Reviews
Albums worth your time
In Defense Of My Own Happiness
Joy Oladokun
“One of the more uplifting revelations was an album from Joy Oladokun, entitled in defense of my own happiness. It’s an impressive introduction. A balancing act of sorts, it keeps one foot in deep, dark impressions and contemplative…
Dirt Farmer
Levon Helm #folkrock
“Dirt Farmer was a comeback album in the musical, medical, and spiritual sense. It was the sound of a man not only performing music again, but living again. Helm came full circle in his artistic and emotional life.…
City Music
“Its spacious sound is out of sync with his bustling setting, but it draws you into his warm, eye-level focus. Together they create a dusky atmosphere, an unshowy product of the band’s intuition. The playing is cottony and…
Sea Change
“It’s the best album Beck has ever made, and it sounds like he’s paid dearly for the achievement. This kind of candor does not come easily even to great record makers, and Beck, one of our sharpest, has…
Quarantine At El Ganzo
“Conceived and launched during the pandemic period, Quarantine at El Ganzo was born as a necessary refuge in times of chaos. From the construction of the arrangements to the formation of the verses, from the treatment given to…
Daddy’s Country Gold
Melissa Carper
““Not unlike Loretta Lynn, Melissa Carper is giving us scenes and stories and vignettes that kind of play out between home and the honky-tonk” – @nprmusic • “Make no mistake about it, Daddy’s Country Gold isn’t just an…
Texas Piano Man
“The 11 songs on Texas Piano Man are suitably bold, a rollicking, playful collection that hearkens back to freewheeling singer-songwriters and over-the-top showmen like Elton John, Harry Nilsson or Leon Russell. Ellis loses none of his sharp eye…
Purgatory
“Childers is a vocalist muscular enough to carry an outlaw rocker like "Whitehouse Road" and agile enough to roll with a cosmic meditation like "Universal Sound," a road song that ends up as philosophical as Simpson's best work.…
Modern Sounds In Country & Western Music
“Country music and modernity were not synonymous in the early 1960s — after the rock-and-roll explosion, country held tight to its association with tradition, which could sometimes translate as a bulwark against the fight for full citizenship for…
Italian Ice
“The project lists six recording locations, notably including the iconic Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. Both bassist David Hood and keyboard legend Spooner Oldham from the famed Muscle Shoals Alabama crew contribute. If they were brought in, along with…
