At first, there’s a homespun innocence about Bobby and Suzy, this brother-and-sister duo. Recording in their music room at Charleston, S.C., you can almost see them as they once were You May Also Like: Bobby Kimball – We’re Not in Kansas Anymore (2017) Bobby Kimball, former Toto frontman: Something Else!Read More

West Coast-based pianist Michael Ray has been performing with sibling drummer Stephen since they were 10 and 7 years old, respectively. Together, they’ve played more than 2,300 concerts together. That deeply ingrained sense of musical brotherhood, almost like the two are finishing each other’s sentences, plays out on the idiosyncratic,Read More

“Blue Tip” is tensile and itchy then soaring and romantic — the closest this new record, the Cars’ first in 24 years, gets to approximating its own career-making mixture of Ric Ocasek’s weirdo aloofness and Benjamin Orr’s sun-drenched pop warmth. Orr, of course, passed in 2000 after a bout withRead More

Just as Mike and the Mechanics’ “The Living Years” reminds me of my father, there’s now a song that brings fond thoughts of my dear mother, to whom I dedicate this song. During this time of year, a lot of us reflect a lot on what our mother means toRead More

Saxophonist Walt Weiskopf’s first-ever in-concert recording Walt Weiskopf Quartet: Live, issued earlier in the month on Colorado-based Capri Records, is special in another personal way. You May Also Like: Walt Weiskopf European Quartet – ‘Diamonds and Other Jewels’ (2022) Walt Weiskopf – Fountain Of Youth (2017)

A new offering from Sade’s forthcoming 28-track two-disc ‘The Ultimate Collection’ turns every candle-lit romantic notion about her music on its ear.

South Carolina’s Stella by Starlight is an entertaining electropop amalgam of modern and distinctly old-school sounds, one part mixtape-from-your-dad’s-vinyl-collection and another part post-modern-hipster-songcraft. You May Also Like: Eri Yamamoto, Chad Fowler, William Parker + Steve Hirsh – ‘Sparks’ (2022)

Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis continue a stirringly offbeat musical dialogue begun with their 2008 release Two Men with the Blues, this time focusing on the music of Ray Charles. You May Also Like: Willie Nelson Found a Worthy Foil on the Diverse, Rootsy ‘Willie and the Wheel’ Wynton MarsalisRead More

“Mississippi Mile,” a country-inflected blues, finds John Oates right up close, even as his band sets about making this rafter-rattling ruckus.

by Fred Phillips When Volbeat’s “Sad Man’s Tongue” comes blaring out of my speakers on a shuffle, I’m always happy, and I always hit repeat — usually a dozen times or so, at least. And I always think about how I nearly missed such a great song. You May AlsoRead More