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Bentley's Bandstand
This is what happens when two Liverpool musicians (who met at the same art school there as John Lennon and Paul McCartney) come to Los Angeles and end up for a few days in the desert. It’s a good thing, too. Chris and Thomas are from similar stock as the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Pentangle and other folk-influenced English artists. They carried on with their traveling revue, “Cook au Van” all over the UK before heading way west to California. Quickly, the pair found an affinity for the desolate land around Joshua Tree, and wrote some of the songs for Land Of Sea with a feel for their new home and what they’d left behind in Great Britain. It’s an alluring amalgamation of an overgrown countryside crossed with the sweep of wide open spaces, where day skies are full of clouds and night skies filled with stars. The sound of solitude runs deep here; nothing is rushed and both men seem to have the assurance of two old souls who’ve somehow found themselves with brand new lives. Their voices have grown together into one instrument, impossible to imagine apart. Producer Mark Howard, known for his work with Daniel Lanois, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, U2 and others, makes sure the music wraps itself around the moving spirits alive on Land Of Sea. Even the title suggests a leap of faith, maybe more a contradiction in terms, but Chris and Thomas never think twice about an accomplishment that feels like a musical destiny finally fulfilled. 0 Comments
Funk can be funny stuff. It’s not something you can really learn how to play. The notes may be right, but unless that extra element of mysterious feeling is in the music, the sound lays there like a limp pickle.
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Oxford, Mississippi, being a college town, has an abundant audience for all kinds of music. Blue Mountain could once have qualified as the house band there, but then the members went their separate ways.
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Jerry Garcia once accurately said, “All music is psychedelic,” and truer words were never spoken. At its best, sound can take a willing listener to the outer edges of reality, no matter what style it is.
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First things first. The late Luther Ingram’s 1972 hit “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right” is as good a single as has ever been recorded.
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Paul Thorn’s righteous American rock is music that’s made so far off the map that he named his label Perpetual Obscurity.
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Live albums aren’t what they used to be. Many times they’re more of a holding pattern while an artist catches their creative breath, instead of being a sweeping view of a musician’s performing strengths.
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He just might be the greatest blues guitarist alive. At 72, Lord knows Buddy Guy has the experience, and he’s always been the wild man in the way he attacks his instrument.
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Make sure all the volume needles are in the red, don’t worry about the blown left speaker, tell the neighbors to go ahead and call the cops and double-check the home insurance premium is paid...
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If ever a guitarist deserved to be chosen the ultimate designated hitter on that instrument, it should be Jesse Ed Davis. Think about this: when George Harrison was organizing the Concert for Bangladesh benefit, he chose Davis to play just in case a wobbly Eric Clapton didn’t come through.
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David Sanborn has always been a utility man. He can play just about anything: jazz, blues, rock, soul, whatever. Put him in a band and he is going to shine on saxophone. He made his early impression in the Butterfield Blues Band in the late ‘60s...
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One of the greatest country songs of all time is Randy Travis’ “On the Other Hand” from 1986. It introduced the singer to the world, and his many hits that followed came from that audacious start.
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Jazz appears to be lying low these days. Some of that is due to the devastating decline of the music business. In a time when established stars can’t sell their albums like they used to, how much chance does the lowly jazz musician have?
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Perfect albums are a funny bunch. While they’re usually in the heart of the beholder, there seems to be a consensus on some releases that they really do reach a precious plateau.
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This is a name everyone knows, even if they don’t. As one-half of the songwriting team in Squeeze, Chris Difford and his partner Glenn Tillbrook have created some of the sharpest rock ever out of England. Difford’s is the darker view, maybe More | 0 Comments
In New Orleans, to this day no one gets close to Walter “Wolfman” Washington on the funkiness scale. There is something about the man that defies description.
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Albums that are comprised entirely of cover songs can go either way. Some may see them as a complete holding pattern, where the artist attempts to write enough original material for the next release.
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Mixing together the incendiary influences of several styles of music, Bronx River Parkway is a collective of players from New York who all come with arm-long resumes. With that kind of experience, you know the sound is going to be explosive.
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Bobby Womack is a badass. There is no other way to say it, but he also keeps a lid on the danger. If Wilson Pickett would pull a knife on you to steal your girlfriend, Womack would rather do it with finesse.
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He may have been born in South Africa, but Deepak Ram’s soul lives in his parents’ native land of India. Everything that comes out of his bansuri flute feels like it’s been inspired by the eternal beauty of Indian music. More | 0 Comments
Message music has a proud history, dating back to the dawn of recording. It’s interesting that there hasn’t been that much of it the past few years, considering how society’s drift has definitely tilted toward a time of concern.
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