Bob Egan - Pedal steel to pedestal
There is a singular pleasure in hearing a backup musician step to the fore -- assuming the musician is a good one, of course, and wasn't being kept back for a reason. We are suddenly paying attention to someone we'd hitherto taken for granted. It'
James King - Bed By The Window
On his third album for Rounder, hard-core Virginia bluegrasser James King opted to use his road band, supplemented by the great Bobby Hicks as guest fiddler. That's a gutsy move, considering the high caliber of the backup on his previous albums, and while it has a price, it
Pawtuckets - Rest Of Our Days
Following up on the promise of their debut Cloud 9 Ranch, Memphis band the Pawtuckets show on Rest Of Our Days that they've tightened considerably between records. Guitars weave like Jimmy Miller-era Stones while maintaining a string-pulling country edge. Piano and electric piano are used judiciously, while touches
Geoff Muldaur - The Secret Handshake
Geoff Muldaur's genius sprawls messily across styles and genres, all of them grist for a creative mill now well into its fourth decade. Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music is a convenient starting point for understanding Muldaur's music, but it's only
Bare Jr. - Boo-Tay
On his band's debut disc, Bobby Bare Jr. does his best to ensure that he won't be confused with his country legend father. From beginning to end, Boo-Tay is a noisy, raucous, crude, and utterly delightful rock album, packed full of more self-loathing and negativity than
Tony Joe White - One Hot July
Rising up grumpily from a sticky bed made of a swirling B-3, stinging guitar and insistent, on-the-one tub-thumping, the too-long-AWOL Polk Salad Tony thickly slurs the album's sultry opening command: "Crack the window, baby, it's hot in this bedroom/There may be a little breeze