Peter Case - Street Legal
"When I start writing," allows Peter Case, "it's not like I have something that I really want to say. It's more like there are a million things to say. And I'm just trying to find my way into the world of
Various Artists - Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger flunked out of college because of his banjo obsession, and along with Earl Scruggs, he became one of the instrument's most influential pickers. Unlike Scruggs, however, he wasn't devoted to virtuosity; music always had, for Seeger, a political utility. But he was a craftsman,
Wanktones - Live At The Fontana Bowlarama
Only once, among my honestly countless number of jobs, did I quit loudly and vitriolically. I had been indirectly ordered (i.e., walk in one morning and find a shiny red binder and a cowardly note) to begin a daily count and weekly total of my work output (what I
Various Artists - Na Mele O Paniolo: Songs of The Hawaiian Cowboy
These songs may once have seen the backside of a steer headed full tilt down the slopes of Mauna Kea, but not lately. This production's new-age romanticism is of the sort that reduces Southwestern Indian culture to pastel macrame dreamcatchers hung with chicken feathers. It's
Jamie Hartford - What About Yes
Serviceable is one of those adjectives that I would imagine musicians loathe to see attached to their work; it's a word that wouldn't necessarily be taken as a slight until applied to artistry. A couple notches above pedestrian, a few below formidable, and saved for productions
Tommy Keene - Isolation Party
Whether it was intended to be autobiographical in context or not, as a longtime Keene fan, I felt a poignant twinge when I first heard "Never Really Been Gone", track four on Isolation Party, in which he sings: "There was a time that I felt so jaded/