Nearly a year ago two long established singer-songwriters from either side of the Atlantic, Billy Bragg and Joe Henry, made a train journey from Chicago to Los Angeles via Texas. On the way they recorded a series of railroad songs […]
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Aside from family bands, there is no stronger thread in American roots music than the power of a strong collaboration. Whether it’s the importance of paying one final tribute to a great artist who has passed away (see: Allen Toussaint), […]
Allen Toussaint was a national treasure. On what would become his final album, the music is as timeless as the artist. American Tunes (out June 10 on Nonesuch Records) mixes the jazzy stylings of Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Fats Waller, Earl […]
Allen Toussaint is to American music what Commander’s Palace is to American restaurants. Both have distilled the essence of New Orleans into something refined, elegant, stately. And both have become institutions in the process, the standard by which others are […]
Tradition is lovely on its own, sure, but what makes it really dance and stir is when someone is able to pick it up and make it feel brand new again. That’s what this week’s spotlighted releases have in common, […]
It does not sit well with a part of me that Record Store Day (which in Britain was on April 16) brings with it new vinyl that could be seen as exploitative. This year, for example, brought no less that three […]
In an illustrious recording career spanning some five decades as an artist, songwriter, arranger, producer Allen Toussaint has never fronted a project anything like this. Containing only one vocal track, his latest collaboration with producer Joe Henry spotlights Toussaint’s bluesy […]
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