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Written by Jason Crawford
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Wednesday, 21 October 2009 00:00 |
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 No one has ever accused the Black Crowes of being innovators. Some say their sound is derivative, others say imitation. I find them somewhere in the middle depending on which record you're listening to. They've made one truly great album ("Southern Harmony and Gospel Companion") and a few really good ones, mostly towards the beginning of their career.
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Written by Jason Victor Serinus
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Tuesday, 22 September 2009 00:00 |
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 This striking, eponymously titled album from singer/songwriter Christina Courtin introduces an enigmatic, deep-thinking artist who first disarms you, then ropes you in. Courtin’s seductive, little girl voice comes off as almost naïve in the opening track, “Green Jay,” but turns surprisingly dark and pleading in “Laconia.”
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Written by Jason Crawford
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Thursday, 17 September 2009 00:00 |
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 When I think of Duke Ellington, I think of Big Bands and his "Live at Newport" album from 1956. I bought "Money Jungle" based on the album cover and the fact that it was released by Classic Records. The cover photo shows The Duke and drummer Max Roach commiserating at the piano while the formidable Charles Mingus looks on in the background with his bass. It's in black and white. The music is not.
Tags: Vinyl |
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Written by Jason Crawford
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Wednesday, 12 August 2009 00:00 |
At this point, I'm not expecting Son Volt to release any experimental electro-pop or klezmer-inflected jam funk. Son Volt makes straight ahead country tinged rock and roll music. Almost exclusively. Jay Farrar has the voice for it. He's good at it. He's known how to do it for decades, and he doesn't seem to have any interest in changing his ways this late in the game. Besides, Farrar got a little risky with some alternate tunings and unorthodox song structures on some solo releases a while back, and no one was buying.
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Written by Jason Victor Serinus
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Wednesday, 05 August 2009 00:00 |
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Why did we have to wait until after Lorraine Hunt Lieberson’s passing to receive so many live, un-doctored documents of her greatness? The live 2004 Ravinia performance of her husband Peter Lieberson’s Rilke Songs (Bridge) was the first to arrive after the San Francisco-born mezzo died of cancer on July 3, 2006 at age 52. Then came her November 2005 live performance of Lieberson’s Neruda Songs (Nonesuch).
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Written by Jason Crawford
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Monday, 13 July 2009 00:00 |
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 I came to the Iron and Wine game late. I bought 2007's "The Shepherd's Dog," amongst the disapproving howls of his audience who seemed to think he'd abandoned his sound. You'd have thought he'd started rapping or something. "Around the Well" is a collection of B-sides and rarities that span the length of his career, and I can kind of see his fans' point in retrospect.
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Written by Jason Crawford
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Monday, 08 June 2009 10:11 |
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 There are few popular recording artists that have their very own genre of music. I mean, you can probably count them on one hand. Tom Waits comes to mind. That's about it, really. There are probably others, but even someone like Neil Young can't be said to have his own genre. His music is instantly recognizable, and derivative of no one's work, but it's still rock and roll at the end of the day. Junior Kimbrough played the blues. But he didn't play the blues like anyone else played the blues. He played his own style of Hill Country Blues, and it varied so severely from his neighbors' styles that you could almost say he created something new. He created something new that sounds like it pre-dates time. It's a sound that's as complex as the region that spawned the artist. It's a place and a sound that time seems to have forgotten in a lot of ways.
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Written by Jason Serinus
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Thursday, 21 May 2009 00:00 |
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 In 2004, Grammy winning producer/engineer Mark Johnson was strolling down the streets of Santa Monica when he heard musician Roger Ridley singing “Stand by Me” from afar. Six years after he and a small, dedicated team of videographers began traveling the world to find ways to connect the world through music, Johnson heard the voice whose passion and conviction transformed his vision. He soon combined Ridley’s rendition with others from around the world, creating the extraordinary YouTube world journey video of “Stand by Me” that has generated over seven million hits.
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Written by Jason Crawford
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Wednesday, 13 May 2009 00:00 |
 Now, Blitzen Trapper is a little more my speed. From the first note of their newest album, "Furr," you know that these guys are most assuredly not traveling minstrels. These guys like to rock and have a good time. They have song titles like "Fire and Fast Bullets," and "Black River Killer." They sing about shaking it on a Saturday night and their guitars are loud and appropriately distorted. They infuse elements of folk, country, soul, and more to form an original sound that never veers too far from the rock, and keeps the listener alert and on their toes until the last acoustic notes of "Lady On The Water."
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Written by Jason Crawford
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Wednesday, 22 April 2009 00:00 |
 Janelle Monae doesn't lack for ambition. That much is for certain after just a cursory listen to her debut E.P. "Metropolis: The Chase Suite." Monae has some heavy hitters in her corner, and they bring a lot to the production side of the recording. It's Monae's voice, however, that carries the day on this concept record. It gives the listener the impression that she can handle any style of vocal delivery that the job calls for, and many of those styles are accounted for during this brief first offering.
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