Music & Video Reviews: Rolling Stones’ Black and Blue Box Set, plus Robert Gordon with Link Wray, and Melissa Carper’s Christmas Album Just a few months shy of a half century after its release, the Rolling Stones’ Black and Blue is back in a “super deluxe” edition that includes four CDs (or five LPs) and […]
Melissa Carper A Very Carper Christmas Putting together a Christmas album (a good one), particularly with new material, is a difficult needle to thread. Ideally, it needs to be original without being too divergent, sentimental but not sappy, and emotive but not treacly. And, even though she was initially hesitant to take on the project, […]
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A large and lavish box set devoted to one of John Lennon’s least favorably reviewed periods might seem ill-advised, and in some ways it is. But Lennon lovers will find interesting material in the new Power to the People, and even casual fans will discover some pleasures here. The collection, which Sean Ono Lennon […]
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Americana Highways 45 RPM 2025 (Reasons to Purchase Music) 2024 was a fantastic year for music and a shit year for pretty much everything else (November 5 still stings). Music, as it so dependably does, helped explain how we were feeling during the darkest of days, and knowing that you’ll be going to a show […]
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Film Eyes Pink Floyd Co-founder Syd Barrett Creativity and stardom often trigger or exacerbate mental illness and self-destruction. In the rock world, the list of casualties includes such names as the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones, 13th Floor Elevators’ Roky Erickson, folk singer Nick Drake, Derek & the Dominos drummer Jim Gordon, producers Phil Spector and […]
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WoodyFest 2024 – Part 3 WoodyFest 2024 Day 3 was a Hit After another soul filling afternoon and evening of music the previous day and a half or so, I was back in Okemah Saturday morning excited about what the day offered. The Saturday line-up is always a busy one, and with the weekend day, […]
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Melissa Carper – Borned In Ya For those who like grammatically correct stuff the LP name is from a quote from bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley: “I don’t think you can get this sound unless it’s borned in ya.” That’s good enough for me & Melissa Carper jumped on it like a rodeo gal jumps into […]
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Music & Book Reviews: Wonder Women of Country, plus Thee Sinseers, Matt Blake, Pete Ham, and Eddie Hinton This column rarely covers EPs—the unending flood of full-length CDs is more than enough to keep a critic busy—but a six-song set called Wonder Women of Country: Willis, Carper, Leigh is too good to ignore. The Texas-based […]
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To the uninitiated, Bruce Springsteen’s new Only the Strong Survive CD may come as a surprise. Aside from 2006’s Pete Seeger–inspired We Shall Overcome, this is the first album of covers he has issued in his half-century career, and its focus on soul and R&B represents a bit of a departure from the rock […]
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