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
 

 

 

Considering Historical Conflict & Conflicted History

JASON RINGENBERG offers a reckoning with history on his 18th solo album, RHINESTONED, featuring the Freedom Riders, Crazy Horse, Jesus Christ and, in spirit, Hank Williams, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, the Carter Family and T...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Bluegrass Speaks to The Moment

A bluegrass trifecta: three new albums, by DALE ANN BRADLEY, THE DILLARDS and PHIL LEADBETTER AND THE ALL STARS OF BLUEGRASS (featuring Steve Gulley) all speak to the moment, addressing a variety of current hot-button issues in...
by David McGee
 

 

 

Thirst No More

The world-weariness welling from deep within the Nashville-based singer-songwriter SUSAN McCRACKEN's soul expresses not helplessness but hopefulness on PATIENT KINGDOM, as if giving testimony to the cyclicality and potentiality...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Places in The Heart

Find yourself in THE UNENDING ALTERATION OF THE HEART if you will, but GABRIELLE LOUISE is addressing herself in unvarnished interior monologues, leading by example in facing head-on hard truths about life, love and loss. Behol...
by David McGee
 

 

 

Dispatches From Solitude

Forced into isolation by the pandemic, JOHN McCUTCHEON began writing songs, and more songs, came up with a moving tribute to front line workers and to his friend John Prine, found some humor in his plight, and voila! CABIN FEVE...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Exception To The Rule

Something's different about CARY MORIN as we hear him on his fine new album, DOCKSIDE SAINTS: It feels like he's pulling away from the pack.
by David McGee