by Nick DeRiso Growing older has made Nick Lowe grayer, a little quieter, but no less clever, no less relevant, and certainly no less off-handedly absorbing. He is the living, breathing, guitar-playing, Buddy Holly shade-wearing embodiment of the old […]
by Nick DeRiso For Junior Wells, there was just something about working with Buddy Guy. On Hoodoo Man Blues, a spark-filled mid-1960s Chicago blues album, Wells stops on more than one occasion, while letting loose these flying shards of harmonica […]
by Nick DeRiso Like a piped-in soundtrack on a rattling railcar, Nick Lowe’s “Check Out Time” somehow sounds rooted in old-school convictions even as it dashes away from them. Perhaps only Lowe, the throwback’s throwback, could credibly channel Buck Owens […]
by S. Victor Aaron Making up tunes and whiling away the hours with an acoustic guitar on a roof terrace of a flat in an exotic locale like Barcelona, Spain seems like a dream way for one to spend their […]
by Nick DeRiso Americana singer-songwriter Mike McGuire travels a land of heavy weather, echoing church bells, sad tales and long memories. But he never lets go of the one thing that binds us together: Faith, in ourselves, in our future […]
by Nick DeRiso On this special edition of Something Else! Reviews’ One Track Mind, we hand the reins over to legendary drummer Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste, fresh off his fourth solo album for JZM Records. He takes us inside the […]
by Nick DeRiso There’s a specificity to this song, by Austin, Texas-based roots rocker Eric Hisaw, that pulls you all the way into the story. Boasting a Johnny Cash-style railyard rhythm, the great lonesome prairie whine of Lloyd Maines’ pedal […]
Natural History, out now on eOne Music, is just the the second J.D. Souther solo effort in 25 years — following 2008’s If The World Was You. That curious quietude from such a talented creative voice has only deepened Souther’s […]
by Nick DeRiso Tough times call for angry protest records, for political records, for records that produce rueful smiles. Ry Cooder has done that and more with “No Banker Left Behind,” a tart treatise on the recent financial meltdown to […]
Steve Cropper, of Booker T. and the MGs and Stax Records fame, has trouble picking any one moment on his upcoming star-studded project Dedicated as his favorite. So, we went further back into his legendary soul-soaked career. “I can tell […]
