Post Tagged with: "Singer-songwriters"

Vinyl

Milton – Grand Hotel (2008)

Milton’s roots music, ruddy and real, doesn’t sound anything like his bio: New York City-based singer-songwriter. Instead, we have this sweetly gruff record, “Grand Hotel,” which stands flat-footed in the middle of the four-way intersection of folk-rock, country, blues and pop. Milton, turns out, comes by this honestly: His grandmother,Read More

Vinyl

Quickies: Claudio Roditi, Linda Presgrave, Matt Criscuolo, Ruthie Foster

The last two Quickies were an investigation of jazz records only. We’re still hacking through some recent noteworthy jazz records of different stripes, but this time, I threw in some non-jazz right at the end. Still on a blues bent that started with coverage of Shemekia Copeland’s and Joe Bonamassa’sRead More

Vinyl

Quickies: Bujo Kevin Jones & Tenth World, Neil Young, Gilfema

by Pico We’re getting to the end of the year and it feels as though there’s still too many 2008 CD’s to sift through and evaluate. I’m not ready for 2009 yet! Before launching into the ol’ year-end “best of 2008” lists, let’s quickly run through a couple of freshRead More

Vinyl

Tim Finn – Before and After (1993)

The finest of the tracks here point to a musical sensibility that’s a touch too ribald for Crowded House. Tim Finn, who had recently left after a short association with brother Neil’s band, experiments with a number of far-out sounds: A processed background vocal on “Can’t Do Both”; the fuzzyRead More

Vinyl

Van Morrison – Down the Road (2002)

NICK DERISO: “Whatever happened,” Van Morrison, erstwhile pop singer, old-soul blues gypsy, entertainer-slash-provocateur, sings here, “to the way it’s supposed to happen? And whatever happened to me?” Much, in fact, has happened. Morrison, it’s worth noting, could have settled in as a fixture on pop music’s hit-machine dead end afterRead More

Vinyl

Deep Cuts: Bruce Springsteen, "You're Missing" (2002)

NICK DERISO: This song, issued in the wake of the devastating attacks on New York City in 2001, nearly overwhelmed me with grief the first time I heard it. I thought of my father. He’s been dead 20 years this summer, and I must admit that — like everything fromRead More

Vinyl

Quickies: Willie Nelson/Wynton Marsalis, Dr. John, John Mellencamp, Left Lane Cruisers

The Quickies columns have been settling into a theme of late, a theme of pimping obscure jazzers, especially whack jazzers. Hey, I can do nothing but that for years on end, but then I’d be skipping over some albums worthy of salute that come the more mainstream side of music.Read More

Vinyl

One Track Mind: Crosby Loggins & The Light "Man In The Middle" (2007)

It should probably be no surprise to anyone who is remotely familiar with us, but we here at Something Else! are not what you’d call avid watchers of MTV. Evidently, neither is Crosby Loggins; he was asked to be a contestant on their show Rock The Cradle three of fourRead More

Vinyl

James McMurtry – ‘Just Us Kids’ (2008)

Since his early days of hangin’ with Mr. Cougar, James McMurtry remains the same guy he was back then, but with some subtle differences.

Vinyl

One Track Mind: Chris Smither, "Statesboro Blues" (1989)

by S. Victor Aaron Like Bonnie Raitt, Chris Smither is a blues-folk-rock singer who emerged from the Boston coffehouse scene of the sixties. Unlike Raitt, though, he never enjoyed the widespread success his colleague did, even when they both began recording careers in the early seventies. As a matter ofRead More