Issue Articles
Sean Manning (ed.), Rock and Roll Cage Match: Music’s Greatest Rivalries, Decided (Three Rivers Press)
Biggest All-Time (Rock/Pop, at Least) Music Rivalry Left Untouched: “Beatles vs. Stones,” maybe because too many readers would find the answer wrong no matter which author wrote which verdict. […]
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Jingle All the Way (Rounder)
Banjomeister Bela trims the tree, pours out the eggnog, and lets anyone with the Christmas Spirit amble in to sit down by the fire. So when this intricate Yuletide set […]
Thou, Tyrant (Gilead Media)
I spun Tyrant while reading Jerry Bledsoe’s Blood Games, a hurtfully true story of three boys, two with startlingly high IQs, who were caught in murder-for-profit. Death prose for a […]
Troubled Times
It seems redundant to take Trouble the Water’s message to New Orleans, the people who lived the movie’s story or a recognizable variation thereof during Hurricane Katrina, and to whom […]
Otis Redding, Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul (Collector’s Edition) (Atco/Rhino)
Disc one, track six—“Shake”—second verse: “Ya shake it like a bowl a’ soup yeah / Ya let it go loopity-loop yeah.” Between the instructional of line one and the crisp […]
Ponderosa Stomp Focus: The Collins Kids
Hailed by Ranch Party TV show host Tex Ritter (John’s father) as “those two little bundles of bouncin’ T-double-N-T,” the Collins Kids deserved all that and maybe another double-N—except that […]
Cyrus Chestnut, Cyrus Plays Elvis (Koch)
“Is this just yet another entry into the marketing war? Or better yet, IS HE SERIOUS???? [sic]” Cyrus’ liner notes wax a mite slapdash (and could have used a Spell […]
Various Artists, Stax Sings Motown (Stax)
Stax Sings Motown’s preview CD arrived without artist credits, making it easier, in the end, to concentrate on specific voices and attitudes, as opposed to what I already thought of […]
Various Artists, Stax Does the Beatles (Stax)
If Stax Does Motown makes showcases for minor Stax artists, Beatles leans too hard, on predictable product courtesy of the Bar-Kays, and, much as I love ’em, Booker T. and […]
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raising Sand (Rounder)
Producer T Bone Burnett says he wanted everybody out of their comfort zones, himself included. His failure on that point ironically forms Raising Sand’s selling point: Endless reverb and […]
