Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys - Feelin' Kinda Lucky
It is not easy to straddle musical fences the way Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys do. They may be retro down to the 1949 bus they tour the country in, but they bring western swing, hillbilly music and roots-rock raging into the last days of the 20th
Bill Frisell - Nashville
Bill Frisell is a guitar genius. Any of his multitude of collaborators -- from John Zorn and Arto Lindsay to Elvis Costello and Marianne Faithfull -- can attest to that. What's becoming increasingly clear, though, is that he is also a brilliant composer. A bona fide American original, Frisell has
Big Back Forty - Bested
If nothing else, this debut from Columbus, Ohio, band Big Back Forty functions as a test case as to why it's probably not a good idea to solicit opinions before listening to a record. A friend of mine who lives in Columbus compared this quartet to the fantastic
Big Blue Hearts - Self-Titled
This San Francisco band signed Geffen last year within a month of playing its first live gig, and lead singer/songwriter David Fisher had never written a song until three years ago. Big Blue Hearts appear deserving of such attention based on this promising debut.
Big Blue Hearts is jammed
Bruce Henderson - The Wheels Roll
Bruce Henderson's backing band is the New York-based High Plains Drifters, an outfit that includes Saturday Night Live's G.E Smith (the one who looks like Skeletor) on guitar and Paul Ossola (the one who looks like Thoreau) on bass. To their credit, Smith and
J.J. Cale - Anyway The Wind Blows (2-CD Set)
Without J.J. Cale's songs and laconic guitar style, it's hard to imagine Eric Clapton having had much of a career in the '70s, and perhaps Mark Knopfler after him. "Cocaine", "After Midnight" and "Living On Tulsa Time" (the