The genesis of this easy-rocking, blues-belting, soul-lifting collection of songs has probably played out — with far less success — on a million couches, in a million musician’s living rooms. Renee Cheek and David Hyde started with a wish list of guests. You May Also Like: The Left Banke –Read More

There’s a different attitude surrounding these recordings, which find Tommy Castro collaborating with a tough new group of blues-rock loving youngsters. You May Also Like: Left Lane Cruiser – Beck In Black (2016) Steve Earle, “The Tennessee Kid” from Terraplane (2015): One Track Mind

by Derrick Lord Faith is a difficult and complicated thing. If you understand that much you likely also realize that even the strongest faith is doomed to eventually be tested by hard times. You May Also Like: The Blind Boys of Alabama’s Down in New Orleans added a new musicalRead More

Irma Thomas, whose Louisiana legend of a voice has darkened into a more expressive place, is taking a similar career tack. The new “Simply Grand,” in fact, finds Thomas moving deeper into the emotional underpinnings of her best work at a time when safer environs would probably be more profitable.Read More

NICK DERISO: As good as her studio recordings are, they have a certain airless perfection that doesn’t quite fit the rollicking piano genius of Marcia Ball. Hers is a bubbling soulfulness, loose limbed and informal – and it’s dripping over the sides of “Live! Down the Road,” Ball’s first-ever full-lengthRead More

 by Nick DeRiso One of her best Rounder releases, and hilariously named, is “Let Me Play With Your Poodle.” Featured is legendary guitar virtuoso Clarence Holliman, the guy who burned through Bobby “Blue” Bland’s classic 1950s and ’60 sessions. In fact, the old album titles tell it best, when talkingRead More