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Henry Carrigan

ALBUM REVIEW: Amanda Shires Shines Through on ‘Take It Like a Man’

ALBUM REVIEW: Amanda Shires Shines Through on ‘Take It Like a Man’

Reverberating guitar chords open the haunting, minor-chord “Hawk for the Dove,” the first track on Amanda Shires’ new album, Take It Like a Man. Shires’ vocals, with Brittney Spencer adding backup, drip with sexual longing, and the roving, stalking rhythms of the song evoke the lover’s own passion and

ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘In the Country,’ Richie Furay Finds Emotional Core of Country Favorites

ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘In the Country,’ Richie Furay Finds Emotional Core of Country Favorites

Richie Furay — founding member of Buffalo Springfield, Poco, and Souther-Hillman-Furay — has been singing country music all his life, of course, so his new album of classic country tunes is a natural fit. Furay’s soaring tenor vocals are on full display on In the Country, and, for the most part,

THE READING ROOM: Kenny Loggins on Movie Songs, Influences, and a ‘Gumbo’ of Genres

THE READING ROOM: Kenny Loggins on Movie Songs, Influences, and a ‘Gumbo’ of Genres

Kenny Loggins has many musical claims to fame: movie songs like “Danger Zone” from Top Gun, “Footloose” from the original movie, and “I’m Alright” from Caddyshack and we as his solo records and his hits with Loggins & Messina, like “Your Mama Don’t Dance.” Now, in staccato prose,

ALBUM REVIEW: Vivid Characters Make for Memorable Songs on Rod Picott’s ‘Paper Hearts and Broken Arrows’

ALBUM REVIEW: Vivid Characters Make for Memorable Songs on Rod Picott’s ‘Paper Hearts and Broken Arrows’

Rod Picott is one of our too-little-known songwriting treasures. Like Hemingway, he peers into the jangly tentativeness of the relationships between men and women. Like Harry Crews, he captures the spectral gothic shadows that haunt rural settings. Like Townes Van Zandt, Picott tells riveting tales about memorable characters — the moonshiner,

ALBUM REVIEW: Mary Gauthier Bears Witness to Love’s Power on ‘Dark Enough to See the World’

ALBUM REVIEW: Mary Gauthier Bears Witness to Love’s Power on ‘Dark Enough to See the World’

“Fall Apart World,” the track that opens Mary Gauthier’s new album, Dark Enough to See the Stars, might just be a perfect song. Danny Mitchell’s lush piano notes float over his soaring B3 strains, laying a shimmering bed for Juan Solorzano’s vibrato lead runs on the bridges,

THE READING ROOM: Doobie Brothers Memoir Is Just Alright

THE READING ROOM: Doobie Brothers Memoir Is Just Alright

Old rockers never die, nor do they fade away; they write their memoirs. Or, in the case of Long Train Runnin’: Our Story of The Doobie Brothers (St. Martin’s), band founders Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons tell their stories to writer Chris Epting to produce an oral history. It’

ALBUM REVIEW: Courtney Jaye Shares a Bold Spiritual Vision on ‘Hymns and Hallelucinations’

ALBUM REVIEW: Courtney Jaye Shares a Bold Spiritual Vision on ‘Hymns and Hallelucinations’

Gentle guitars eddy under Courtney Jaye’s soaring vocals on “The Kingdom is Inside of Me,” the opening track of Hymns and Hallelucinations, her stunning new album. Climbing from a soothing lullaby to a resounding operatic embrace of the darkness and light of the soul, the song serves as invocation