Music
Merle Haggard, The Bluegrass Sessions (McCoury)
The acoustic lineup with a mandolin, banjo and fiddle seem to mark this as bluegrass enough to give the album its title, but The Bluegrass Sessions are really simply […]
John Fogerty, Revival (Fantasy)
On Centerfield, John Fogerty wrote about baseball’s place in Americana; on Revival, he writes about his own. The album is getting a lot of love for a return to […]
Bruce Springsteen, Magic (Columbia)
I worry that I’ve become a reformed smoker where Bruce Springsteen is concerned. There was a time before Born in the U.S.A. when I loved Springsteen, but as time […]
Cupid, Time for a Change (Atlantic/Asylum)
Cupid’s “Cupid Shuffle” has filled dance floors around southern Louisiana since it was first released earlier this year. With a hip-hop vibe and steppin’-friendly grooves, line dances break out […]
Vavavoom, Swingphonicity (Independent)
Hot Club acts often feel like they exist to give the members a reason to wear retro finery, but that’s not the case with Vavavoom. On Swingphonicity, the band […]
James Andrews and the Crescent City Allstars, People Get Ready Now (Independent)
At OffBeat’s 2006 Best of the Beat show—the first after Katrina—James Andrews brought what seemed like most of the Treme onstage with him at the House of Blues. It […]
Down on the Corner
It seemed like a good idea. Galactic was about to release a new album, From the Corner to the Block, and they had done a series of high profile events […]
Aretha Franklin, Rare & Unreleased Recordings from the Golden Reign of the Queen of Soul (Atlantic/Rhino)
“Rare and Unreleased” promises so much, and the CDs bearing the phrase rarely deliver. The results are often for completists and scholars, and Aretha’s s Rare & Unreleased Recordings […]
Dennis Alcapone, Forever Version (Heartbeat)
I keep thinking I’ve said pretty much all I have to say about dub, toasting and reggae, and then something is reissued I feel obliged to pay attention to […]
