NICK DERISO: Buckwheat Zydeco should, more correctly, be called Buckwheat Zydeco/Soul/Pop/Dance/R&B/Rock/ Funk/And Some Gospel. “On Track” is perhaps the best example of Stanley Dural’s far-flung interests. He arrived, of course, with the credentials: A gravelly patois style, a band called Il Sont Partis (“they are crazy”) and experience in theRead More

NICK DERISO: Go into this hidden-away New Orleans gem expecting blues — what with Jim Dickinson producing and East Memphis Slim as a sideman — and you’re in for a big surpise. The House Levelers were more of a thumpy roots-music outfit, one that was at once sharp as scissors,Read More

?Among the blues musicians of today, you’ve got your stars like Robert Cray, Jonny Lang, Shemekia Copeland and so forth, and then you’ve got the remaining 98% who are toiling away at this blessed craft in relative obscurity, anonymous to all but the patrons who catch their shows in barsRead More

by Pico Here’s a One Track Mind that’s also a One Hit Wonder. Remember Dionne Farris? If you do, then this song must have made an impression on you, too. This is usually the part where I delve into the artist’s background and deliver the setup to the song ofRead More

NICK DERISO: We blast off with two break-neck covers from this bluesy Tex-Mex bar band — Jimi Hendrix’s scorching “Hey Joe” and then ? and the Mysterians’ “96 Tears.” Consider yourself warned. This is floor-it fun, with the brake pedal broken off. Carrasco and Co. rarely stop even to breatheRead More

by S. Victor Aaron From the first two words of this group, you already know that it’s a combo that features King Crimson’s all-everything rhythm section of Bill Bruford (drummer extraordinaire) and Tony Levin (bassist extraordinaire). This side project of theirs produced just a self-titled studio album in 1999 andRead More

NICK DERISO: Used to be, liking the Alabama-born Sullivans was akin to being part of some secret society. Nobody knew ’em. But the ones who did, well, they flat-out loved ’em. Then, somewhere along the way, Jerry and Tammy Sullivan went from being little-known gospel greats to gosh-dog superstars. We’reRead More

NICK DERISO: Sequencing an album by the New Orleans-based Irish folkie Beth Patterson must be like trying to make sense of a series of radio stations. The first track on her debut solo CD was a classic reel, one of those familiar yet still luminous moments with the swirling rhythmsRead More

By Pico The fertile music grounds of Austin, Texas has brought the world such uniquely talented guitar big shots like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Johnson. But the list doesn’t stop there; among many other specialists of the six string from that locale is a dude who stands out aRead More

by Nick DeRiso Like “alternative” before it, the term new-age music has been stretched out of shape by the varied and interesting voices that have gotten involved over the years. But you’ve got to have a label for the bins at those mall record stores. And, so it goes. PeekRead More