Walter Martin - We're All Young Together 2014

The first of the Walkmen to surface with new music in the wake of the band's hiatus, Walter Martin said that parenthood gave him an opportunity to write songs that captured early rock & roll's mischievous innocence. He nails those feelings -- and many more -- on We're All Young Together, which, from its title to its songs, delivers a creative and thoughtful take on music that's fun for all ages. Like the rest of the album, the '50s and '60s influences never feel contrived: The hints of doo wop in "We Like the Zoo ('Cause We're Animals Too)"'s layered backing vocals enhance the song's seemingly goofy but accurate exploration of the kinship kids feel with wild animals. Later on, Martin wisely avoids making the standout "The Beatles (When Ringo Shook His Mop)" sound too much like the Fab Four, instead channeling the fun-loving freedom John, Paul, George, and Ringo still generate in young-at-heart listeners with a little help from his friends (who include bandmate Hamilton Leithauser and French Kicks' Nick Stumpf and Josh Wise). However, We're All Young Together doesn't completely forsakeMartin's Walkmen legacy. The sweetly summery "Costa Rica" is a cheery echo of the tropical and folky sounds the band explored on Lisbon and You & Me, while the spiky, slinky guitar on "Rattlesnakes" evokes Bows + Arrows. The album's wonderfully whimsical songwriting also echoes Harry Nilsson, whose Pussy Cats got the full-album cover treatment by the Walkmen in 2006. Martin's deceptively simple couplets are a big part of what makes We're All Young Together so special, and they shine especially brightly on "Sing to Me," where Karen O's delivery of lyrics like "I'd like to breach the castle wall of you/And sing a concert in the hall of you" reaffirms her gentler side may be more interesting, and sustainable, than her career as a rock tigress. Here and elsewhere on the album, the tone is unexpectedly reflective, and it often feels like We're All Young Together is more about childhood than aimed at children: "It's a Dream" sparkles with the simplicity of the best parts of being very young -- listening to birds sing, eating lunch, taking naps. Fortunately, everyone can enjoy those feelings in these playful and poetic songs, which balance sophistication and wonder with an inclusive warmth that makes We're All Young Together a complete delight. AMG.

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Unni Wilhelmsen - Live with Bode Rhythm Group feat. Bodo Sinfo 2013

Unni Elisabeth Wilhelmsen (born 12 July 1971) is a Norwegian singer, songwriter and musician. Her musical influences are pop music and the American tradition of the singer/songwriter, in which the lyrics play an important role as well as the music. She lives in Oslo, but has throughout her career had the whole of Norway as a venue. When she made her breakthrough in 1996 with her debut album To Whom It May Concern (Polygram), she also became an important mediator of the singer/songwriter genre, a genre that now has a broad audience in Norwegian popular music. Wilhelmsen was born in Oslo. She was given a guitar as a teenager and so the guitar became her first instrument. However, she had always dreamed of playing the piano, and later took it up. Her first tune featuring the piano came in 2006. She writes most of her music herself, but from time to time collaborates with others. Wilhelmsen is a full-time musician and releases her music on her own indie label, St. Cecilia Music. In addition to pursuing her solo career, in September 2013, Unni joined the Norwegian Band "Di Derre" as a guitarist and vocalist.

Her debut as singer was at Smuget in Oslo, where music journalist Finn Bjelke was present. He liked what he heard and mentioned her to music producer Ole Evenrud at Polygram. This led to her first record contract, and her debut album To Whom It May Concern was released on Polygram 1996. She was awarded Spellemannprisen 1996 in two categories for this album. International release on Universal Music of To whom it may concern in Germany followed, but her international career was slow to develop. She started her own record company to be in charge. Now her audience outside Norway is growing; in effect she functions as her own distributor and a subcontractor for her former label, Universal. Another excellent album, thanks to B.!

