review Archive
19 Aug 2019
Album Review: Reese Wynans and Friends — Sweet Release
In the liner notes for Sweet Release, producer-guitarist Joe Bonamassa poses a rhetorical question: “How do you make it a Reese record as opposed to an album of guitar players […]
18 Aug 2019
Album Review: Jack Oblivian & the Dream Killers — Lost Weekend
Among the audiophile set, the term “lo-fi” is cause to run for the hills. Having grown up on a steady diet of 1960s garage rock, I have no such qualms. […]
17 Aug 2019
Album Review: Phil Alvin – Un “Sung Stories”
With the departure of Dave Alvin in 1986, it looked the Blasters were finished. So it was no surprise that guitarist Phil Alvin took the opportunity to record and release […]
13 Aug 2019
Hundred Word Reviews for August 2019, Part Two
Ten more reviews. All new music, covered in the space of 100 words each. Jazzmeia Horn – Love & Liberation I love instrumental jazz, but I have to admit that […]
12 Aug 2019
Hundred-word Reviews for August 2019, Part One
It’s that time again: reviews of new music that passes the rigorous “smash or trash” competition happening periodically at my CD changer. Diplomats of Solid Sound — A Higher Place […]
11 Aug 2019
Album Review: Bark — Terminal Everything
As a rule, I look askance at guitar-and-drum duos; for my money, Dex and Crow did it well enough back in the Flat Duo Jets days that I don’t really […]
09 Aug 2019
The Drive to 1981 Begins: A Look Back at Robert Fripp’s Masterful ‘Exposure’ (Part 2)
Continued from Part One … Fans of King Crimson’s Red receive a wonderful treat with “Breathless.” Though the specific players on each track aren’t noted, the song – very much […]
08 Aug 2019
The Drive to 1981 Begins: A Look Back at Robert Fripp’s Masterful ‘Exposure’ (Part 1)
Guitarist Robert Fripp has long been one of music’s most intriguing figures. Largely operating outside the pop mainstream (and, when he can, outside the traditional machinery of the music business […]
03 Aug 2019
Album Review: VIA — Vessels of Sound, Vol. 2: Morse
Originally based in Lubbock, Texas but now settled in Asheville, VIA is a shoegaze/electronic, sort-of-but-not-quite-instrumental band. At its core, VIA is instrumentalist Steven Gaona and vocalist/songwriter Karen Austin. At least […]
02 Aug 2019
Album Review: Eddie Senay — Step by Step
Clarence Avant was a Detroit entrepreneur, a figure who wanted to bring to the world Detroit music beyond that which Berry Gordy was doing. In the early ’70s his Sussex […]