{"id":19905,"date":"2020-11-22T05:30:58","date_gmt":"2020-11-22T10:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=19905"},"modified":"2020-10-16T11:52:50","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T15:52:50","slug":"hundred-word-reviews-for-november-2020-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/22\/hundred-word-reviews-for-november-2020-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundred-word Reviews for November 2020, Part Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

And here\u2019s the last of this current run of hundred-word reviews covering new releases. Soul, powerpop and blues; something for most tastes. All worth your time.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sonny Green \u2013 Found! One Soul Singer<\/i><\/b>
\nDon\u2019t let the cheesy, lurid, chartreuse album art dissuade you from the contents: this is the real deal. Sonny Green is one of those artists who has been toiling in relative obscurity for a long time (he cut a string of singles around 1970). Deep-groove soul with extraordinarily gruff vocals, beefy horn charts and a sizzling rhythm section are the basic ingredients, but the song selection \u2013 well-chosen covers and several tunes written for the album \u2013 puts Found! One Soul Singer<\/i> over the top. If you need further convincing, guitar whiz Kid Andersen produced the album\u2019s sessions at his Greaseland Studio.<\/p>\n

\"\"Chris Church \u2013 Backwards Compatible<\/i><\/b>
\nIt\u2019s the rare artist who can create real, authentic music in multiple unrelated genres. Chris Church is such a musician. In 2014, fronting death metal band D\u00e4ng, he wrote, played and sang some of the most appealing music of its kind that I\u2019ve ever heard. Unexpectedly, he\u2019s equally skilled in the powerpop idiom as well. His latest release, Backwards Compatible<\/i>, is nominally in that genre, but it transcends powerpop. Don\u2019t even try to resist the charms of melodic rockers like \u201cSomeday\u2019s Coming Fast.\u201d Expert help from the likes of Bill Lloyd and Lindsay Murray makes an excellent album even better.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Midnight Callers \u2013 Red Letter Glow<\/i><\/b>
\nMy first exposure to the music of The Midnight Callers was quite recent: their participation in a John Lennon tribute album<\/a>. As fine as that was, their original material shows the band to better effect. There are Beatles influences, but the high energy tuneful roar of this NYC group has more in common with Cheap Trick. The songs rock hard, but never at the expense of melodic content. There\u2019s exuberance tempered with a worldly-wise outlook. The vocals harmonies soar, but they still fit together seamlessly with a full-powered rock assault. Ten originals plus a reinvention of Bill Withers\u2019 \u201cUse Me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Well Wishers <\/b>\u2013 Shelf Life<\/em><\/strong>
\nWhat does Jeff Shelton have in common with R. Stevie Moore, Martin Newell, Buckethead and Robert Pollard? He shares with those fine artists a prolific nature and a prodigious output. But unlike two of them (guess which), Shelton\u2019s output is consistently top-notch. I\u2019ve lost count of how many albums he\u2019s released as The Well Wishers. One could merely say, \u201cWell, here\u2019s another one.\u201d But while Shelf Life<\/i> is indeed more of the same, there\u2019s no reason to tinker with the formula when said formula yields catchy, timeless rock. In these unsettling and uncertain times, there\u2019s power and pleasure in familiarity.<\/p>\n

\"\"Shemekia Copeland \u2013 Uncivil War<\/i><\/b>
\nEven though I was already familiar with her music and worldview, when I first interviewed blues-and-beyond vocalist Shemekia Copeland<\/a>, I was struck and mightily impressed by her outspoken nature, her willingness to tackle touchy subjects head-on. And she brings that same quality to her music. On one level, she\u2019s an interpreter, like a blues Sinatra or Ronstadt: Copeland doesn\u2019t write songs, but the commissioned material fits her perspective. And her delivery is flawless. Backed by a top-flight ensemble, she\u2019s on fire throughout the eclectic, topical Uncivil War<\/i>. The well-chosen covers are wonderfully delivered, too. Jason Isbell guests on one track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And here\u2019s the last of this current run of hundred-word reviews covering new releases. Soul, powerpop and blues; something for most tastes. All worth your time. Sonny Green \u2013 Found! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19909,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,35,49,51,55,62,65,69],"tags":[4357,3871,4356,4326,2356],"class_list":["post-19905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-gospel","category-new-release","category-pop","category-powerpop","category-rawk","category-review","category-soul","tag-chris-church","tag-shemekia-copeland","tag-sonny-gree","tag-the-midnight-callers","tag-well-wishers","cat-9-id","cat-35-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-55-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19905"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19914,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19905\/revisions\/19914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}