X - Beyond & Back: The X Anthology / The Blasters - American Music
If you were to hear the Blasters' "Marie Marie" and X's "Hungry Wolf" back-to-back, you might not think much connected them. One sounds as if it's coming from the neighborhood bar, the other from the garage of a broken
Oblivians - ...Play 9 Songs With Mr. Quintron
Ive never been much of a churchgoer. I grew up with a dearth of Christian spirituals in my household, having been raised in an ultra-reform Jewish family. Except for the annual family reunion in a teeny town outside of Montgomery, where my uncle owned the local Piggly Wiggly, I
Barbara Manning - 1212
Barbara Manning's music is difficult to pigeonhole; it's more indie-pop than folk, but her breezy, matter-of-fact phrasings send you searching outside the rock canon for comparison. Over a 13-year career, solo and with bands such as World Of Pooh and SF Seals,
Jeb Loy Nichols - Lovers Knot
From the opening rhythmic vibe that bursts into a New Orleans funeral-march horn section, it's apparent that what follows is not your average singer-songwriter fare. Maybe it is the voice -- a resonant, nasal, keening, disarming warble that's inclusive of a hundred years of recorded
Marcia Ball - Let Me Play With Your Poodle Dog
She's a little bit country. But only a little. Mostly, she's...well, it's hard to say just what Marcia Ball is: a little rock, a lot of roll; a pinch of rhythm, a handful of blues; a Cajun Texan with a sultry voice and
Tom Russell - Song Of The West: The Cowboy Collection
Geography and imagination are funny things. Ramblin' Jack Elliott lives in California, but he grew up in Brooklyn. Tom Russell grew up California, but he lives in Brooklyn (or he did for many years before a recent relocation to West Texas). And both fancy themselves cowboys. On the liner