Going to the Head of the Traditional Class
Staunch traditionalist with a honky-tonk bent, the PO' RAMBLIN' BOYS are set to go to the head of the traditionalist class with their Rounder debut, TOILS, TEARS AND TROUBLE
Spotlight Album
The Cummings Imperative
The first outstanding blues album of 2020 comes in the form of ALBERT CUMMINGS's BELIEVE, a tour de force of expressive, soulful vocalizing and guitar mastery of a higher order.
A New Opera for the 21st Century Canon, By Way of Willa Cather
WILLA CATHER'S short story 'Paul's Place' has been transformed into an opera event by GREGORY SPEARKS and KATHRYN WALAT. Our JOSPEH NEWSOME ranks it 'amongst the finest recorded opera performances of the 21st Century.'
Rise Above, Find More Peace, Make More Love
KEB' MO' delivers the finest Christmas album of the 2019 season in MOONLIGHT, MISTLETOE & YOU. Highlights include a duet with MELISSA MANCHESTER on 'I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.'
The Cleansing Moment(s)
MARC COHN & BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA walk the road to salvation, and take us with them, on the JOHN LEVENTHAL-produced gem, WORK TO DO, one of 2019's finest albums
We’re Gonna Make It After All
MARTY BROWN emerges boldly and brilliantly on his first new studio album in 25 years, AMERICAN HIGHWAY, aided and abetted by the sure-handed production and musicality of JON TIVEN
‘A Smoking-Hot Sanctified-Meets-Steel Workout’
According to gospel editor BOB MAROVICH, the LEE BOYS' new album, LIVE ON THE EAST COAST, 'doesn't blur the line between sacred and secular--it erases it altogether.'
The Visible Invisible
Honoring LEONARDO DA VINCI on the 500th anniversary of his death, British music ensemble I FAGLIONI offers an eclectic recital evoking not so much the music of Leonardo's world but the emotional response to his work
On a Higher Plane
With songs by Dylan, Chuck Berry, Arthur Alexander, Goffin-King, Ronnie Self, Allen Toussaint and others, THE DUKE ROBILLARD BAND's EAR WORMS seeks, and attains, transcendence.
A Gift of Transcendence
LOWLAND HUM returns with its fifth album, GLYPHONIC, and our JOSEPH MCSPADDEN finds it to be ;a song cycle that challenges the artist and listener alike to resist the gravitational pull of the material world and to choose to live with intent.'