review Archive
18 Oct 2019
Album Review: Big Star — In Space
To those who followed Alex Chilton’s musical activities in the 1980s and beyond, the thought that he would ever revisit his Big Star-era music – much less put the band […]
17 Oct 2019
Album Review: Mavis Staples — We Get By
When it comes to African American roots music – for that matter, any American roots music at all – the Staples name is royalty. Led by Roebuck “Pops” Staples and […]
16 Oct 2019
Book Review: The Show Won’t Go On
Popular culture has long held a fascination with death. The old “death and taxes” saw about it being one of life’s inevitabilities speaks to the importance we place upon it. […]
15 Oct 2019
Album Review: Michele D’Amour and the Love Dealers – Heart of Memphis
For musicians, one upside of the internet and its associated technological innovations is that the old barriers to entry are largely gone; anyone can make an release an album. Unfortunately, […]
14 Oct 2019
Album Review: Hollywood Fats Band — Blues by the Pound Vol. 1
Hollywood Fats (Michael Mann) was a West Coast blues guitarist who died in 1986 at age 32; as the liner notes for Blues by the Pound Vol. 1 assert, he […]
13 Oct 2019
Diana Krall: Here to Stay
While she is popular the world over, contralto Diana Krall got off to a modest start. Her official debut release, 1993’s Stepping Out earned positive reviews, but it didn’t initially […]
12 Oct 2019
Album Review: DJ Audio — ‘Hottest in the City, Vol. 1’
When we last checked in on the work of DJ Audio, the Asheville hip hop artist born Ethan Conner had just released an EP, Shut it Down. That collection of […]
10 Oct 2019
Book Review: “Echoes” by Glenn Phillips
For nearly fifty years, guitarist Glenn Phillips has been making music that defies classification. First with the Hampton Grease Band, and later as a prolific solo artist and active contributor […]
04 Oct 2019
Album Review: The New Mastersounds — Shake It
It may well not have been their explicit intention, but over the last two decades, the New Mastersounds have helped a strain of jazz to become mainstreamed into widespread popular […]
02 Oct 2019
Unmarked Exit: Led Zeppelin’s ‘In Through the Out Door’ at 40 (Part One)
Led Zeppelin’s seventh studio album, Presence, was released at the end of March 1976. In contrast with the near-unanimous critical acclaim that greeted the band’s previous release, 1975’s double-LP Physical […]