It’s one thing to cover somebody, quite another to expose something fundamentally true about the original song through your interpretation — and that happens with Johnny Cash’s take on this Bob Dylan classic. You May Also Like: How Johnny Cash Challenged Convention Once Again on ‘American Recordings’ How Johnny Cash’sRead More

Dallas, Texas-based Laura Ainsworth, though performing last-century throwback cocktail jazz, may have stumbled into a zeitgeist-defining moment with the opening title track here. Whether she knew it or not back in the recording studio, Ainsworth’s delicious tale of revenge exacted on a serial philanderer is perfectly of the moment YouRead More

Johnny Winter joined us for a discussion on his terrific 2011 album, his biggest successes and biggest regrets – and why he always got in a fight in Dallas.

‘All We Are Saying’ feels so connective because of guitarist Bill Frisell’s willingness to simply let things happen – to accept life as it goes.

Some songs are so personal, so specific, that you wonder if anyone else could ever do them justice. Rufus Wainwright’s “Dinner at Eight,” originally about a confrontation with his often-absent father, was one of them. Until now You May Also Like: Billy Porter, “For What It’s Worth” (2020): One TrackRead More

When I first got a hold of this CD I gotta admit, I greeted it with a lot of skepticism. Another Beatles covers project? I mean, I think every single Beatles song short of “Revolution No. 9” has been covered at least once, if not a million times. You MayRead More

As much as I wanted to argue with the smaller ambitions of Ramsey Lewis’ Taking Another Look,’ in the end, it was simply too ingratiating.

by Fred Phillips I don’t like White Lion. Not even a little bit. During my teen years I got so sick of “When the Children Cry” that I felt like puking every time I heard it. You May Also Like: I Want, Need, Love You: Garage-Beat Nuggets From the FestivalRead More

They used to call what Muddy Waters did electric blues. What would that make this sizzling new arc-flash of Todd Rundgren-played Robert Johnson tunes? Electrocuted blues? You May Also Like: Why Todd Rundgren’s ‘Back to the Bars’ Remains So Powerful

From the first, it seems, guitarist Bill Frisell has sought to synthesize jazz with country and folk themes, and that impulse works to tremendous effect on this deft remake of John Lennon’s “#9 Dream,” from a forthcoming tribute recording You May Also Like: Bill Frisell – Music IS (2018) BillRead More