Relocating from Kentucky to the Big Apple, mixing her backwoods sensibilities with urban irreverence and bite, Joan Osborne has created a multilayered, high-powered and invigorating album. She’s been compared to Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin, a white girl singing the […]
These import maxi-singles (or CD-5s, as they’re called in the record biz) by three estimable bands adhere to the template for this configuration: Each leads off with a single from the current album, followed by three non-LP tracks. Included are […]
The Geraldine Fibbers’ debut makes ears bleed. It also makes synapses explode and brains fry. And that’s a good thing. Not since Grant Lee Buffalo’s first outing in 1993 has an L.A. band been able to take on the roots […]
Who is the best country music vocalist working today? Well now theres a question to spur endless debate. But of course, its fairly predictable which names will immediately surface Johnny Cash, George Jones, Dwight Yoakam, Don Walser …. wait. Don […]
Released in 1976 and available for the first time on compact disc, Hazel and Alice is an old-time country music album that ranges from blues to hymns to a capella ballads and has influenced artists from Emmylou Harris to Bob […]
Its easy to hear hints of the Louvin Brothers sweet, high harmonies in the music of the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Jayhawks and others. Now its easy to hear the Louvins themselves on this 24-cut best of collection. The Louvins […]
A misleadingly little-known figure from the West Coast country scene of the 1950s and 60s, Stewart first came to my attention via his 1959 hit Wishful Thinking included on Rhino Records indispensable Hillbilly Fever series. That song is the first […]
Though Emmylou Harris new album is titled Wrecking Ball, that could also be the description of the tool Daniel Lanois brings into the producers booth and attacks Harris past efforts with. This album is so unlike Harris other albums that […]
Where earlier albums have seemed slightly disjointed, Vic Chesnutts latest, Is the Actor Happy?, shows a new maturity and musical coherence. Although he says he just wants to be Aaron Neville, his wish has not yet come true, and lucky […]
Rosy-fingered dusk tripped slowly down green terrace steps, folding chairs, sculpted roses, and halfway through Mark Lanegan’s second solo show settled an indirect glow across the stage. All in the time it took Lanegan to work through a half-dozen songs […]