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The Psychedelic Furs - Talk Talk Talk 1981

This time working solely with Steve Lillywhite, the Furs introduce a brighter, poppier side to their underground rock edge, with smashing results throughout. The group produces some powerful songs, even more rough-edged than before. Especially striking is "Dumb Waiters," with its queasy, slow-paced arrangement that allows both Kilburn's sax and Ashton's guitar to go wild. However, the six still create some undeniable pop classics. Most well-known is the lead track, "Pretty in Pink," inspiration for the iconic John Hughes film years later and re-recorded as a result. The original is still where to go, though, with Butler's catchy description of a romantically unsure woman matched by a killer band performance. Similarly lighter numbers on the record call to mind a rockier version of Roxy Music's output in later years: elegant, romantic angst given a slightly rougher edge in both music and vocals. "She Is Mine" is especially fine as a gently swinging number with some of Butler's best, quietly ruminative lyrics. Straight-up anthems abound as well, the best being the amazing "Into You Like a Train," which mixes the blunt desire of the title with a sparkling Ashton guitar line and a fast rhythm punch. Talk Talk Talk ends on another high with "All of This and Nothing." A soft, acoustic guitar-sax-rhythm combination introduces the song, then fades away for the main section to begin; Butler details bits and pieces from a lost relationship over a sharp full-band performance, and a final drum smash leads into a reprise of the start -- a fine way to end a fine record. AMG.

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The Watchman - High Acres 2006

Is 'High Acres' The Watchman's most contemplative album to date? It may very well be, together with Carnival of Circumstance, his album from 2002, which was so well received. But in this case the rule is: soft = heavy !!

There are 'no dull moments' on this collection of songs which all feature The Watchman's trademark sound. Intriguing, almost hypnotic songs with a definite romantic feel, sung in a compelling way by Ad and his wife Ankie, who was also responsible for the more than agreeable production. She has a style all her own, in which the various acoustic instruments are draped around Gerard van der Graaf's piano and the percussive rhythm section. The latter includes - next to Eric van der Lest on drums - Osama Milaagi, King of Rhythm from Khartoum. He also distinguished himself on the very successful No Blues production, the Arabicana project in which The Watchman played such an important part. And it goes without saying that Ad van Meurs himself 'picks' his guitar as fluently as ever, that Stephan Jankowski's guitar solos are immaculate and that Theo Wijdeven provides his familiar, propulsive bass support.

There are songs about grandfatherhood (sic!), the 'bigger powers', jealousy, magpies in a tree, falling leaves in autumn, the search for God, youth, love, and puppy love and what have you.

'High Acres' is transatlantic folk & blues from The Watchman: sincere, luxurious and addictive. Thanks to B.!

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Bronwynne Brent - Stardust 2014

Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, American roots song- writer BRONWYNNE BRENT has the kind of stop-in-your-tracks voice that sounds like Southern sunshine. Though her new album, STARDUST, was recorded in Seattle, it’s the kind of album that could only come out of the South. There’s a hint of Delta blues behind the ache in her songs, a glimpse of honky-tonk twang, an echo of riverboat can-cans, a whiff of Morricone, and an atmosphere of the darker side of country songwriting. Harkening back to the glory days of Lee Hazlewood and Gram Parsons, Brent’s songs tap into the dark undercurrent of country that starts with old Appalachian murder ballads and continues to today’s current crop of psychedelic country songwriters. Like a Juke Joint Nancy Sinatra, Bronwynne Brent unites all the best elements of Southern American roots music, and ties these many different influences into a sound that’s comforting and refreshing.

Produced and recorded by Seattle’s Johnny Sangster (Mudhoney, Massy Ferguson), there’s a spaghetti northwestern sound to Stardust. Bringing on ace musicians like drummer John Convertino of Calexico and bassist Keith Lowe (Fiona Apple, Bill Frisell), and a diverse array of instrumentalists featuring everything from trumpets to a hammond organ, banjo, even a plucked piano, allowed Sangster to carefully build the sound-scapes around each song. And what songs! Brent’s songs have a heavy weight on their shoulders. Battered women, defeated lovers, devilish characters, highway ghosts, and lonesome wanderers populate her songs. Her voice sounds aged beyond its years, brittle and fragile, almost as if it might shatter into razor-sharp fragments under too much pressure. But underneath everything there’s a steel spine to this music, a thoroughly grounded foundation in American roots music that allows Brent to build her songs to greater heights than you might expect. It’s a masterful album, and heralds the coming of a new sound in the Americana pantheon.

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Anderson Ponty Band - Better Late Than Never 2015

The Anderson Ponty Band is a supergroup team-up featuring jazz-rock violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and foundingYes vocalist Jon Anderson. Although they had known each other casually since the 1970s, it wasn't until 2014 that the prog rock icons decided to work together. Collaborating via the internet, Ponty would send instrumental tracks toAnderson who would then add vocals, shaping them into a songs. The process eventually spread to the duo reworking older songs from their careers including some classic Yescompositions. In 2015, the Anderson Ponty Band released their debut album, Better Late Than Never, a CD/DVD that showcased their live 2014 concert performance at the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado. AMG.

