american drive2

Ready for the Long Haul

J.D. Crowe has retired, but his last incarnation of the New South soldiers on, quite impressively, as American Drive. The quartet's self-titled debut album shows it to be ready for the long haul.
by David McGee
 

 
 
al miller time

A Chicago Blues Bonanza, Right on Time

Out of print for years, Delmark has reissued AL MILLER'S masterful ...IN BETWEEN TIME, a bonanza of Chicago blues featuring all-star Chi-town blues stalwarts Miller, John Primer, Billy Flynn and others.
by David McGee
 

 

 
johnny mongrels creole

Familiar, Fresh & True to the Human Experience

On a most impressive debut, JOHNNY & THE MONGRELS leap immediately into the front ranks of chicken-fried southern soul and swamp-rock on CREOLE SKIES.
by David McGee
 

 
 
mary lane travelin

Being About the Persistence of Love

At long last, 83-year-old MARY LANE asserts herself at the forefront of contemporary blues with TRAVELIN' WOMAN, her record of a lifetime and of hanging in and hanging on to love, body, soul and heart intact.
by David McGee
 

 

 
blue cactus choir bluegrass

Bipartisan Consensus

Simple poetry and keen observations mark the elegant songs of Marty Atkinson and Katy Boyd, aka Blue Cactus Choir, whose first album, ...Once In a Bluegrass Moon is our new Album of the Week.
by David McGee
 

 
 
Great Songs of Christmas CD

Still, Still, Still

An 18-song CD sampling of a great Christmas anthology series (from Goodyear Tire) once on vinyl only
by David McGee
 

 

 
Nick Moss Band Get Your Back cover

Coasting With the Blues

THE NICK MOSS BAND with DENNIS GRUENLING spans the continent on one of its finest outings.
by David McGee
 

 
 
010

Being About a Cold, Cold World

The Giving Tree Band earns Album of the Week honors for VACILADOR, an album for a world fearful of commitment, for the hookup culture of no-strings intimacy, for a society diffuse and disconnected, even though it doesn't know it.
by David McGee
 

 

 
earl brothers1

Of Dark Hearts and Lethal Consequences

The Earl Brothers are back with their dark-hearted bluegrass--like no other bluegrass known to humankind--on Outlaw Hillbilly. Our Album of the Week selection chronicles the Bay Area band's continuing crafting of one of the mos...
by David McGee
 

 
 
marty raybon back forty

Forty Years, and No End in Sight

MARTY RAYBON celebrates his 40th year in the business in grand bluegrass style on his new album, THE BACK FORTY, with his band FULL CIRCLE in full bloom.
by David McGee
 

 

 
gene kelly featured2

A Gene Kelly ‘Omnibus’

In 1958 the distinguished Omnibus series commissioned GENE KELLY's first TV special. For the first time since its historic broadcast on December 21, 1958, Kelly's DANCING: A MAN'S GAME is available commercially, via DVD.
by David McGee
 

 
 
024

Off the Beaten Path, As Usual

Exploring America’s blue highways and coming back with songs that have and will endure, some ever-present in our collective memory, some orphaned by time but always primed for adoption by loving practitioners such as these.
by David McGee