What do the following artists have in common: Rickie Lee Jones, Natalie Merchant, Lori Mckenna, The Sundays, Bjork, Kate Bush, Ani DiFranco and Dar Williams? Each one, on first listen, made the rest of my world momentarily drop away. This is no joke. Of course, the first would have beenRead More

After Frances the Mute, I honestly wasn’t sure if I particularly cared where the Mars Volta was going next. I found the album completely misguided — or maybe unguided is a more fitting word — and a sonic mess, as if the band simply threw together every chord progression andRead More

Brian Eno’s first vocal, “pop”-based album since 1990’s overlooked classic (in my opinion) Wrong Way Up with John Cale and also to Nerve Net, Another Day On Earth found Eno in much more ambient territory than one might expect from the description. Comparisons to 1992’s Nerve Net are likely moreRead More

If I was to make up a list of my favorite guitar players (and, thus, exposing myself to the Internet scourge known as GuitarFan™: You know the type. They blurt out things like “Where’s Slash?!!” and “Dimebag!” — think of it as a kind of Rock ‘n’ Roll Tourette’s) thenRead More

Damn, how disappointing this album was the first few times through. I even applied my “five times” rule You May Also Like: ‘Presto’ Proved That Everything I Thought About Rush, and Fate, Was Wrong Steely Dan – ‘Everything Must Go’ (2003): On Second Thought Richard and Linda Thompson – ‘ShootRead More

Listening to Anonymous without knowing what Mike Patton project it was, those familiar with previous installments in the Tomahawk catalog might have been hard-pressed to pin the work specifically on them. You May Also Like: No related posts.

Once you’ve heard Willie Nelson’ You Don’t Know Me: The Songs Of Cindy Walker, a strong album of covers, it’s easy to see where Nelson gets his knack for songwriting: He obviously studied Walker’s template and then took it in his own direction. What’s surprising here is that an albumRead More

David S. Ware felt it was time to focus on his abilities as a composer. As he puts it: “I didn’t want to make another quartet album with everybody blowing. You May Also Like: David S. Ware & Matthew Shipp Duo – Live In Sant’Anna Arresi, 2004 (2016) Caterpillar QuartetRead More

Every music fan has moments they hold dear. Maybe it was the time they performed “that” song at a concert. Or maybe it was a song what happened to be playing when an important relationship began. Perhaps most simple is when we hear a particular artist for the first timeRead More

Some days, it’s a song; some days, it’s an entire album. There’s been more “album” days than “song” days lately, possibly because much of the stuff I tend to listen to doesn’t work well as single tracks. You May Also Like: No related posts.