new release Archive
28 Mar 2024
Quick Reviews, March 2024: Archival Jazz Releases
One of the many rewarding consequences of being a music journalist/critic is that I’m often among the first to hear about archival releases. Artists who have already created an extensive […]
27 Mar 2024
Quick Reviews, March 2024: New Releases
The Incurables – Inside Out & Backwards To the extent that one can make generalizations, it’s safe to say that most of the artists on Big Stir Records fall into […]
25 Mar 2024
Album Review: Anton Barbeau – Morgenmusik/Nachtschlager
Some things in life are a sure thing. One of those is the fact that Anton Barbeau can be counted on to produce fascinating and worthwhile music. His latest release, […]
23 Mar 2024
Album Review: Emma Wilson – Memphis Calling
Memphis calls and Teesside answers. Blues vocalist Emma Wilson hails from the gritty industrial yet picturesque region of Northeast England, and her background includes dates at a wide variety of […]
21 Mar 2024
No Compromise: The Sound of Shakin’ Street
The following is a liner note essay I wrote for Scarlet, a brand-new archival release from Liberation Hall Records. It’s a document of the band’s August 1979 set at San […]
20 Mar 2024
The Contractions: Kicking Ass, Taking Names
The following is a liner note essay I wrote for 1980, a brand-new archival release from Liberation Hall Records. It’s a live set drawn from the group’s 1980 dates at […]
08 Mar 2024
Please Do Not Fight: Fresh New Things
As the great philosopher Ringo Starr once said, time takes time. And nothing illustrates that aphorism more succinctly than the arc of Bay Area band Please Do Not Fight. Launched […]
03 Mar 2024
Album Review: Delta Blues Outlaws – Welcome to the Blues Highway
Fronted by guitarist and singer Billy Jones, Arkansas-based Delta Blues Outlaws have managed to release two albums in the space of just over a year. Billy Jones & Delta Blues […]
25 Feb 2024
Book Review: Punk Under the Sun
Who knew? Years before gaining a prominent spot in popular culture by becoming filmmakers’ go-to actor when you need to cast a character who dresses and acts weird (and not […]
24 Feb 2024
Album Review: Al Stewart – Songs on the Radio
By most any reasonable measure, Al Stewart is not a singles artist. Though the Glasgow-born singer-songwriter has had a long and creatively fertile musical career, his primary artistic vehicle has […]