The ambitious new album See The Light, from Alabama quintet Fiddleworms is a cavalcade of styles with literally a parade of guest musicians including the University of North Alabama marching Band. The eleven original tracks are interspersed with snippets of radio sound effects and spoken word segments that flow from jazzy blues to stomping country rock fusion all centered around the lazy everyman vocals Russell Medford. The level of production and…

Bruce Springsteen and Mark Knopfler have influenced tons of artists over the years, but a sweet-sounding soprano who’s co-founder of the charming Canadian trinity known as the Wailin’ Jennys wouldn’t be the first to come to mind.

Ruth Moody, who possibly possesses the prettiest voice in all of North…

Luke Winslow King is a man born a century too late. His smooth down home tenor and seamless acoustic and slide guitar accompaniment to his pre-war blues, ragtime, southern gospel and Tin Pan Alley sing-alongs are straight out of 1913, not 2013. Lucky for us, his new album The Coming Tide was impeccably recorded, engineered and co-produced by Earl Scioneaux III at Piety Street Studios in New Orleans in a modern digital format instead of a scratchy old…

Paula Cole is a piano-playing poet and provocateur, a loving daughter and mother, a Grammy winner and seven-time nominee, a dramatic voice of affliction and affection, a risk-taker in a risky business.

These days, though, she is mostly a fighter. On and off four major labels over a 20-year career, Cole admittedly felt ashamed at first to try what most of today's independent-minded artists wouldn't think twice about doing — ask her…

They call themselves The CD Woodbury Band but make no mistake this five piece band of seasoned pro’s is a fully collaborative unit and their new studio album Monday Night proves that the value of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This strong ten song set was recorded by Chip Butters at the REC Room studios; the band pays tribute to the happenings in this unique environment of live performance space and recording facility on the second…

Ron Hacker has been a fixture of the bay area blues scene for nearly forty years for his tenth album simply titled “Live in San Francisco he and his trio The Hacksaws and caught doing what they do best, laying down some serious deep delta blues grooves, and slide guitar perfection. 

The ten song set was recorded at the fame Biscuits and Blues club on one magic night in November of 2011. Hacker begins solo on the Sleepy John Estes classic…

Tinsley Elis -Get It - Heart Fixer-- Rick J Bowen 

One might think releasing an instrumental album of blues, surf and guitar rock in this day and age is unwise, but with the fastest growing genre of music today being “EDM” aka...electronic dance music, the new album Get It, from Tinsley Ellis may prove he has some real moxie. 

The strong ten tracks not only pay homage to great groove instrumental groups of the past by…

Song Brothers Song

Eric and Leigh Gibson have opened up their hearts wide with They Called It Music (Compass Records, 2013), an exquisite album of aching songs recorded at the end of 2012, less than a year after the death of their father. The charging intuitive ensemble rings with lump-in-your-throat truths and Gibson trademark harmonies.

The recording and mixing of the album make me feel like I am standing in the middle of the band: Barber’s…

Saturday night the Aurora was dancing across the Alaskan sky.  As Bryan and I pulled into my driveway, a beautiful, bright ribbon of green was there above my house. I can’t think of a better ending to an already magical night. We had just gotten home from our album release concert, played to a packed house at Out North Theatre in Anchorage. It may have been one of my favorite shows we’ve played, ever. The vibes were…

One of the joys about covering music in my spare time is hearing a singer-songwriter or band for the first time, not having any preconceived notions or prior knowledge of their work. With mounds of sounds stacking up, for whatever reason you dig deep to find the one CD that arrived unsolicited in the mail. Before reaching the end of the opening song...

Eureka!

It’s like finding…

An apt way to categorize Moxie, the new album from Daphne Lee Martin, would be to call it “steam punk pop,” for it is equally retro and modern and thoroughly out this world. Artfully produced by Bill Readey at Fuzzy Rainbow Production, with her band Raise The Rent, the ten song collection mixes a myriad of sounds organic and electrophonic, including strings, woodwinds, brass, mellotron, raw percussion and bracing electric guitar. All of this clever…

Bang Bang Boom Boom, the new album from California chanteuse Beth Hart, runs the gamut of musical styles from low down blues to swinging cabaret, rock, gospel and soul with one simple theme holding the songs together: love. The 11 songs were recorded live off the floor and masterfully produced by Kevin Shirley, all designed to highlight the impeccable depth and power of Hart’s smoky alto, a true gift from the gods. She has been compared to Janis…

For over a decade Wall Walla’s Rob Barrett and his Coyote Kings have been a driving force in the eastern Washington blues scene and now are the proud hosts of the 2nd Wall Walla guitar festival. In 2010 the Kings teamed up with power house vocalist Michelle “Mush” Morgan, releasing the critically acclaimed album Move, in 2011. Their follow up, Nasty Habits and Dirty Little Secrets, features eleven new songs immaculately produced and penned by Barrett…

Well, the mailbox and inbox are filling up with tons of cool new music.  So, I'll jump in with the second ever non-shuffle album review....

See what's up with Tim Lee 3 and their forthcoming new album Devil's Rope after the jump...

Tim Lee 3 are from Knoxville,…

The expectations are often set quite high for the progeny of well-known artists who decide to follow in their parents’ footsteps, often leading to mixed results. No doubt Nashville’s Lilly Hiatt felt this pressure being the daughter of well-known singer-songwriter John Hiatt, but her debut album Let Down rises to the challenge.

Like her father, Hiatt knows how to turn a phrase and compose songs that seem quite simple on the surface with their quickly familiar themes of life…

Capitalizing on the momentum of his BMA nominated album Hard Dollar, Texas blues troubadour Hadden Sayers keeps the spirit moving with his new release Rolling Soul. The twelve song collection forges into the deeper waters of the heart and soul with confidence and conviction earned by time on the road. The tunes are less hooked fill than his last offering but have a masterful approach to song craft reminiscent of John Hiatt and James Taylor, pushing Sayers toward becoming the blues…

The San Francisco based dirty blues punk quartet The Stone Foxes have taken a brave step towards pop sensibility with their third full length release Small Fires, one that should propel them into the spotlight. The strong ten song album mixes the raw energy from their live shows that helped the band build a strong following, with sophisticated production and hook filled songwriting which draws in the listener with its more velvet hammer approach. The…

Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland weren’t even born when Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston teamed up for the Motown hit single “It Takes Two” in 1965. Two years later, they also missed out when Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty costarred in Bonnie and Clyde, the Academy Award-nominated film about a romantic but violent couple who became legendary for robbing banks throughout America’s…

“I play this 1966 Fender Telecaster, but you’re still gone.” Nathan Bell (1966 Telecaster)

I’m listening to In Tune, On Time, Not Dead, the music of Nathan Bell. Nathan’s an incredibly soulful, wise, and hard-hitting lyrical musician who currently resides in Chattanooga, TN. On…

Who said the blues can’t be fun? Especially when done Texas style. Steve Dupree .aka Dr. Dupree created just that when he took his band The Delta Flyers to Wire Recording studio in Austin Texas for a three day marathon recording session, with owner/engineer Stuart Sullivan at the controls and Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff producing. The band of outstanding players; Travis Stephenson on guitar, Quentin "Q" Calva on bass guitar, and Steve Bundrick on drums, where recorded hot off the floor on…