Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin
Ken Swartz and the Palace of Sin 68 From the bouncy opening Reverend Gary Davis tune through a down-home reading of “Crow Black Chicken,” Ken Swartz’s deep love of blues … Read more
Album Reviews
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
As grunge-rock was being hyped to death in the 1990s, seminal ‘70s progressive-rock institutions such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer were hardly given a chance to reclaim their former glory. … Read more
Taj Mahal & Keb Mo
Two of modern blues music’s true greats finally matched and paired in a simply wonderful release that’s bound to gain both men multitudes of new fans. This is an album … Read more
Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm
It hardly seems possible that 31 years have gone by since Robert Cray took the world by storm with his 1986 Strong Persuader. Around that same time I recall interviewing … Read more
Jenny Scheinman
You can always count on the next Jenny Scheinman album to be quite different from its predecessor. In 2008 she issued both her purely jazz-classical instrumental, Crossing the Field, as … Read more
Van Morrison
Van the Man’s latest is far from that; instead it’s a huge, engrossing, triple album release that features loads of material that reaches way back in time, a back-back-catalogue … Read more
Christian Sands
Pianist Christian Sands offers up a Mack Avenue Records debut, Reach, featuring a musical influence and style range from Afro-Cuban beats to hip-hop, to thumps, to dirty blues with authority. … Read more
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
Thankfully Trombone Shorty’s Blue Note debut does not mark a change in sound, but in fact reads like a sequel to his highly acclaimed Verve release, Say That to This. … Read more
Amilia K Spicer
Spicer is a multi-instrumentalist and a crafty singer-songwriter who has spent over a decade as a film director. After two albums released in 2000 and 2003, Spicer returns with a … Read more
Kenny George Band
Hailing from Aiken, SC, the Kenny George Band plays mostly vintage country rock . This, their third album, should thrust them into the national spotlight. Inspired by the early Americana … Read more
