Darondo - Let My People Go
Darondo is this season's hip soul man rediscovery, and one that unlike, say, Shuggie Otis, lives up to the hype. In the early '70s, it's said, this local legend cruised around his San Francisco neighborhood in a white, vanity-plated Rolls Royce, purchased with money he&
K.D. Lang - Reintarnation
When K.D. Lang's country-punk act landed her a major-label contract in the late 1980s, it's safe to say the country music establishment never quite got the joke. "Our music was not well received in Nashville," Lang says in the Reintarnation liner notes with
David Ruffin - The Great David Ruffin: The Motown Solo Albums, Vol. 1 / Eddie Kendricks - Keep On Truckin': The Motown Solo Albums, Vol. 1
No vocal group has ever had or is ever likely to have two lead vocalists any better than the Temptations of 1964-68. Most of their leads went to David Ruffin -- he's the one beaming, pleading and sobbing on "My Girl", "Ain't Too
Bob Feldman: 1949 to 2006
The world of roots music lost one of its most ardent supporters on January 11 when Red House Records president Bob Feldman died at his home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Though Feldman had been battling health problems for some time, none of his ailments were believed to be life-threatening, and
Barry Steven Cowsill: 1954 to 2005
On January 7, Susan Cowsill opened her monthly Carrollton Station show with Lucinda Williams' "Drunken Angel", dedicated to her brother Barry. He had remained in his longtime home New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina bore down on the city, and he left messages on Susan's voice
Jerry Lynn Williams: 1948 to 2005
Jerry Lynn Williams was the best songwriter you've never heard of. Though he stayed under the radar as far as the public was concerned, musicians and composers knew the Texas cat as the song doctor. Williams, who passed away November 25 at age 57 on the island of