Deep Roots Magazine

Deep Roots Magazine

Roots Music and Meaningful Matters

 
 

 

Suave, Like Nobody’s Business

We redress a great wrong in finally reviewing RAUL MALO's 2007 Christmas masterpiece, Marshmallow World + Other Holiday Favorites. This Yuletide essential is so suave it even offers 'Silver Bells' as a tango. Believe it.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Equal Opportunity Vibe

Vintage Calypso is alive and well...in Berlin, where LORD MOUSE AND THE KALYPSO KATZ are packing 'em in with their swaying beats, hot horns and bold lyrics. Go Calypso is the group's new album, explained herein by Lord Mouse hi...
by David McGee
 

 

 

Standing on Big Shoulders

From Robert Johnson to the present day, SPECIAL CONSENSUS celebrates the Windy City's musical legacy on their 45th anniversary recording, CHICAGO BARN DANCE. The consensus? It's special.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Albums of the Year, 2016

From the unexpected (the revitalized Stones on their blues album) to the unclassifiable (Jeremiah Lockwood's KOL NIDRE), our 2016 Album of the Year selections offer sweet music from varied sources.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Forevermore

His voice belongs to the ages now: Cleveland Duncan, lead tenor of The Penguins, died on November 6, shortly after casting his ballot in the Presidential election. Remembering the great lead singer who made 'Earth Angel' immortal.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Kinda Memorable Bluegrass for Christmas

This year’s crop of new holiday releases has been one of the weakest in recent memory, but even in the strongest years THE ROYS' delightful BLUEGRASS KINDA CHRISTMAS would be a standout.
by David McGee
 

 

 

‘Voices Raised in Determination and Triumph’

On this, its fifth CD, The Ebony Hillbillies' old-timey sound evokes, on the one hand, bygone eras in the jubilant bones- and fiddle-fired title track and horrific modern-day tragedies rooted in racial animus...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Feeling Nature’s Rhythms, Mystery and Spiritual Beauty

A sequence of nine evocative, often poignant solo piano pieces by the young Scottish composer/pianist Alexander Chapman Campbell, inspired by a walk through Norwegian mountains
by David McGee