Archive

The group had the makings of a perfect album trilogy if the last one hadn’t fallen short In 1997, R.E.M.’s drummer Bill Berry announced he was leaving the band to retire to his farm in Watkinsville, Georgia. He had been one of the founding members and had been instrumental in R.E.M.’s growth from college radio […]

The Short But Influential Career of a Funk Pioneer  Did Arlester “Dyke” Christian invent funk? He certainly didn’t invent the sound. That has to be credited to James Brown and explosive songs like “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.” Dyke gave the genre its name, and with his Phoenix-based band the Blazers, he recorded several […]

A L.A. band with a larger following in the UK than their home country One ongoing feature in music literature is the “greatest albums” lists. Most are found online, but the Brits still publish several trades like Uncut and Mojo, and they issue their own version of these “lists” every few years or so. Rolling […]

A well-liked sixties singer mostly only heard today during the holidays Growing up, right after Thanksgiving, my father would drag out all the Christmas LPs. There was Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and a bunch of multi-artist recordings where they would attempt to fit as many heads as possible on the album cover. […]

The passing of a French icon Françoise Hardy died on June 11, 2024, age eighty. Hardy was an actress and a singer-songwriter, releasing over thirty albums since her debut in 1962. She was more a recording artist than a performance artist, struggling most of her life with stage fright, anxiety and shyness. Her albums run […]

From skateboarding legend to modern day troubadour In the skateboarding world, Danny Garcia is famous. He grew up in Orange County, California, and he began skating at age 14, eventually turning pro. There were sponsorships, appearances in skateboarding films, and his skills took him all over the world. Habitat even marketed his shoe. Garcia was […]

A one-off project rejuvenates the music for two British musicians One of my favorite musical periods is the post-punk/New Wave records of the early eighties. When it was happening, I found it to be incredibly exciting. Partly, it was my age—I turned eighteen in 1980—but it was the spark, and especially the attitude in the […]

A musical family’s love and determination produces a powerful record In 1987, Karin met Robert in Heidelberg, Germany. She was a psychology student and he played in the Australian band The Go-Betweens. Karin had seen The Go-Betweens at a show a year earlier, and while attending another performance, Karin and her friend Erhard stumbled on […]

The film composer’s return to Korea completes the storyboard for a gorgeous recording Hometown to Come is the second solo project by Minhwi Lee, not including soundtracks and music for theater productions. The album came together over a seven-year period and her return home to Korea after studying abroad for five years. Apple Music categorizes […]

The Sweeter Side of Philadelphia Soul In 1974, the vocal group Blue Magic released the single “Sideshow.” A summer hit that year, it went to #1 R&B and reached #8 on the pop charts. The elegant arrangement could have easily been mistaken for a new song by The Stylistics: falsetto lead, lush strings, muted brass, […]

A wonderful album made in a Dallas rehearsal space launched separate solo careers for two musically driven siblings On the Dallas Famous podcast in May 2023, singer-songwriter Salim Nourallah recalls a story of his mother finding a declaration he wrote when he was young. It stated that he would become a musician and a producer […]

After two albums of guitar distortion and atmospheric sounds, a stunning folk-inspired alternative It began with a trip to Italy in 2000. Toledo, Ohio based singer-songwriter Jessica Bailiff was already an established recording artist who had released two albums filled with guitar noise and hazy backwards recordings. A friend there introduced her to something new. […]

Beauty and conviction from one of Brazil’s most important artists During a 2014 tour, Joan Baez performed five shows in Brazil. At the March 23rd date in São Paulo, she sang “Pra não dizer que não falei das flores” to an appreciative crowd. The song, also known as “Caminhando,” took on the presence of an […]

Nilsson’s first RCA album wasn’t a hit, but it showed a versatility that impressed a well-known band from across the pond In May 1968, John Lennon and Paul McCartney held a press conference in New York to announce the formation of Apple Corps. During the Q&A, a journalist asked the new businessmen to name their […]

A grand album by an off the radar singer-songwriter with a keen gift for melody and a taste for melancholy John Cunningham takes long gaps between his album releases. And, with each new record, the production is more textured and more elaborate. Happy-Go-Unlucky (2002) is number four, not counting a debut EP, and for this […]

The Kinks, one of the big three of the early British Invasion, were virtually non-existent on the American singles charts in the late sixties. One rogue music journalist saw to it that the band’s British singles and unreleased gems were made available for hard-core fans One of the greatest joys in my personal music discovery […]

An Unearthed DIY Classic Finally Gets A Proper Release An album like this couldn’t have been made in 1994. Strumming acoustic guitar and angel-like vocals. Minor keys, eerie piano, violin and cello. This isn’t the sound of a grunge band. And it’s DIY, recorded in a house in Livonia, Michigan, when big labels still ruled […]

The singer left a decade of fine albums from the fifties and sixties, but today she seems mostly forgotten Why is one of the best jazz stylists of the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s not as well known as other vocalists of her time? This has been a perplexing question since I first discovered June Christy. […]

The Memphis megastar’s second release on Hi Records found its groove in the singers’ early influences. Al Green’s hits from the early 1970s are some of the most luscious recordings ever put on wax. “Tired of Being Alone,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “Call Me (Come Back Home)” “I’m Still in Love with You,” these songs define […]

Of all the blues singers, John Lee Hooker may have been the most productive. A glance at singles and LPs released under his name from 1948 to the posthumous 2003 release Face to Face, reveals one hulking discography of music. This includes studio recordings and live albums, along with all the packaged and repackaged compilations […]

A celebrated album by Brazil’s greatest singer and greatest composer turns fifty in 2024, but many American fans of Antônio Carlos Jobim had to wait until the compact disc era to hear one of the artist’s finest records. In 2001, a group of two-hundred Brazilian musicians, artists and journalists were asked to vote on Brazil’s […]

Burt Bacharach is playing the piano as the well-known arrangement for the second half of “A House Is Not A Home” erupts on the stage at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills in December 2019. The maestro stands to conduct the mini orchestra, just as he always had, going back to his early days when […]

The Bath singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist outdoes himself on his recent release Orchestral pop is hit-and-miss. Done poorly, it can ruin a well-written collection of songs. In just a few short years, Alex Pester has learned how to do it remarkably well. Better Days is a majestic achievement. Pester wrote, arranged, produced and mixed the album […]

New England musician takes the reins on convincing second album In 2014, Lys Guillorn contributed the song “Turn the Page” to a local art project. The exhibit featured an old photo album found in a second-hand store in Paris, France, and Guillorn wrote a narrative creating a life from evocative photos of an unknown man. […]

Pond’s frontman bids adieu in outlandish fashion To publicize the Goldcard album, musician/songwriter Charlie Campbell devised an offbeat approach. He sat inside a large box in a Portland record store for several hours while the album played endlessly over the sound system. Fans could talk to him through a slot in the box or slip […]

A bedroom recording with a lonely heart Ryland Bouchard has been releasing quirky music since launching Swim Slowly Records in 2001. He started The Robot Ate Me as an outlet for his own experimental tendencies. True to the moniker, his debut album, They Ate Themselves, has an electronic base with additional sounds provided by the […]

A lost treasure, for now When New York-based On!Air!Library! called it quits in 2005, twin sisters Claudia and Alejandra (Alley) Deheza split off into separate projects. Alley launched School of Seven Bells with Benjamin Curtis, and Claudia connected with Scott Herren, aka Prefuse 73. Initially, both couples were romantic partners as well as musical partners. […]