Category Archives: Album Reviews

Miles Davis Quintet – Live In Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2

Think of it: Miles Davis on trumpet; Wayne Shorter on saxophone; Chick Corea on keyboards; Dave Holland on bass; Jack DeJohnette on drums. In one band. This was the line-up for the Miles Davis Quintet circa 1969-1970 – a cast of players that began to take shape on Filles De Kilimanjaro and In A Silent […]

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble – Texas Flood (Legacy Edition)

If you don’t already own a copy of Texas Flood, the debut album by legendary guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan and his band Double Trouble, then you should. Once this album was released in 1983 the world of blues guitar – hell, just the world of guitar – was never the same again. Vaughan, bassist Tommy […]

Nick And The Ovorols – Telegraph Taboo

Nick And The Ovorols waste no time in getting down to the nitty, gritty, greasy bizness on their debut studio album Telegraph Taboo. After a second or two of frontman Nick Peraino’s guitar clearing its throat, “Take The V Train” fires up and gets underway, lurching like a half-drunk brontosaurus. When Peraino lets fly with […]

Aaron Neville – My True Story

Aaron Neville may be turning 72 this year, but you’d never know it by his voice. Sounding as smooth and silky and soulful as ever, Neville leads an all-star band of players through 12 tracks of luscious doo-wop goodness on his new album My True Story – an album guaranteed to put the rama-lama-ding-dong and […]

Jimbo Mathus & The Tri-State Coalition – White Buffalo

In 2011, I wrote a review of Jimbo Mathus’ Confederate Buddha album, referring to the music on it as “rooted deeply in Mathus’ beloved Mississippi Hill Country, but the messages contained within the dozen tracks came from – and reach out to – some place far, far away.” My feelings about Confederate Buddha still stand […]

Lonesome Shack – City Man

Wumpwumpwumpwumpwumpwump go the drums; the guitar makes a noise like it’s hocking up a ball of Chesterfield phlegm; karangarangarang goes a beer bottle as it hits the floor – and off goes Lonesome Shack, ripping up “White Lightning”, the opening track on their new live album City Man. Recorded in April of 2012 at Seattle, […]

George Kilby Jr. – Six Pack

George Kilby Jr. and his long-time co-conspirators The Road Dogs – along with some special guests – have crafted a six-single collection of Kilby’s brand of “rough-cut American music.” The result is Kilby’s new Six Pack, packed with tunes as rootsy as the art on the album’s cover (created by his wife Katy Keen, by […]

Bovine Social Club – Bovine Social Club

Combining the eclectic acoustic bounce of early Boris Garcia, the worldgrass vibe of Railroad Earth, and a grittiness all of their own that’s nothing but real, Bovine Social Club’s self-titled debut album is ten tracks of fun, fun, fun – and great musicianship. It certainly didn’t hurt matters that BSC’s maiden voyage in the studio […]

The Folkadelics – Not A Folk Album

The Folkadelics’ debut album is exactly as advertised: it is not a folk album, fo’ sho’, boys and girls. This fine and dandy brain wrap is woven from threads of reggae, ska, bursts of funk, splashes of tie-dye spaciness, ratta-tat-tat hip-hop, and stone-ground rock ‘n’ roll. The key to The Folkadelics’ sound is that there […]

Dubbest – Avoid The Pier

Displaying a level of talent, taste, and patience beyond their years, the young lads of Dubbest took their time in the creation of their sophomore album, with the result being Avoid The Pier, total dub porn for the masses. The liner notes spec 13 tracks, but this is simply one big, fat hour of groove […]