The Avett Brothers–I and Love and You–American/Columbia–September 2009 Are the Avett Brothers the Next Big Thing? They certainly bring formidable weapons to the sweepstakes. The Avetts, guitarist Seth and banjoist Scott, are two sweet-singing, super-handsome bros who harmonize on idiosyncratic, […]
The Black Crowes–Before the Frost…After the Freeze–Megaforce–September 2009 Two decades after the Black Crowes debuted with Shake Your Money Maker in 1990, the band is hitting a new stride with Before the Frost…Until the Freeze, a double-album of new songs […]
Phish–Joy–Jemp–September 2009 The 14th studio album from Phish, and their first after a five-year hiatus that ended with a series of reunion shows in March, starts with “Backwards Down the Number Line”, a Dead-style piece of sunny roots-rock that finds […]
Here are a couple of short reviews of recent roots records. Grant Langston–Stand Up Man–MSG–June 2009 It would be easy to dismiss Grant Langston as a trad-country parodist if he didn’t write such unfailingly infectious tunes and weren’t such a […]
Memories of Elvis w/Steve Davis & the TCB Band–Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room–St. Louis, MO–August 18, 2009 The King is gone/Long live his name. Ronnie McDowell (you know, Ronnie, you sound just like Elvis) sang those words back in 1977 after […]
Joshua James—Build Me This—Intelligent Noise—2009 Yes, I know it’s hard to get past that album cover. Is that Noxema? Has he rolled himself in flour? If this reverse minstrelsy? Is he covering his face with curdled milk like Halle in […]
James Hand—Shadow on the Ground—Rounder–2009 James Hand is countrier than you. In fact, he was country before (and while and after) country was cool—the 57-year-old has been playing his point-blank honky-tonk in Texas roadhouses since he was in his teens, […]
Dar Williams–The Duck Room at Blueberry Hill–St. Louis, MO–August 18, 2009 I read recently that Dar Williams felt trepidations about naming her latest album Promised Land because it shares its name with a famous Bruce Springsteen song. Well, there was […]
Willie Nelson—American Classic—Blue Note—2009 The story behind Willie Nelson’s landmark 1978 album Stardust is one of the great plot twists in country music history. It goes like this: Willie is riding the wave of Outlaw mania, after a series of […]
Dolores O’Riordan–No Baggage–Rounder–2009 You know I’m such a fool for you/you got me wrapped around your finger. It’s been 16 years since “Linger” became the Cranberries’ first Top Ten hit, and that song is still lingering in my head, even […]
