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

Some people just have a gift for the odd twist of phrase that makes a song mean so much more than just a bunch of words or even just a mood. Bruce Cockburn, the Canadian sorta-Christian singer/songwriter is one such guy You May Also Like: The Immediate Family, “Cruel Twist”Read More

“In the darkness,” Jon Anderson sings on this haunting track, “there is always a song for you.” His road back to us has been dark, indeed You May Also Like: The Solo Song Where Jon Anderson Finally Reclaimed His Yes Legacy

by Nick DeRiso Jazz guitarist Al Di Meola, the former teen prodigy in Return to Forever, accomplishes an uncommon thing here, making something out of a cover attempt at the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever.” You May Also Like: ‘Danny Says: A Documentary on the Life and Times of Danny Fields’Read More

When Faith No More disbanded in 1998, they released Who Cares A Lot, one of those annoying best-ofs that fans hate — all the hits they already owned in one form or another You May Also Like: No related posts.

Some time ago…two years and three months ago to be more precise…we raved on the double-bass mastery of the Norwegian ECM Records mainstay Arild Andersen, and noted then that he “may not be the first name that comes up when one thinks of the greatest living acoustic bassists, but he’sRead More

by Nick DeRiso Turns out, it actually does mean a thing, even if it ain’t got that swing. For something like 80 years now, that old Duke Ellington cliche worked as the clarion call of big band music, but its mantra has also become its curse. You May Also Like:Read More

by Nick DeRiso First off, this doesn’t start off with any piano, but also not the churchy wistfulness of the Cowboy Junkies’ 1987 breakthrough The Trinity Session. Instead, there is a gnarled electric guitar from Michael Timmins, a mashed-down organ and an updated worldliness in Margo Timmons’ familiar alto. They’reRead More

Here was Billy Joel: talented, confident and getting ready to bust out into superstardom.

“Am I Blue” is a largely forgotten argument for Ray Charles’ striking ability to synthesize jazz, blues, country and gospel into music with a broader appeal. That’s saying something, considering that it appears on The Genius of Ray Charles, a half-big band/half-strings Atlantic release that became one of his mostRead More