Delta Moon features unique dueling slide guitar leads that give the band’s music the swampy, gritty sound that has made it one of Atlanta’s best kept secrets. Black Cat Oil, the seventh album to feature the lap-steel guitar-work of singer-songwriter Tom Gray and bottleneck slide guitar of Mark Johnson, is a solid offering.   Delta Moon, which until 2007’s Clear […]
Mayer’s Playlist for Spring 2012, Part 2
ALBUMS OF THE MONTH The Great Despiser, by Joe Pug If you listen closely to The Great Despiser, Joe Pug’s latest release, you’ll hear a theme carrying through the songs. The songs map a journey in which the protagonist seeks to find his path, generally with clear intent yet often daunted by societal expectations and […]
Company/Dear America,
There’s a Charleston, South Carolina band that goes by the moniker Company, not to be confused with the Brooklyn band of the early 2000’s of the same name. (Or the cover band that also apparently plays in Charleston called “The Company Band.â€) Unlike the folkier rock of the Brooklyn band, the Charleston collective focuses on […]
Fathers and Sons – The DB’s and The Only Sons
For those who remember the DB’s from the early 80‘s, especially if you saw any of the shows they performed as openers for REM, the band conjures up memories of good times in college. They no doubt were good times, but in retrospect the DB’s were seminal innovators paving the road for the Alt-Country / […]
Luther Dickinson – Hambone’s Meditations
Someone should sit Luther Dickinson down and tell him he needs to figure out what he’s going to do with his life. Still in his 30s, Dickinson laid down his first recorded guitar licks at the age of 14 on the Replacements’ Pleased to Meet Me (produced by Luther’s father Jim) in 1987. He established […]
Mayer’s Playlist for Spring 2012, Part 1
ALBUMS OF THE MONTH Women & Work, by Lucero Lucero jumped on the major label train for their last release, 2009’s stellar 1372 Overton Park. Things didn’t go quite as planned but Lucero are a band that just won’t give up. Good thing, too, as the band are in peak form with a sound that […]
Three Tall Pines – All That’s Left
New England may not be the first place you think of for bluegrass, but the Three Tall Pines may have you thinking they’re from much further south. Dan Boudreau and Joe Lurgio give the band a spark in their beautiful songwriting. Each tune feels like it could be out of a one room house from […]
Dr. John – Locked Down
Dr. John is an institution. With his characteristic mystical groovy-gumbo-voodoo schtick and funky keyboard playing, he has been a force in American music since his groundbreaking Gris-Gris in 1968. His early 1970s work, including Dr. John’s Gumbo and In the Right Place were instant classics.   A gifted piano (and occasional guitar) player, Mac Rebennack, or Dr. John, […]
Damien Jurado/Maraqopa
Opening with the raucous “Nothing Is The News†(featuring an excellent rambling lead guitar) I immediate thought that Jurardo had taken a cue from Neil Young’s Crazy Horse adventures, or his own I Break Chairs days, but, as I soon found out, that only lasts for one track. “Life Away from the Garden,†the second […]
Tom’s Picks: Winter 2012
Don’t miss these records from early 2012: MARTIN SEXTON, Fall Like Rain (EP) [★★★★/3.800] Singer/Songwriter/Soulster Sexton continues to perspicaciously reflect back on life with his songwriting while delivering mind-bending falsetto with his song. What this album lacks in length it makes up for in content. Four soul-searching originals plus a cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For […]