Like 461 Ocean Boulevard, but with better singing, Eric Clapton’s Old Sock is similarly thin on original songs, swerves into an amiable island-inflected vibe, and never gets too far outside of its super-mellow box.

We’re joined again by the namesake founder of the Spencer Davis Group, a too-long-undervalued member of 1960s rock royalty who should have been in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ages ago.

The Spencer Davis Group was, and remains, more than Steve Winwood – having continued recording and touring into the new millennium under the auspices of its Welsh-born multi-instrumentalist namesake.

Event organizers have been feverishly working for nearly an entire year to secure a lineup worthy enough to follow the 2011’s Hangout Music Festival.

As Eric Clapton puts the finishing touches on a scheduled 2012 release — again produced by frequent sideman Doyle Bramhall II, who also helmed the well-received Clapton a couple of years ago — we reached back for a few old favorites.

Tribute records are a tricky things; star-studded tribute projects even more so. It takes a strong unifying voice, some central character beyond the featured composer, to save them from sounding like choppy compilations.

Steve Cropper, a seminal soul figure and guitarist in Booker T. and the MGs, pays tribute to childhood musical heroes the 5 Royales with Dedicated, set for release on August 9.

How to Become Clairvoyant is, thus far, Robbie Robertson‘s most blatantly personal solo release, taking on his split with the Band, nostalgia for his generation’s spent idealism, and the realization of a dark aftermath for the era’s hedonistic excesses.

It’s always refreshing to see a long-established rock star with nothing left to prove actually act that way and just follow his muse. Former Spencer Davis group whiz-kid and Traffic progenitor Steve Winwood did just that five years ago when he forsake slick production and compact, radio-friendly ditties for the earth-bound soulful jams of About Time. Like 2003′s About Time, [...]

by Pico It’s less than one week to Christmas, ladies and gents. Still trying to figure out what to give your loved one or boss that perfect music gift? Worse yet, you’re born before around 1965 and can’t figure out the Fleet Foxes from Black Diamond Heavies or Kanye West and don’t really care to? You’ve come to the right [...]