Essential Sondheim
STEPHEN SONDHEIM's life and music, inextricably linked, are explored in captivating fashion in the new HBO documentary, SIX BY SONDHEIM, airing through December. Review herein.
Reviews
Christmas Beyond the Blue
BLUES, BLUES CHRISTMAS VOLUME 3 leads this revised and updated review of four essential blues Christmas albums, including last year's DEATH MIGHT BE YOUR SANTA CLAUS
Very Mary Indeed
Unquestionably the top new Christmas release of 2013, A MARY CHRISTMAS, the DAVID FOSTER-produced holiday long player from MARY J. BLIGE, is an instant soul Christmas classic.
The Game of Love
BEFORE THE WORLD WAS MADE
Brennen Leigh & Noel McKay
B&N
In a world festering with male-female duos, Austin’s Brennen Leigh & Noel McKay have some clear advantages over the competition. For starters, their dress is a bit retro (on the cover, a clean-cut Mad Men look for…
Union Avenue Communiqué
THE HOWLIN' BROTHERS went to Memphis's legendary SUN STUDIOS and cut an impressive six-song EP as a stopgap between their acclaimed debut album, released earlier this year, and their new CD, due in Feb. 2014.
Cowboys, Blues and Cowboy Blues
GARY ALLEGRETTO and IAN ESPINOZA have teamed up on a debut CD of cowboy love songs, cowboy blues, tall tales of legendary characters, love ballads and even Delta blues-style originals.
Claire in Autumn
Although Claire Lynch’s exceptional Compass label debut, Dear Sister, was released at the end of May, at the height of Spring, it has the reflective, contemplative feel of an autumnal missive.
Samantha Fish, In Progress
SAMANTHA FISH has sidestepped the sophomore jinx on her outstanding MIKE ZITO-produced second album, BLACK WIND HOWLIN'. Still a work in progress, she's showing admirable growth both vocally and instrumentally, and is becoming quite the writer as well.
And Lo, She Flies
Violinist, guitarist and master of the cwrth, EMERALD RAE emerges as a serious singer-songwriter on IF ONLY I COULD FLY.
They Only Come Out at Night
NOCTAMBULE (MARLA FIBISH and BRUCE VICTOR) have fashioned a number of poems by ROBERT SERVICE and others into an intriguing journey through the wee small hours