Music
Tab Benoit with Louisiana’s LeRoux, Night Train to Nashville (Telarc)
On paper, this live set has all the makings of a supremely excessive blooze-rock rave-up. Always a mean guitar-slinger, Tab Benoit is backed up here by Louisiana’s LeRoux, who’ve had […]
Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Peace, Love and Understanding (Independent)
Whenever someone tries to fuse brass-band music with anything else, the brass band sound usually overwhelms, as if it’s just too cocky to move onto other turf. Trombonist Big Sam […]
North Mississippi Allstars, Hernando (Songs of the South)
For much of their career, the North Mississippi Allstars have strived to avoid doing the obvious blooze-rock thing. They’ve chased after new directions, whether adding studio polish on Polaris, jamming […]
Maceo Parker, Roots & Grooves (Heads Up)
If you’d downloaded this double CD from your favorite illicit site, you’d probably think it was the best 64 cents (for the two blank CDs) that you ever spent. As […]
Benjy Davis Project, Dust (Real/Bogalusa)
From the sound of things, absolutely nothing in the world can get Benjy Davis rattled—not Katrina, not obsessive love, not life on the road, not the Iraq war. At least […]
Amanda Shaw, Pretty Runs Out (Rounder)
Amanda Shaw declared in the title of her last CD that she’s not a bubblegum pop princess. So what exactly is she? A roots rocker? A Cajun artist? The next […]
Anders Osborne: Not Quite Down
By general consensus, Bruce Springsteen’s first-Sunday performance of “My City of Ruins” was remembered as the great healing moment of the 2006 Jazz Fest. But another moment for the history […]
Mem Shannon, Live at Tipitinas (Northern Blues)
If you need proof that songwriting still matters on a blues album, just compare the respective Katrina songs on Bryan Lee and Mem Shannon’s latest. Lee’s title track amounts to […]
Bryan Lee, Katrina Was Her Name (Justin Time)
Guitar-slinger Bryan Lee is always at his best in a live setting—but unfortunately, his latest isn’t a live album (He’s already made two at his old haunt, the Old Absinthe […]
Corey Harris, Zion Crossroads (Telarc Records)
Born-again Rastas are like any other kind of born-agains; they’re inclined to go a little overboard when stating their newfound faith. That’s one possible explanation for Corey Harris’ incredibly earnest […]
