Reviews

The Social Power of Music

The Smithsonian Museums keep history and the evolution of our American culture alive. Smithsonian Folkways has been a force in keeping our musical heritage alive. With the release of The … Read more

Tote that Barge—Blues on a Boat

Photos by Laura Carbone Imagine this vacation: A first-class blues cruise for three days and two nights from Oslo, Norway to Kiel, Germany and back again—on a first-class ship that … Read more

Ina Forsman Been Meaning To Tell You

This is a twelve-track release from a young blueslady from Finland. Forsman has a significant and growing fan base across Europe, where she is in steady demand as a live … Read more

Benny Turner and Cash McCall

Going Back Home takes two top blues veterans back to their Chicago blues roots, reuniting Turner and McCall with a recording that really pushes all the best musical buttons. This … Read more

William Tyler Goes West

Talk is cheap to virtuoso musician William Tyler, whose pastoral folk instrumentals on Goes West are touching in ways words can’t convey. Oftentimes, they stretch out like murals of rolling, … Read more

Watermelon Slim

Watermelon Slim is back and he’s on the Northern Blues label where he garnered most of his 20 Blues Music Award nominations and his two wins. After two obscure releases, … Read more

Hunt Sales Memorial

Assuming the role of snake charmer on drums and bashing out an unforgettably primal, hip-shaking groove that was wildly hypnotic and wantonly sexual, Hunt Sales lit a dancing fire under … Read more

Chris O’Leary

7 Minutes Late is harpist/singer-songwriter Chris O’Leary’s fourth studio release and fifth overall. Through a few changes and expanded lineup since his impressive 2010 debut, Mr. Used To Be, O’Leary … Read more

Amelia White

Riding a wild elevator of emotional highs and lows over a span of four days, as she mourned her mother’s passing and experienced the joy of marrying her partner, East … Read more