Half-Lights and Misty Streetscapes
'HALF LIGHTS and MISTY STREETSCAPES': ROBERT HUGILL reviews two introspective, atmospheric, haunting gems: pianist-composer MELISSA PARMENTER's MESSAPICA and the intriguing ECHO COLLECTIVE's THE SEE WITHIN.
David McGee
Really the Blues: A Roundup
A blues roundup featuring new CDs from British blues-rock veterans SAVOY BROWN, a great one from the late RON THOMPSON and, triumphantly returning from a six-year absence on record, DIANE SCHUUR.
Shirley Chisholm: ‘Always a Doer’
In SHIRLEY CHISHOLM IS A VERB! author VERONICA CHAMBERS and illustrator RACHELLE BAKER remember the first black woman elected to Congress and the first woman to make a serious bid for the Presidency. JULES has the inside scoop.
Kathleen Edwards Returns, Triumphantly and With Animals
KATHLEEN EDWARDS returns from a lengthy, self-imposed sabbatical to reclaim the high singer-songwriter ground she conquered in 2003. Her new album, TOTAL FREEDOM, says much about where she's been, and memorably so. A dog, and birds, figure into her return. DUNCAN STRAUSS investigates.
The Silence Lifts
ALICIA NUGENT, one of the finest voices of her generation, makes a triumphant return on KEITH STEGALL-produced THE OLD SIDE OF TOWN. They don't make 'em like her anymore.
In Conversation: Larissa FastHorse, MacArthur Grant Fellow
In NATIVE AMERICA NEWS, an interview with playwright LARISSA FASTHORSE of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, who has been awarded a MacArthur Grant; and news of two Native groups honored with Ford Foundation grants as American Cultural Treasures.
Always The Winning Hand
Ever-prolific AL BASILE returns with arguably his strongest effort yet, LAST HAND, a musical radio play concerning a May-to-December romance between an older man and a younger woman. Don't give away the ending.
In the Still of the Night
Reflective, ruminative, serene, spiritual, moving and soothing--three new albums are right on time for our times.
150 Years of Touching the ‘Fount of Tears’
Next year an American treasure, the FISK JUBILEE SINGERS, will celebrate 150 years of bringing spiritual messages of hope, redemption and salvation to the world. The celebration begins with a great live album marking the occasion.
Bound Together in the Spirit of Cultural Exchange
On DUSTY ROAD, KLEZMER-ISH explores music of immigrants from various cultural backgrounds who left their homelands in search of a different and better life.