Trombone Shorty’s sudden emergence on the national music scene from the streets of Treme is one of the big music stories of 2010. by S. Victor Aaron Sometimes when listening to music, neither jazz nor mainstream is right for the moment. Blues or something folky or rootsy is usually calledRead More

Things could be looking up for Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. by Pico It’s been a whole three months since we last discussed a batch of sparkling new releases that are targeted for wider audiences. That’s such a long span that a few of the half dozen records yakked aboutRead More

by Pico One of the most enduring singing piano players isn’t Billy Joel or even Elton John. Mose Allison has been at it since Nat King Cole was dominating the charts and although he’s slowed down a lot lately, the eighty-two year old was recently enticed back into the studioRead More

The hottest band in the land just might be the Drive-By Truckers by S. Victor Aaron Funny how it seems I have plenty of time to listen to new music and precious little to write about. There’s about 9GBs of albums in my iPod rotation and I’m familiar with aRead More

A year ago, we drooled a little over a power blues record by an ascending star on the blues scene, Joe Bonamassa. Since then The Ballad Of John Henry rocketed to the #1 position on Billboard’s Blues Albums charts, #103 on its Top 200, #35 Rock chart and #1 Heatseekers,Read More

Since we’re on the topic of Austin-based acts, why not shift our focus to one of the most acclaimed and yet most elusive since the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan? I’m talking of course about the Arcangels. It would be impossible to discuss the Arcangels without a discussing their sometimes-volatileRead More

by S. Victor Aaron 2009 has had its share of the blues but there were plenty of blues practitioners making the best of the hard times, as we saw a slew of fine releases by them last year. There were seven of those that really stood out to me, aboveRead More

Otis Taylor might very well be the greatest bluesman of the 21st century. Not the best blues-rocker, not the best Delta bluesman or soul-bluesman; just the best straight-up bluesman. That’s because when I listen to any Taylor record, I hear strong echoes of the Delta blues, while detecting a restlessRead More

by Nick DeRiso An honorable, if ultimately somewhat superficial, tribute to the thing that makes Robert “Jr.” Lockwood such an important element to modern blues. Lockwood was something of a stepson to Robert Johnson. The doomed Delta bluesman would stop in to stay with Lockwood’s mother in Helena, Ark., duringRead More

by Pico This site had its beginnings, believe or not, as a blues-oriented site. These days we’re ten times more likely to cover jazz than we are the Blues, but there’s nonetheless twenty-three entries in the Blues category so far this year. We’ve covered everything from soul-blues and blues-rock newRead More