Music
Sugar Pie Desanto, Refined Sugar (Jasmine)
Sugar Pie DeSanto is to the Bay Area what Irma Thomas is to New Orleans. Their careers both got started in 1959, had a couple hits back in the days […]
Spencer Wiggins, The Goldwax Years (Kent)
If your lucky, once or twice in a decade, a CD will come along that makes you drop whatever your doing, turn off the ball game, cancel the trip to […]
Various Artists, Eisenhower Blues (Empire Musicwerks)
It’s no coincidence that this title would surface at a time when contemporary artists are pushing each other out of the way to sound off on Bush. This is a […]
Various Artists, The Sue Label Story (Ace)
An amazing phenomenon was occurring in the United Kingdom at the same time American listeners were being overwhelmed by the “British Beat.” If these two collections are an indication—and they […]
Classic Songs of Louisiana: “Barefootin'” by Robert Parker
One of the biggest hit records New Orleans ever produced, Robert Parker’s “Barefootin’” was on everybody’s turntable back in 1966. Parker was a rare artist who made the transition from […]
Charlie Feathers/Mac Curtis, Rockabilly Kings (Ace)
Push back the furniture. This is what the cool cats and boppin’ chicks have demanded for 50 years. All of Charlie Feathers and Mac Curtis’ mid-1950s savage King label rockabilly […]
B.B. King, Singin’ The Blues (Ace)
Originally released on the budget Crown label in 1957, this was B. B. King’s long play debut. Containing no less than four number one R&B chart records, Singin’ The Blues […]
Magic Slim and the Teardrops/ Joe Carter with Sunnyland Slim, That Ain’t Right (Delmark)
At last count, there are as many Magic Slim CDs as FEMA trailers in Gentilly. But you know what? They all have something to offer, and this one is no […]
Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets, Blast Off (Shout! Factory)
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the blues flooded out of Texas. The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble, Marcia Ball, Mike Morgan and the Crawl, Lou […]
James Hunter, People Gonna Talk (Rounder)
Being a fairly established music writer/critic, I can pretty much get a review copy of most any CD. However, after hearing this play in a music store, I couldn’t wait […]