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Missy Burgess - Pour Me A Song 2005

A refreshing blend of folk, blues, gospel and other styles, this debut full-length album by Missy Burgess showcases the Ottawa performer’s warm, weathered voice and considerable songwriting skills.At her best with slower reflective tunes, Burgess sings about the relentless passage of time, life’s small blessings and, in one of the half-dozen or so cover tunes, just how fine it would be to roll around heaven all day (Petr Cancura’s tenor sax helps out on Burgess’ nicely understated approach to this classic number).Burgess’ selection of songs is nothing if not eclectic, from her own compact, bittersweet ode to love-gone-south, My Blue Sweater, to Tom Waits’ Come on Up to the House and Jiminy Crickett’s When You Wish upon a Star. Thanks to B.!

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Jandek - Chair Beside a Window 1982

Another baffling addition to this phenomenal discography of outsider art, this CD reissues the fourth obscure LP produced by Jandek, and dates from 1982. That same year, he released three albums of inimitable abstractions of rural folk-blues. If this outsider has a signature trait, it is absolute deviation; as on any disc in his enormous discography, he seems set on deconstructing music from the inside out. Few recordings exist of such a distorted musical vision, and it is this character that is cherished in the artist's work. Love them or loathe them, it is undeniable that Jandek recordings are powerful -- and for all their off-kilter abstraction there is a consistent focus that never falters, regardless of how warped the vision. The closest musical idiom that the Texan complies to is the blues and, when following that tangent, he finds magic on "Nancy Sings," an exquisite song where his own disheveled voice is replaced by an elusive female vocalist. An occurrence rare for Jandek recordings, which are predominantly solo outings, the duo vamps up an intoxicated ad-lib hollering session that could have appeared on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music were it recorded 50 years prior. AMG.

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The Family Stand - Chain 1990

Chain consists of ten tracks traveling in different directions. The much ballyhooed "Ghetto Heaven" attempts to capture the power of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield in social significancy but has the impact of a mosquitoe. It gets better with "Only" which has a mock reggae beat that bottoms an infectious melody; "In Summer I Fall" is a sweet beat ballad with a warm lead from Sandra St. Victor. "Oversaxed" displays V. Jeffrey Smith smooth sax skills. "The Last Temptation" owes as much to gospel as it does soul, and exemplifies the diversity of this LP. The title track "Chain," is melodic in a muddy way, the muffled sound gives the shuffling rhythm an eerie effect. Third member Peter Lordcontributes vocals and his immense keyboard skills to a project that doesn't equal the sum of the individuals involved. AMG.

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Meshell Ndegeocello - Peace Beyond Passion 1996

There are times on Me'Shell Ndegéocello's second album where the funky hybrid of R&B and alt-pop that she laid down on her 1993 debut, Plantation Lullabies, actually seems to take on an ethereal quality. Beats and grooves float effortlessly out of the fluid rhythms, and Ndegéocello herself sings with a soothing reserve that was a little too deliberate on her previous work. And it's a better album because of it. Peace Beyond Passion is built around a triumvirate of songs addressing man's inhumanity toward man throughout the ages (with such heavy-handed titles as "Deuteronomy: Niggerman" and "Leviticus: Faggot"), but the real highlights of the set are a wry take on Bill Withers' "Who Is He and What Is He to You" and the ultra-smooth, slow-burning "Stay." It's new age soul that's as spiritually purifying as it is musically sophisticated. AMG.

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Jazz Is Dead - Blue Light Rain 1998

With a rhythm section made up of two electric jazz legends, bassist Alphonso Johnson and drum godBilly Cobham, this quartet uses the Dead's music as a starting point, then takes off to places unimagined by most Deadheads. Dixie Dregs founder T. Lavitz sits in the organ and keyboard chair, while guitar wunderkind Jimmy Herring steps to the front to take fusion guitar to heights unreached since Al Di Meola left Return to Forever. Looking like the Allmans' little brother, Herring moves from looping lines reminiscent of Jerry Garcia and Dickey Betts to inspired improvisations out of the Larry Coryell/John McLaughlin/Al Di Meola playbook. Longtime Dead listeners will recognize most of the melodies, but the arrangements and solos by this amazing quartet transform the originals. And, while this album only hints at the phenomenal interplay Jazz is Dead achieves in concert, it is one of the most remarkable studio recordings to fall under the often-maligned jazz-rock fusion banner in many a year. Cobham's work with Mahavishnu Orchestra and Johnson's with Weather Report helped redefine the parameters of jazz and rock in the '70s. Through this project, they and their bandmates bring musical adventurousness, rhythmic complexity and instrumental virtuosity to a whole new generation, while rekindling the spark in those who were around for fusion's heyday 25 years earlier. With Blue Light Rain, Jazz Is Dead affirms that this music anything but. AMG.

