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Nick Cristiano

ALBUM REVIEW: Tommy Womack Shows How To ‘Live a Little’

ALBUM REVIEW: Tommy Womack Shows How To ‘Live a Little’

The world just lost Todd Snider, but Tommy Womack is still here. The singer and guitarist may lack the stoner persona of his late pal and fellow Nashvillian, but they did share a kind of musical kinship, blending an unflinching, warts-and-all emotional honesty with observational wit and wise-guy charm. And

ALBUM REVIEW: Paul Kelly Tells The Stories Only He Can Tell on ‘Seventy’

ALBUM REVIEW: Paul Kelly Tells The Stories Only He Can Tell on ‘Seventy’

Paul Kelly has titled his new album, Seventy, after his age. “The road ahead is shorter now than the road behind,” he sings over the ringing folk-rock of “Take It Handy.” “… What I’d give for one more round.” If a sense of mortality is weighing on the great Australian

ALBUM REVIEW: Dion, ‘The Rock ‘n’ Roll Philosopher,’ Sums It All Up

ALBUM REVIEW: Dion, ‘The Rock ‘n’ Roll Philosopher,’ Sums It All Up

It’s remarkable, really: Dion DiMucci is not only the last of the pioneering rock-and-roll greats of the 1950s, but, at 86, he remains creatively vital. In recent years he has been turning out some of the best music of his seven-decade-plus career, and he’s doing so with an

ALBUM REVIEW: A ‘Hallejujah!’ Moment for Soul-Blues Warhorse Robert Finley

ALBUM REVIEW: A ‘Hallejujah!’ Moment for Soul-Blues Warhorse Robert Finley

Robert Finley titled his first album Age Don’t Mean a Thing. The singer and guitarist was obviously aiming to make a point, since that 2016 debut came when he was 62 years old. And what a debut it was, introducing a soul-blues man whose music burst with a raw

ALBUM REVIEW: Alex Williams Proves His Metal

ALBUM REVIEW: Alex Williams Proves His Metal

On his first two albums, Alex Williams delivered bracingly hard-edged honky-tonk and country-rock with attitude and heart. And his original songs – especially on 2022’s Waging Peace, where he unflinchingly faced up to his demons — revealed him to be a fresh new voice. It was hard not to view him

ALBUM REVIEW: At 84, Jim Kweskin Is Still ‘Doing Things Right’

ALBUM REVIEW: At 84, Jim Kweskin Is Still ‘Doing Things Right’

Jim Kweskin plays old stuff. And it never gets old. Since the singer and guitarist came to prominence with his jug band during the folk boom of the early ‘60s, he has essentially been doing the same thing — mining vintage material, especially early jazz and blues, and filtering it through

ALBUM REVIEW: Kinky Friedman Makes Elegiac Exit With 'Poet of Motel 6'

ALBUM REVIEW: Kinky Friedman Makes Elegiac Exit With 'Poet of Motel 6'

Kinky Friedman’s posthumous album opens with the title song, “Poet of Motel 6,” a tribute to a fellow late legend of the Texas troubadour tradition, Billy Joe Shaver. “He’d stay up all night/ He would drink and he would fight/ Ah, but every song he’d write was