by Pico I finally got around to listening to Tom Waits’ sprawling odds-and-ends collection Orphans and it occurred to me that Australian-born/England-residing singer-songwriter Nick Cave has a lot of similarities to Waits. Both have scary sounding voices (Waits a whiskey-scarred growl and Cave a deep baritone), write detailed narratives delvingRead More

Tokyo-based whack jazz guitarist, turntablist, composer, arranger and knob twiddler Otomo Yoshihide has been called the John Zorn of Japan for his love of combining experimental sounds with avant-garde jazz. And to my ears, there’s not much there to dispute the comparison, for better or for worse. His fascination withRead More

With Koko Taylor’s sassy wailing, “Merry, Merry Christmas” provides a great excuse to sway to some prime, funky electric Chicago blues done right by one of its living legends.

by Pico When I first read about an album by Mariani called Perpetuum Mobile from 1970 and featuring Eric Johnson, two thoughts immediately came to mind. Either the “1970” part was a typo and “1980” was intended, or this was a different Eric Johnson than the Austin, Texas-based axe virtuosoRead More

by Pico A couple of weeks ago we looked at a band who at times sound like a virtual clone of Yes in their prime. This time, we spotlight a musical group who has taken mimicking others to an whole ‘nother level. Mickey Melchiondo and Aaron Freeman, aka Dean andRead More

by Pico In My Hallowed Opinion, it doesn’t matter much what kind of music it is, if it’s created and executed well, it’s worth listening to. That’s why you don’t have to like crooners to appreciate Sinatra. Or get into reggae to respect Bob Marley. That’s why even though IRead More

Alright, confession time. There are large areas of the musical landscape I listen to pretty regularly but haven’t written about and probably never will. And there’s various reasons for that. For instance, popular releases are bound to be well covered elsewhere, adding my thoughts to it just seems redundant. ThenRead More

by Pico Writing about underpublicized blueswoman Rory Block has got me thinking about another blues lady who needs no introduction at all. Everyone knows and respects Bonnie Raitt so much that her gender has long ago ceased to raise questions as to whether she can play with the big boys.Read More

by Pico Several years ago I read an article interviewing Robert Cray. In it he was asked about which up and coming blues artists he was listening to and he mentioned Eric Bibb and Corey Harris. Being a fan of Mr. Cray, I naturally had to check out these aspiringRead More

by Pico When you look at the blues scene today, some of the best out there can do one or two things well. Studebaker John, however, is a quadruple threat. He can compose, sing, play guitar and play blues harp, and do all of these things better than most. TheRead More