Reviews

Ever Fresh: A Half-Century of ‘Green Onions’

In honor of the 50th anniversary of ‘Green Onions,’ we salute BOOKER T. & THE M.G.s’ reissued debut album of the same name, along with the group’s reissued-remastered 1970 Beatles tribute, McLemore Avenue, all-instrumental versions of the Abbey Road songs.

Reviews

The Perfect ‘Storm’

One of our great contemporary gospel singers has returned from a four-year recording hiatus with her strongest album yet. 'Til The Storm Passes By captures the versatile Lynda Randle at her testifying best on a powerhouse collection of new and vintage praise and worship songs,…

Reviews

Going Mobile

Marty Raybon might well want to consider re-titling his album Southern Routes & Branches, given how many roads he travels in its dozen songs. To be clear, some of these roads he’s traveled before—nine of the songs are choice items from his previous solo albums.…

Reviews

(Much) More To Come…

One of the finest contemporary bluegrass bands around is cementing its reputation as same during this, its 30th anniversary year, with the second of three overviews of each decade of its productive existence. Like Volume One, Volume Two of Lonesome River Band’s Chronology comes in…

Reviews

Little Richard, Ascending

‘It’s Just Like An Unfinished Diamond’ Richard Penniman has at various times, often without prompting, referred to himself as “the originator, the instigator, the facilitator” of rock ‘n’ roll. To varying degrees he’s right on all counts. Rock ‘n’ roll became a musical and cultural force…

Reviews

The Wounded Wanderer, Restored

U.S. Route 50 lives in the shadow of Route 66 in the lore of legendary American highways, but it’s no less awesome as either myth or fact. Built in 1926 as part of the original U.S. Highway system, Route 50 runs east and west across…

Reviews

That Swingin’ Little Guitar Man

Carl Perkins recalled a show he played in Atlanta in 1958 at which he was visited backstage by a young fellow who came with guitar in hand and introduced himself as Jerry Hubbard. The two pickers engaged each other in a couple of blues tunes,…

Reviews

The Cowboy Rides Away

It is the misfortune of Lloyd Estel Copas to be better remembered for how and with whom he died than for the wonderful music he made as Cowboy Copas, in which guise he was a dominant presence on the country charts from 1946 to 1951…

Reviews

A Hoot For The Age

The hootenanny lives! Banjo master/educator Bill Evans’s In Good Company has that feel of an informal gathering of musicians playing exactly what they want to play, complementing each other to a T and having a great time doing it. The difference between Evans’s hootenanny as…

Reviews

Jammin’ On the High Seas

Originally given away free as a collectible to patrons of the annual Rhythm & Blues Cruise , Robert Mugge's hour-and-a-half documentary offers an in-depth look at the fabled after-hours jams sessions aboard ship, when all of the assembled artists make their way onstage and do…