It’s always great when a memory just drops from a piece of music, even when the connection is only tangential. A few mornings ago on the way to work, I was listening to The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. You May Also Like: Toxic: Mat Walerian, Matthew Shipp, William Parker –Read More
It’s been more than three years, yet the furor surrounding Joni Mitchell’s assertion that Bob Dylan is “a plagiarist” continues unabated. She’s ready to set the record straight. You May Also Like: Joni Mitchell’s ‘Dry Cleaner From Des Moines,’ ‘Crazy Cries of Love’ + Others: Gimme Five Remembering Joni Mitchell’sRead More
Scarlet Rivera was an American violinist, plying her trade in relative obscurity, when Bob Dylan tabbed her to take part in the sessions for what would become his 1976 album Desire. You May Also Like: Mark Knopfler credits Bob Dylan for sparking new music: ‘Bob was quite thoughtful about it’Read More
Vimeo Matthew Heller’s music has the balls-out attitude of rock, and the confrontational intelligence of folk. The atom-smashing combination of both on his new album Invitation creates a dangerous fission You May Also Like: Jimmy Barnes + Steven Van Zandt, “Ride the Night Away” (2014): One Track Mind Les McCannRead More
Steve Earle, as is his way, gets beneath the bromides and the easy assumptions about the homeless, in a harrowing new song that digs out the hard-won scraps of remaining pride. You May Also Like: Steve Earle, “Baby Baby Baby (Baby)” from Terraplane (2015): One Track Mind Steve Earle, “TheRead More
BeauSoleil’s first studio recording since 2009’s Alligator Purse finds Michael Doucet’s frisky amalgam retracing Louisiana music’s journey from West Africa to the swamps of south Louisiana You May Also Like: Eric Bibb – ‘Global Griot’ (2018) The Rev. Gary Davis + Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Louisiana Red, others – TheRead More
This isn’t a jazz album, anymore than Joan Armatrading’s 2007 UK charttopper Into The Blues was about something so simple as the blues. She’s always had a roving eye, a restless muse. So Starlight is, but it also isn’t, jazz. You May Also Like: Joan Baez – Gracias a laRead More
The contemporary folk group Erwilian uses this project to transform traditional spirituals and praise music into something more universal, taking away the specifics that comes with attaching lyrics. The results are stunning, as refined as they are inspirational You May Also Like: How Neil Young’s ‘Le Noise’ Found Light inRead More
Although the mystical name suggests a psychedelic consciousness, this Southern California act actually specialized in jugband-styled folk rock. You May Also Like: Joe Mandica, “I Feel Fine” (1980): One Track Mind Just Us, “I Can’t Grow Peaches on a Cherry Tree” (1966): Forgotten Series Wes Montgomery – ‘The Complete FullRead More
A song about hard-won acceptance, Stone Blind Valentine’s “Think What You Will” begins with a raw acoustic riff from Colby Maddox before Emily Hurd enters — all steely resolve, but barely obscuring a sweeping moment of heartbreak. You May Also Like: The Blind Boys of Alabama’s Down in New OrleansRead More
