Post Tagged with: "Roots Music"

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The Best of 2010, Part 2: Blues 'n' Roots

Nobody plays it like Buddy, as his Living Proof testifies. by Pico This part of the Year End series is typically the shortest, and not because there’s less excellent blues and roots records than other kinds of music, but because I regrettably have little time leftover to delve into theseRead More

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Mark “Pocket” Goldberg – Off the Alleyway (2010)

by Nick DeRiso Mark “Pocket” Goldberg’s Off the Alleyway, a rootsy Americana recording with the flickering neon-soul of a blues joint, stays well away from the beaten path. His sound is as eclectic as the country’s rolling byways, bringing in low-country pedal steel, back-pew harmonizing, the nostalgic wheeze of anRead More

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Carolina Chocolate Drops – Genuine Negro Jig (2010)

by Mark Saleski Sometimes, the history of music is full of surprises. Another way of looking at it: I’m surprised by my own ignorance. When I think of the South and old-time music, the blues, whites, and blacks, I tend to think of the musics as being mostly separated, withRead More

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Herb Ellis – Texas Swings (1992)

Today, we remember Texas jazz guitarist Herb Ellis, who has passed at 88 in his Los Angeles home after a long bout with Alzheimer’s. Over a career that spanned six decades, Ellis worked with a number of legends, including Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong and in the classic line-upRead More

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Half Notes: Carolina Chocolate Drops – Geniune Negro Jig (2010)

by S. Victor Aaron Here’s a trio of African-Americans playing bluegrass, vintage country, jug and other hillbilly styled music, played the old-fashioned way. But just listen to the music and you’ll realize the appeal isn’t at all in the novelty of this setup. No, it’s because they play it soRead More

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Thomas Edison 'Brownie' Ford – Stories from Mountains, Swamps, and Honky-tonks (1991)

by Nick DeRiso  This is an updated excerpt from a multi-artist piece I had published as part of the statewide Louisiana Folklife Festival’s program book in 1995. Born in 1904, Thomas Edison “Brownie” Ford would travel all over the Deep South — working as a ballad singer, bronc buster, storytellerRead More

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Jesse ‘Baby Face’ Thomas (1911-1995): An Appreciation

This is an updated excerpt from a multi-artist piece I had published as part of the statewide Louisiana Folklife Festival’s program book in 1995. Thomas suffered a fatal heart attack later that same year, in his hometown of Shreveport, La., ending a career that spanned seven decades: On his oldRead More

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One Track Mind: Benny Spellman, "Fortune Teller" (1962)

by Nick DeRiso Benny Spellman’s “Fortune Teller,” a witty early-1960s story song, is one of my touchstone party records. Everything about it is perfectly New Orleans, from the pounding piano to this sizzling island-tinged percussion, from a group of yelping, mesmerizingly groovy R&B backup singers to its not one butRead More

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Milton – Grand Hotel (2008)

Milton’s roots music, ruddy and real, doesn’t sound anything like his bio: New York City-based singer-songwriter. Instead, we have this sweetly gruff record, “Grand Hotel,” which stands flat-footed in the middle of the four-way intersection of folk-rock, country, blues and pop. Milton, turns out, comes by this honestly: His grandmother,Read More

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Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers – Git It, Beau Jocque! (1995)

NICK DERISO: Best to fasten your seltbelts, and put your trays in the upright position. “Git It” is a frenetic, fun-filled journey, this breathless moment of in-concert glory that comes and goes so fast that it remains sadly emblematic of the meteoric rise of Beau Jocque himself. During the lastRead More