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Johnny Hickman - Tilting 2012

Hickman is best known for co-founding the band Cracker. His fiery lead guitar sound and spirited co-writing give flavor to that band's alternative radio hits, including Teen Angst, Low, Get Off This, and Eurotrash Girl. Cracker, founded in 1991 with childhood friend David Lowery, has nine full-length releases to date. Kerosene Hat (1994) remains an alternative music collection staple. Lowery and Hickman together are seen as godfathers of the alternative music scene, who turned gently away from plaid-clad grunge in the 1990s with more countrified and bluesy stylings. Their collaboration with the jam-band Leftover Salmon in 2003 further proved that no one genre could contain them. Cracker's most recent album, Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey (2009), garnered indie press rave reviews, with the song "Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out" finding its way into the soundtrack for the cult TV hit Californication. Cracker (Lowery, Hickman, drummer Frank Funaro and bassist Sal Maida) continue to tour internationally, with a future release likely to appear in 2013.
Johnny's solo work includes the soon-to-be-released Tilting (July 2012), which takes Hickman's reliable blazing guitar and roots-rock sounds in a broader direction that includes melodic pop, and 2005's solo debut Palmhenge. No Depression magazine called Palmhenge "wildly diverse - from the arena rock of 'Harvest Queen' to the Bakersfield country of 'Friends' to the splendid folk rock of 'Little Tom' and 'The San Bernardino Boy' - it blends those genres with a dash of alt-rock to create a surprisingly coherent whole."
Prior to his tenure in Cracker, Hickman toured as a solo/folk acoustic performer, had a brief stint in the Unforgiven (a tongue-in-cheek-Western guitar rock band), and co-founded the Inland Empire (California) cult band the Dangers. Influenced by punk rock, surf guitar, and true Bakersfield country, Hickman's sound is often imitated but never perfected by anyone but he and his signature 1977 Les Paul.
Occasionally, Hickman ventures away from solo work and Cracker to spearhead side projects, including his Colorado-based outlaw country band The Hickman-Dalton Gang. Retired side projects include All Thumbs Trio (with moe. guitarist Chuck Garvey, and East Coast guitarist Gibb Droll), and Crazysloth, an Arizona-based band he formed while recording Palmhenge. Film and TV work to date include one full film score for the independent River Red, placement of "Lucky" from Palmhenge in the FX series "Sons of Anarchy," as well as the placement of Cracker songs in several popular movies.

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Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself 2012

After a long string of lush, intricately plotted collections of classically minded indie pop, crafty violinist, minutia-loving songwriter and peerless whistler Andrew Bird offers up Break It Yourself, an intricately plotted collection of classically minded indie pop that eschews the meticulous studio refinement ofArmchair Apocrypha and Noble Beast. Recorded mostly live at his studio barn in Western Illinois,Bird, drummer/percussionist Martin Dosh, and guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker have crafted a sunny, unpredictable set of tunes that reflects the pastoral Mississippi river valley that birthed them. Meandering and soulful, the album relies on the usual pizzicato loops, orchestral flourishes, and oddball subject matter that's preoccupied Bird since 2003's Weather Systems, but for the first time since his Bowl of Fire days, it feels less like a one-man band. Stand-out cuts like "Orpheo Looks Back", "Eyeoneye," and "Danse Caribe," the latter of which manages to balance elements of Americana, Celtic, and calypso without coming off as contrived or fractured, display an artist in the kind of relaxed, creative state that can only come from putting one's feet up on their own desk after a rigorous bout of touring, which in Bird's case was about five years. This new-found "band" feel also makes itself known on more exploratory tracks like opener "Desperation Breeds" and the eight minute "Hole in the Ocean Floor," songs that despite their art rock lengths, remain engaging and immediate throughout. On first spin, Break It Yourself may sound like a typical outing, but repeated listens unveil an assembly of songs that are as verdant and mercurial as they are rooted in the Bird tradition. AMG.

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