Paul McCartney’s “Band on the Run” still represents the creative highpoint of his career away from the Beatles, nearly four decades later. So, to paraphrase a tune here, what’s the use in repackaging the thing again? Well, a brilliant remaster of the original tapes, which have always been a littleRead More

by Mark Saleski For many years, I was very comfortable with the statement: “I hate country music.” It was easy to say because there was so much evidence all around: Garth Brooks, Toby Keith, Faith Hill and all of that — it was really just pop music with belt buckles,Read More

By Nick DeRiso For all of her wandering, Allen Toussaint remains this touchstone for New Orleans-born vocalist Christina Gaudet. But Gaudet doesn’t let her lasting affinity for a hometown soul legend pigeonhole her wider ambitions on Solid, though it’s subtitled “Featuring new songs by Allen Toussaint.” She’s particularly adept atRead More

photo by Johan Eriksson by Mark Saleski There are so many ways we discover music: from a film soundtrack, the radio (Internet, satellite, earthbound), word of mouth, advertising. Most of these can be thought of as happy accidents. Is there such a thing as an “unhappy accident”? This is theRead More

by Tom Johnson I have two amazing young daughters who constantly remind me of the distance in age between them and me. The youngest is too young to ask much, but is plenty busy with toys and books, and being the family comedian. My older daughter, however, she is fullRead More

“Come Down in Time” works as a perfect metaphor, and a sad rebuke, for what later happened to Elton John and his songs.

Music obsessives and “regular” folks alike know of the song/memory retrieval phenomenon — you hear a song and instantly remember where you were the first time you heard it. The speed and clarity of detail associated with the song can be quite amazing. There have been claims that odors produceRead More

by Mark Saleski After listening to certain Tom Waits songs, I get to thinking about what the man might have stored in his garage. Sure, it’s become sort of a cliché, doing a mental inventory of Waits’ collection of bullhorns and whatnot, but it sure is fun. Even more funRead More

by Pico We’ve used this space for bringing telling the world about the recorded accomplishments of artists both popular and obscure, and for us, at least, the talented ones who haven’t emerged yet are usually the ones that are most fun to write about. With those types, there’s a greaterRead More

Rock stars whose dad jammed with Django Reinhardt when said rock star was an infant, and dated Nico not long after after high school deserve my eternal respect and admiration, but as far as I know, only Jackson Browne falls into that category. It was only years later when heRead More