As you’ve no doubt figured out, in addition to the collective top 20 albums of ’09, each of us is sharing our own spin. Â So here’s my perspective on the best of the year. 1. Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women – eponymous: Perhaps my opinion is colored by having seen a couple of stellar […]
Chip Taylor – Yonkers, NY
I’ve never made a secret of my preference for live music. Â One of the things that attracts me to a live performance is that you learn a little more about the performer. Â They don’t just bare their sole with their music, but generally give you some of the story behind the story. Â What’s great about […]
Danny Barnes – Pizza Box
I miss John Hartford. He had a rare combination of incredible musicianship, a sly sense of humor, and an unmatched story-telling ability. The result were songs that were fun: fun to listen to, fun to sing along with, and no doubt fun to perform. There’s a lot of that fun in Danny Barnes’ latest release, […]
Blind Boys of Alabama – Duets
Seventy years. That’s right, this year marks the seventh decade the Blind Boys of Alabama have been performing. Sure, the personnel have undergone some changes in that time, but one of the original members, Clarence Fountain, still tours with them as his health allows. What’s more, they’ve never been as relevant to the current music […]
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2009
Move over Bonnaroo. Step aside Coachella. With crowd estimates hovering around 750,000 this year, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is now the country’s largest music event. And it’s free. Three days, 6 stages, 80 acts with a broad range of appeal, all courtesy of Warren Hellman, a local investment banker and philanthropist. With that many sets of […]
The Band Of Heathens – One Foot In The Ether
Wikipedia defines Americana as “artifacts related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States.” By that, the latest effort from The Band Of Heathens is about as close to a definitive musical interpretation of Americana as you can get. One Foot In The Ether has a little something for everyone who’s […]
Judith Edelman – Clear Glass Jar
Back in 1998 while touring in support of Only Son, Judith Edelman offered some advice to aspiring songwriters that they should write a song every day. Some would not be very good, but some would be surprisingly good. And as proof of the latter she offered up her song, Library Card, about, literally, her library […]
The Belleville Outfit – Live at Yoshi’s
One of the signs I look for in really good musicians is their ability to play to the audience, both the crowd that particular night as well as the nuances of a venue. The Belleville Outfit played Yoshi’s jazz club in San Francisco Monday night and became my poster child for just how to execute […]
Rocky Mountain Folks Festival – Day Three
As the saying goes, Life Is Good. Especially when the agenda of the day involves sitting outdoors, temps in the 70’s with the occasional cloud, listening to music, with the Rockies as a backdrop and the crystal clear, glacier-fed St. Vrain river steps away if you need to cool off. Such was my plight on […]
The Bottle Rockets – Lean Forward
Hailing from the St. Louis area, The Bottle Rockets show some of the same influences that inspired Uncle Tupelo and their progeny. In Lean Forward , their tenth release, the Rockets have a record that’s a rich bouquet of rock and roll, but nonetheless retaining some twangy alt country aromas. What distinguishes many of the […]