by Nick DeRiso While John Mellencamp continues a run of career-defining records, dating back to 2007′s “Freedom’s Road,” best leave your dancing shoes in the closet. Producer T Bone Burnett cops to it, in the liner notes to “No Better Than This,” set for release Aug. 17 on Rounder Records: “All those ghosts. All those spirits. This is a haunted [...]
Trombone Shorty’s sudden emergence on the national music scene from the streets of Treme is one of the big music stories of 2010. by S. Victor Aaron Sometimes when listening to music, neither jazz nor mainstream is right for the moment. Blues or something folky or rootsy is usually called upon to fill in that gap. And there’s been a [...]
by S. Victor Aaron “Guitar virtuoso” for some can conjure up images of lightning fast shredders and gadget-filled guitar pyrotechnics. Some of these guys are pretty amazing technicians, to be sure, but a lot of them forget about applying their ample technique to songs that are any joy to listen to. But Oz Noy is not one of them. Israeli-born [...]
by S. Victor Aaron Chris Potter has long been one of my favorite saxophonists simply by virtue of playing in a couple of my favorite bands. As a former long-time member of The Dave Holland Quintet and the reconstituted Steely Dan, Potter made his name while in his twenties with some of the most discerning types in the business (Paul [...]
by Nick DeRiso Nothing drove old Levon Helm down. Not the messy dissolution of his group, The Band; the perhaps inevitable subsequent financial ruin; a terrifying bout with throat cancer; a pair of shatteringly tragic deaths within his inner circle; or a yawning quarter century span between solo records that made him all but obscure in modern musical circles. This [...]
by Pico The last time I covered a band out of Providence RI, I was thunderstruck by the wonderfully weird folks who make up the musical buffet table Barnacled. On the other end of the spectrum but in the same seaside New England town hails an folk-rock outfit called The Low Anthem. So what is their music like? You can [...]
by Nick DeRiso More musical journey than greatest hits, per se, “Let It Roll” is a primer on George Harrison for those who never got past his time with Beatles — and yet a still-intriguing way to reexperience some of his best solo cuts for those who followed along after the Fabs went pphhft. It didn’t have to meet that [...]
by Pico There are plenty of highly accomplished jazz drummers over the course of the history of this music, ranging from Max Roach to Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, but none of these legends of the skins have accomplished what Watts’ contemporary Brian Blade had achieved this past April 21: released an album successfully recasting himself as a credible singer-songwriter. Truth is, [...]
by Nick DeRiso The question for rock musicians has always been how they might navigate into middle age, and later. No previous format — from country pickers to down home blues men to doomed jazzmen — was so inextricably tied into youth. That makes the lasting relevance of J.J. Cale, 70 now, all the more notable: “Who knew?” he admits [...]
“Pilgrim” — Eric Clapton’s first album of original material since 1989′s “Journeyman” — was, on its face, a sharp, brave attempt at modernizing the guitarist’s core sound. You hear solid licks situated amongst the prevailing R&B production values of today — keyboards and drum programming, both swirling orchestrations and smooth female backing vocals, these car-frame rattling bass beats. But the [...]
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