Album Reviews

Alto sax bop legend Art Pepper (1925-1982) had accrued a lot of mileage but few OnePass points when he blew into London with his trio in June of 1980 to play a fortnight gig at the famous Ronnie Scott’s Club.

No one before sang quite like Stevie Wonder  does on this groundbreaking album, but everyone did afterwards. Wonder's tonality and phrasing on Talking Book were breakthroughs in soul/pop vocalizing.

As the liner notes for ISB's self titled debut (Elektra EKS-7322) tell it, in the mid '60s Robin Williamson was singing traditional Scottish ballads, MIke Heron was in an r&b group and Clive Palmer was playing ragtime banjo.

Not one Hollies hit is among the twenty songs on this ten 45rpm 7" box set and that's the best part!

Street playing string bands played some of the best music I heard at this year's SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. The Carolina Chocolate Drops out of Durham, North Carolina are one of the few African-American string bands plying the trade today. The trio plays fiddle, banjo, guitar, harmonica, bones (yes, bones) and other traditional instruments on this 10"  four tune EP. The group had a Grammy Award® winning album for "best traditional folk album" with their 2010 CD release "Genuine Negro Jig" also on Nonesuch.

A Ken Burns ten part PBS special will project itself onto your inner movie screen as Pat Conte plays on 19th century fiddle and banjo and occasionally vocalizes a set of old American tunes the accompanying press release describes as "old-time, primitive blues and archaic songs...". 

The prolific, smoky-voiced Irish folk/rock singer Eleanor McEvoy has had an almost twenty year recording career, first on major labels, where she enjoyed mainstream success but after getting caught in an excess of red tape, she extricated herself and began recording for independents.