Music
Gravity A, Naissance (Independent)
Instead of jazz/jam/funk, this is jazz/jam/rock, which means that when it doesn’t lean toward fusion, it veers toward art rock. Gravity A distinguishes itself with an appealingly spacious sound that […]
The Nevilles Return
November is early for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to make any announcements, but November 15, festival producer Quint Davis announced that the 2008 Jazz Fest will have […]
David N. Meyer, Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music (Villard)
If Gram Parsons hadn’t existed, somebody else would have connected country and rock, and that person would have become the patron saint for Americana music. But it would have […]
D.C. Sills, Better When I’m Loved (Independent)
Alexandria folk singer D.C. Sills highlights an interesting phenomenon on Better When I’m Loved, her first full length album. She, like so many folk singers, strives for a seemingly […]
Murmur, Fermata (Backporch Revolution)
It’s cheating a little to call Fermata a Katrina project; it’s more of an echo (literally) of our past. Some of the Backporch Revolution pack—Potpie, members of Chef Menteur—set […]
Nils Landgren Funk Unit, License to Funk (ACT)
If I didn’t live here, I’d feel more love for License to Funk. It’s a well-made, sincere funk album by the Swedish jazz trombone player, and his band is […]
Bettye Lavette, The Scene of the Crime (Anti-)
It’s rare that well-known bands can suppress their identity when they back others, but the Drive-By Truckers follow the lead of Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section veterans Spooner Oldham and […]
Various Artists, I’m Not There (Columbia)
Only a handful of songs from this two-disc set of Dylan covers turn up in Todd Haynes’ excellent meditation on Dylan (and celebrity, which seem more closely related than […]
The Staple Singers, The 25th Day of December (Riverside)
The last few years have been sad ones for Christmas CDs, with few new discs of note. The Staple Singers’ The 25th Day of December, though is an excellent […]
Grayson Capps, Songbones (Hyena)
There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with spare, acoustic songs, but instead of sounding more “authentic,” that presentation highlights everything mannered in Grayson Capps’ music. Songbones is an album he recorded in […]
