Riding in on a fierce and defiant psychedelic stomp, “Bones” blows open Elizabeth Cook’s fifth album with a testimony to self and a declaration that the singer is moving on with her life. The song rides along a haunting guitar […]
Dirk Powell is so good. As a composer, performer, and producer, he’s adept at essentially all components of the art of music. It’s helped him build an impressive legacy over the years, and that body of work is only further […]
Grant-Lee Phillips has been doing this for a while, and he knows it. “I may not be young / A lot of songs are sung,” he concedes calmly on the leadoff track of Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff, hastening to […]
In true rock-and-roll tradition, New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers were born in the back of a tour bus, and they’re everything their name implies. Raucous, rattly, raw, and magnificently loose, Charlie Musselwhite, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Jimbo Mathus, Jim Dickinson […]
On her solo debut, Fiddler’s Pastime, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, fiddler for modern bluegrassers Mile Twelve, flexes both her fiddling and songwriting muscles. Original songs like “Open Water” and “Hendersonville Hop” pair seamlessly with “The Minstrel Boy” and John Hartford’s “Natchez Whistle.” […]
Heidi Newfield’s not waiting around for anyone these days. She opens The Barfly Sessions, Vol. 1 on a propulsive blast of B3, her wailing harmonica, screaming lead guitars, and soaring vocals with the scorching hot promise that she’s ready to […]
Bobby Rush got crowned King of the Chitlin’ Circuit for his dynamic delivery of soul, blues, R&B, funk, and gospel. For his latest outing, Rawer Than Raw, he’s gone back to basics. But that doesn’t mean he’s any less dynamic. […]
Dan Penn is a national treasure. He may not be the household name he should be, but everyone’s been moved by his and Chips Moman’s “Dark End of the Street” and “Do Right Woman,” or his and Spooner Oldham’s “I’m […]
In terms of musicality, lyrical depth and pure swagger, there are few country music legends who compare to the late, great Merle Haggard. With a 50-year career that included the expected ebbs and flows, there’s much art to explore, consider, […]
This one ought to make their daddies proud. The sophomore offering from the Allman Betts Band encapsulates and embraces the Allman legacy without slavishly copying the sound of their parent company. Recorded at Muscle Shoals, the session is steeped in […]
