by Tom Johnson Who knew Low would crank things up like they did with 2005’s The Great Destroyer, their Sub-Pop debut? Were they holding back all those years, or did the label urge them to do something different? Whatever it was, it worked against every notion fans had when wordRead More

By Tom Johnson Corinne Bailey Rae is one of those unexpected interests for me, a pop-chanteuse making the kind of music I typically wouldn’t really find much interest in. But, for some reason, I fell for her simple, emotive voice. My only problem with her eponymous debut album was thatRead More

by Tom Johnson With his 2001 release, Poses Wainwright (yes, the son of Loudon Wainwright III) gave the world a breath of fresh air. Often set to what amounts to modern day Tin Pan Alley tunes, Wainwright uses his voice to display something that so often goes ignored these daysRead More

by Tom Johnson Following her fantastic 2000 release Red Dirt Girl, this found the angelic-voiced Emmylou Harris continuing down the path she started with Daniel Lanois on the equally fantastic but slightly more stunning 1995 album Wrecking Ball, and that’s just fine with me. Once a country-goddess, Harris has incorporatedRead More

by Tom Johnson Elvis Costello makes yet another shift in his career, this time to take on the persona of a jazz crooner backed by an orchestra arranged and conducted by his own bad self. Does it work? Depends on your view of Elvis: If, in your world, he’s theRead More

Sometimes old really is new again. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones existed as a trio for a handful of years after harmonica/pianist Howard Levy left, only to ask consistent fill-in saxophonist Jeff Coffin to join their ranks. You May Also Like: Bela Fleck, Robin McKelle, Delfeayo Marsalis + Others: FiveRead More

Frank Black is dead, but long live Black Francis as ‘Bluefinger’ brings back a little more Pixies-derived attitude.

There’s an easy target for this band: All the people who listened to any of the past few Porcupine Tree albums and just couldn’t get enough of Gavin Harrison’s drumming. You May Also Like: Chad Taylor – ‘Myths and Morals’ (2018)

by Tom Johnson Every genre seems to get reinvented every so often. Jazz had its renewal a few years back, and now the blues seems to be burbling under again, beginning into the early 2000s with the success of the White Stripes. But the White Stripes got nuthin’ on thisRead More

by Tom Johnson A definitive entry in the Talking Heads’ catalog this was somehow out of print at one point for, what, nearly two full decades? I was lucky enough to stumble upon a bootleg copy of the vinyl a while back but the sound quality was pretty rough; thereRead More