Western Canada, turns into the internationally beloved artist known as Joni Mitchell. Called Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963–1967), the five-disc collection consists entirely of live performances that (bootlegs aside) have not previously seen the light […]
Continue Reading
Like every other music lover, I love making playlists. While compiling my favorite song playlist for the chaotic year that was 2020, I became awestruck as I was gloriously reminded of how many of my favorite songs of this past year were written by and/or performed by women. Amongst all that was going on, 2020 […]
Continue Reading
When I look back on 2020, it felt like it barely started before it was over. For me it effectively ended on a March night in New York when I saw one of the greatest shows of my life. It was around midnight when the dual guitars of Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes culminated in […]
Continue Reading
