See it even if you don't follow, or even like, indie rock.
Read More »Jon Sobel
Book Review: Greenpeace: How a Group of Ecologists, Journalists and Visionaries Changed the World
In the age of George W. Bush and Al Qaeda, it’s easy to lose sight of what is ultimately the most important conflict of all: the battle to save the environment.
Read More »CD Review: Keb’ Mo’, Peace… Back By Popular Demand
Keb' Mo's style enables him to find a place in today's pop(ular) consciousness, and that's a tough thing to do without compromising artistic integrity. More power to artists like Keb'Mo' who can do it.
Read More »CD Review: Melissa Mulligan, Love This Life
This is an upbeat pop-rock CD from Connecticut singer-songwriter Melissa Mulligan. The best songs, especially “Dark Horse” and “Janie,” could be radio hits, and Mulligan’s maple-syrup voice reminds one of the sometimes underrated Paula Cole’s. “Borrowed Wings” is another catchy number, with airier, Sarah McLachlan-ish vocals. “Girl,” a dramatic rocker …
Read More »CD Review: David Jacobs-Strain, Ocean or a Teardrop
The extremely talented but still very young David Jacobs-Strain writes, plays and sings in traditional forms, but (because, I suspect, of not having yet lived the life of which he sings) he sounds like he’s trying too hard. The result is a great-sounding CD that fails to convince. The problem …
Read More »CD Review: Lythion – …From the Beginning
"Kate Bush crossed with Brian Eno" might hint at what to expect here, but it wouldn't convey the full range of musical idioms blended by this duo.
Read More »CD Review: Brad Wilson – Brad Wilson
Brad Wilson is a proud practitioner of the wall-of-sound variety of blues-rock. His first solo CD opens with a straight blues, “Black Coffee At Sunrise,” but most of the LA rocker’s songs (he wrote all thirteen) are in the blue-eyed tradition of the Allmans and Lynyrd Skynyrd, with a solid …
Read More »Between Two Rivers – by Nicholas Rinaldi
Though his New Yorkers live somewhat dreamy lives, Rinaldi’s New York is not a modern-day version of Mark Helprin’s from A Winter’s Tale (though Echo Terrace’s rooftop Independence Day party bears a distant relation to Helprin’s images of TB victims lying on rooftops all over Manhattan). It’s not even Woody Allen’s. It’s the real thing.
Read More »Luka Bloom: Before Sleep Comes
Luka Bloom's music has always had a dreamy quality. When you get right down to it, he's a crooner, after all. But his new 28-minute CD is all dreamy, all the time.
Read More »Richard “Groove” Holmes: Super Soul
This is a reissue of organist Richard “Groove” Holmes’s 1967 LPs Super Soul and Soul Power!, complete with the original liner notes. Probably best known for his hit version of “Misty,” Holmes was clearly in his soul-jazz fusion prime when he made these recordings. His combination of groove (he was …
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