Tuesday , July 28 2026

Jeff Burger

Jeff Burger’s website, byjeffburger.com, contains half a century's worth of music reviews and commentary. His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters.

Music Reviews: Nick Drake’s ‘The Making of Five Leaves Left’ and Eric Andersen’s ‘Blue River: Live in Tokyo’

Nick Drake-Making of Five Leaves Left-LP Box Set Cover

Let’s hope we’ll soon see similar boxes devoted to the making of Drake’s other two studio albums, both of which are as noteworthy as his debut. The world needs all the music from him that it can get.

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Music Reviews: Counting Crows’ ‘Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!’ plus Freedy Johnston and Mike Henderson

Counting Crows

Adam Duritz is still singing about loneliness, dislocation, alienation, and the pitfalls of stardom, but he remains an intense, attention-grabbing vocalist, and these nine tracks are up to the high standards that the group established early in its career.

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Music Reviews: A Live Buck Owens Compendium, plus Tami Neilson, Maria Muldaur, Jeffrey Foskett, and a Rockabilly Anthology

buck owens in concert

“Buck took the shuffle beat and he took the lyrics and the style of honky-tonk, and he added the spunk, the vitality of rock and roll to his sound.”

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Book & Music Reviews: A Biography of Joe Meek, England’s Counterpart to Phil Spector; plus Bobby Lee Trammell, the Rain Parade, and Brian Wilson

Joe Meek

As Darryl W. Bullock writes in 'Love and Fury: The Life, Death and Legacy of Joe Meek,' the producer was a “pioneer, genius, maniac, naif…all of those things…and more.”

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Music Reviews: The Wandering Hearts, Willie Nile, Christopher Cross, Iron Horse, and the Black Watch

Wandering-Hearts-Deja-Vu

The Wandering Hearts do stick close enough to CSNY's 'Déjà vu' arrangements to give fans of the original album a bit of the feeling named in its title.

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Music Reviews: Gene and Eunice, J.M. Kearns, Tim O’Brien & Jan Fabricius, Michael Arbenz & Andy Sheppard, and Comet Gain

Gene and Eunice

Gene Wilson (aka Gene Forrest) and Eunice Levy, a married couple, scored several hits in the 1950s but dented the pop charts only once, with “Poco Loco.” But the songs collected here are almost uniformly excellent.

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Music & Film Reviews: Frank Zappa’s ‘Cheaper Than Cheep,’ plus Janis Ian, Christian Parker, Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed, and Big Love Car Wash

frank-zappa-cheaper-than-cheep-cover

The 23-song program mines some of Zappa’s most noteworthy material. He reaches all the way back to 'Freak Out,' the Mothers’ sterling 1966 debut...

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Music & Film Reviews: ‘Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII’ (2025 Editions), plus Julee Cruise and Emma Wilson

Pink Floyd at Pompeii album cover detail

The visuals, which are as unusual as the music, contribute to the sense that you’ve entered some sort of LSD dreamworld.

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