Another New Music Monday, another truckload of cool sounds — this time from the likes of John Hiatt, Lee Ritenour, Medeski Martin and Wood, Shemekia Copeland, Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris and the Gaddabouts, among others.

When going back and reading my take on John Hiatt’s last album Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns I almost thought I had already written my commentary on the one he’s got on tap next, because virtually everything you can use to describe Dirty Jeans could easily apply to Mystic Pinball.

There can’t be more than four or five months elapse without a new Joe Bonamassa CD or DVD, either by Black Country Communion or solo Bonamassa.

A benefit Johnny Cash tribute concert, to be held April 20, 2012 in Austin, Texas, has confirmed appearances set for Willie Nelson and Sheryl Crow.

Productive and consistently good are two attributes that don’t usually go together in the record making business, but it’s been John Hiatt’s hallmark for a while, now.

by Fred Phillips Ah, the tribute album. It started out as a good idea — current artists getting together to salute a classic artist that had a major influence on them. But, then, it spiraled out of control.

by S. Victor Aaron It’s become a late winter tradition for three years running: covering a new release by the most successful electric blues artist of late, Joe Bonamassa. In ’09 it was The Ballad Of John Henry, then ’10 brought us Black Rock. The short story on the reviews I gave on those two is that we are witnessing [...]

The hottest band in the land just might be the Drive-By Truckers by S. Victor Aaron Funny how it seems I have plenty of time to listen to new music and precious little to write about. There’s about 9GBs of albums in my iPod rotation and I’m familiar with a good majority of it. And I want to tell the [...]

by S. Victor Aaron Today, John Hiatt is among the leading American folk-rock singer-songwriters, standing in stature just below Springsteen and Mellencamp, but it was no overnight success story for him. Hiatt struggled to get traction on his career for over a dozen years after releasing his first album in 1974. This, despite some critical acclaim and his songs regularly [...]