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Grant Britt

ALBUM REVIEW: Keturah Arrives From Malawi

ALBUM REVIEW: Keturah Arrives From Malawi

For her eponymous debut, 27-year-old Malawi native Keturah presents a world-class collection of world music. This is gorgeous stuff, harvested from a garden of delights representing an impressive spread of flavors and textures. Malawi has always been a musical cauldron containing a spicy gumbo with ingredients from a loosely assembled

Taj Mahal’s One-of-a-Kind Take on the Great American Songbook

Taj Mahal’s One-of-a-Kind Take on the Great American Songbook

Taj Mahal is a hard man to disguise. Throw a cloak over him, sit him in a corner, hide him in a back room. But as soon as he gets near a mic, his cover is blown. His substantial presence looms large over everything he touches, and all genres he

ALBUM REVIEW: Athens’ Chickasaw Mudd Puppies Wriggle Back to Life for 'Fall Line'

ALBUM REVIEW: Athens’ Chickasaw Mudd Puppies Wriggle Back to Life for 'Fall Line'

It sounds just like you'd expect from some good ol’ boys who named their band after a salamander. After a 30-year hiatus, the reunited and expanded version of Athens, Georgia's Chickasaw Mudd Puppies pumps out bluesy, Southern rocky swamp metal. In the early 1990s, founders Brant

ALBUM REVIEW: Carter Sampson Is Confidently Country on ‘Gold’

ALBUM REVIEW: Carter Sampson Is Confidently Country on ‘Gold’

Carter Sampson specializes in plain talk. The Oklahoma singer-songwriter doesn't fool around much with metaphors, she just hauls off and punches you right in the gut. “I sent you a drunk text / And I meant it,” she admits on “Drunk Text,” from her latest offering, Gold. “I like

ALBUM REVIEW: David Childers Puts Hellfire Aside for ‘Melancholy Angel’

ALBUM REVIEW: David Childers Puts Hellfire Aside for ‘Melancholy Angel’

To hell, with snakes, could be David Childers' mantra. Since his 1994 debut, Godzilla, He Done Broke Out, he's been a hellish tour guide, leading a series of bands from the Mount Holly Hellcats to the Modern Don Juans to the Serpents of Reformation, now doing business

ALBUM REVIEW: Eric Bibb Drives Home a Message on ‘Ridin’’

ALBUM REVIEW: Eric Bibb Drives Home a Message on ‘Ridin’’

Eric Bibb has built a career as Mr. Mellow with his soft-spoken, bluesy folk meanderings since his 1972 debut, Ain't It Grand. For his latest, Ridin', the global griot, soulful troubadour, street preacher, and mellow bluesman continues down the same trail, but never wears it out. His

ALBUM REVIEW: Willie Nelson Gets to the Heart of Harlan Howard’s Songs

ALBUM REVIEW: Willie Nelson Gets to the Heart of Harlan Howard’s Songs

Harlan Howard's definition of country music as three chords and the truth is almost as famous as the songs he wrote to back up that quote he made in the 1950s. The prolific country songwriter turned out more than 4,000 tunes covered by a who's-who