Hope Is the Thing With Feathers

As birds go, so goes humanity. Three nominally classical albums poetically address the looming threats to the natural world.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Hey, Colorado

HONEY DON'T returns with its first new album in nearly eight years, and it's a gem. THREADBARE finds songwriter BILL POWERS at his peak, and the band speaking to a larger moment.
by David McGee
 

 

 

In Heavy Rotation: Blues, Country & Country Blues

AL BASILE, DAILEY & VINCENT (with guest vocalist RHONDA VINCENT) and HANK WILLIAMS JR.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Chamber Blues on a Higher Plane

CORKY SIEGEL'S CHAMBER BLUES offers a blues-classical-world music fusion that reveals its depth on first blush and then burrows deeper.
by David McGee
 

 

 

She’ll Take You There

RORY BLOCK returns in celebration of "power women of song" on AIN'T NOBODY WORRIED--a thoroughly captivating outpouring of signature songs by female artists from the '60s through the '80sl
by David McGee
 

 
 

Wherein Murph Lights Out for the Horizon, Yet Again

MICHAEL MARTIN MURPHEY, collaborating with son RYAN MURPHEY, rises to every challenge he sets for himself on ROAD BEYOND THE VIEW, a standout among many in his extensive catalogue.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Always More Love to Be Had

The TWANGTOWN PARAMOURS are back with their third album, DOUBLE DOWN ON A BAD THING, with well-wrought songs, sparkling musicianship, affecting vocals and a deeper exploration of the nuances of relationships. It ain't over 'til...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Love Is a Many-Splintered Thing

Herein a dozen smokey, sensuous and often ambivalent discourses on love and passion delivered with the breathy tenderness and sublime understatement of someone defining love not as a many-splendored thing, but rather as a many-...
by David McGee
 

 

 

The Mad Scientist Deep in Experimentation

'Good, not great,' says our DHRISTOPHER WALSH in in his deep dive into Sir Paul McCartney's McCARTNEY III, adding: '...it shows an artist still reaching, ideas still flowing.'
by David McGee
 

 
 

To Shine Is Why You Came

VALERIE JUNE seems to have stepped out of some sort of enchanted forest, spreading powerfully delivered but gentle-spirited songs that are so filled with whimsy and wonder they seem to be borne more of pixie dust than musical n...
by David McGee
 

 

 

Worthy of It All

Twelve Grammy Awards and 23 GMA Awards into her towering career, CECE WINANS returns with her first non-holiday release in four years, and she does so in grand style on BELIEVE IT ALL. Gospel editor BOB MAROVICH calls it the be...
by David McGee
 

 
 

A Fresh Perspective on the ‘African Mahler’

CATALYST QUARTET, a young American ensemble, explores the chamber music of SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR, works whose sophistication belies their early date
by David McGee