Veteran drummer and novice record label entrepreneur Whit Dickey finds ways to keep things fresh, this time with a new trio for ‘Expanding Light.’

This ironically named Chicago song is well written, detailed and very descriptive, but it took me a while to understand what the lyrics really meant.

A striking synthesis of folk, classical, pop and rock, ‘Year of the Cat’ deftly demonstrated Al Stewart’s ability to craft literate songs.

By applying today’s sound processing technology to hand-made music that was conceived instantly, Adam Rudolph magnifies the exotic musical concepts of himself and his longtime partners and collaborators Hamid Drake and Ralph M. Jones.

Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, Jon Anderson, Gary Husband and Markus Reuter are part of the latest edition of Five for the Road, an occasional look at music that’s been in my car lately.

With Neil Podgurski and Brian Settles by Chad Taylor’s side, ‘The Daily Biological’ manages to cover a lot of fertile ground found in Taylor’s artistry.

For the first time ever I leave an Alestorm album not with a big grin and a desire to hoist the Jolly Roger, but actually kind of bummed.

Well crafted, melodic and utterly engaging, yet musically and lyrically challenging, ‘McStine & Minnemann’ almost defies description.

Aaron Parks has the songwriting and playing chops to make a solid jazz record whenever he wants to. This time, he went beyond that realm.

Daniel Carter, Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Gerald Cleaver show how the introduction of just one new member into a stew of vets radically changes the dynamics.