Peter Murphy - Deep 1990

Perhaps the stars were right, or perhaps his American company, flush from the unexpected success of Murphy's former bandmates in Love and Rockets, just decided to give Murphy a well-deserved publicity push. Whatever it was, with Deep Murphy scored an honest to goodness American radio/MTV hit thanks to the tender, lively "Cuts You Up," a love song with solid energy and an inspired vocal. It was a perfect calling card for the album as a whole, with Murphy in excelsis throughout and his Hundred Men providing everything from the lush, acoustic guitar wash of "Marlene Dietrich's Favorite Poem" to the stripped-down Arabic-tinged funk/hip-hop punch of the commanding "Roll Call." Through it all, Murphy simply sounds like he's having the time of his life, singing both for the sheer joy of it and for the dramatic power of his commanding voice. He's even comfortable enough to do an open rewrite of Bauhaus' "In the Flat Field," renamed "The Line Between the Devil's Teeth"; it has almost the same verse structure, definitely some of the same lyrics, but still, it's something he could have only done in his solo days. Quite why nothing else on the album connected with the public as strongly as "Cuts You Up" is a mystery; its follow-up single, "A Strange Kind of Love," was a striking love song, with acoustic guitar and plaintive Statham keyboards supporting one of Murphy's strongest lyrics and performances. Regardless, Deep showed Murphy balancing mass appeal and his own distinct art with perfection. AMG.

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Carminho - Canto 2014

Carminho is a Portuguese fado singer who made her smash hit solo album debut in 2009 with Fado. Born Carmo Rebelo de Andrade and hailing from Lisbon, she is the daughter of fado singer Teresa Siqueira. She cites influences that include fado legends Lucília do Carmo, Fernando Maurício, and Amália Rodrigues as well as pop/rock legends Queen and the Beatles. Carminho made her recording debut in 2003 on Saudades do Fado: Tertúlia de Fado Tradicional, a collaborative album produced by guitarist Luis Penedo on which she is featured as a vocalist. Critically acclaimed, she won the Prémio Amália Revelação award in 2005 and was later featured prominently in the Carlos Saura film Fados (2007). Carminho debuted with Fado (on EMI) at the relatively young age of 25. Produced by Diogo Clemente, the album features musical backing by an all-star group of Portuguese musicians including Ricardo Rocha, José Manuel Neto, Bernardo Couto, Ângelo Freire, Marino de Freitas, and Carlos Barretto. Critically acclaimed as well as commercially successful, Fado reached number two on the Portuguese albums chart and spent a few weeks in the Top Five. Two songs were released as promotional singles, "Escrevi o Teu Nome No Vento" and "A Bia da Mouraria." AMG.

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Mary Jane Hooper - Psychedelphia Rare & Unreleased New Orleans Funk 1966-1970 [1997]

Sorely overlooked by everyone (save for major soul and funk fans) who enjoys soul music, the city of New Orleans was relegated to the backseat by their soul brethren in Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Nashville, somewhat unjustly. With the recent movement to unearth funk classics and rare vinyl, this wrong has been slowly corrected, most recently with Funky Delicacies' reissue of Sena Fletcher's finest performances. Recording under the guise of Mary Jane Hooper, this collection of singles recorded for Scram Records includes her most well-known hit "Psychedelphia" and is reason alone for beat junkies to consider purchasing this compilation. But there are several other hidden treasures among the pile as well; "I've Got Reasons" and "You've Got What I Want" are but two that could give "Psychedelphia" a run for its money, and Fletcher's version of "Harper Valley PTA" is a beautifully haunting take on the classic song. AMG.

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Papa Wemba, Koffi Olomide - Wake Up 1996

Papa Wemba and Koffi Olomide made a  very powerful african music album. Enjoy.

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Calvin Russell - Sounds From the Fourth World 1991

Calvin Russell was the real deal, an authentic Texas-born cowboy whose face was a trail of hard-earned lines, proof of the rough mileage he'd put on his body in the years following his birth in 1948 in Austin. For someone who likes Texas and Russell's brand of country music, the act of researching his life and misadventures can often be challenging given that much of the information printed about the singing American cowboy -- including Russell's stint in jail -- is in French. Sometimes it's in another European language. Significant writeups in the language of his birthplace occur far less often, and that's because Russell found his greatest success, professionally and personally, far from home. He was a business owner and the proprietor of a Swiss nightclub, and his wife was Swiss. A good percentage of his albums were recorded in Europe.

The singer/songwriter was one of nine children born to his working-class parents, Red and Daisy. The family lived on an unpaved road, not far from the town's wrecking yard. His mom was a waitress in the same little café where his dad did the cooking. Calvin Russell, their fourth child, spent his youth putting together hot rod cars. Before he turned 13, he'd discovered the guitar. Within a year, Russell was playing with an outfit called the Cavemen. A wild time during his teens brought him to the attention of local authorities, who sent him to juvenile detention and, later, prison. At one point in the mid-'80s, he did time in a Mexican jail, where he spent his nights on a cold concrete floor. Upon his release, he headed back to his hometown, where his condition didn't improve much. He made his bed outdoors, in the small area beneath a house, in the dirt. Russell took to the open road on a motorcycle and began to write his songs in the Texas hill country. By 1985, he had a single to his credit. Thanks to a chance meeting with record company executive Patrick Mathe four years later at Austin's Continental Club, Russell landed a contract with the French company that would release many of his albums, New Rose Records. Russell later went on to sign with Sony after New Rose Records folded. New Rose's release of Russell's A Crack in Time album in 1990 caused a stir for the artist, and he started picking up quite a bit of attention. He went on to play festivals in Europe alongside such artists as the Kinks and Little Village. More albums followed from New Rose. Le Voyageur (1993) is a recording of live shows performed by Russell in such French cities as Rennes and Paris. When the record company was sinking and its assets frozen in bankruptcy proceedings, Russell was very close to having his career tied up in the company's legal woes. Dick Rivers, who had a career decades earlier in pop, rescued Russell when he purchased the singer/songwriter's contract. Soon, Sony found Russell and stepped into the picture. However, the remainder of the '90s and the first decade of the new millennium found a prolific Russell releasing a number of albums on both European and American independent labels far from the majors; his recordings included Dream of the Dog (1995), Calvin Russell (1997), This Is My Life (1998), Sam (1999), Crossroad (2000), Rebel Radio (2002), A Man in Full (2004), In Spite of It All (2005), Unrepentant (2007), Dawg Eat Dawg (2009), and Contrabendo (2011). Between recording dates, Russell could still be heard singing in the hideaway bars of Austin, preferring low-key gigs where he sang his own songs and lesser-known works from the traditional repertoire. Calvin Russell was 62 years old when he died of liver cancer on April 3, 2011 in Garfield, Texas. AMG.

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Morphine - Cure For Pain 1993

With their cult following growing, Morphine expanded their audience even further with their exceptional 1994 sophomore effort, Cure for Pain. Whereas their debut, Good, was intriguing yet not entirely consistent, Cure for Pain more than delivered. The songwriting was stronger and more succinct this time around, while new drummer Billy Conway made his recording debut with the trio (replacing Jerome Deupree). Like the debut, most of the material shifts between depressed and upbeat, with a few cacophonic rockers thrown in between. Such selections as "Buena," "I'm Free Now," "All Wrong," "Candy," "Thursday," "In Spite of Me" (one of the few tracks to contain six-string guitar), "Let's Take a Trip Together," "Sheila," and the title track are all certifiable Morphine classics. And again, Mark Sandman's two-string slide bass and Dana Colley's sax work help create impressive atmospherics throughout the album. Cure for Pain was unquestionably one of the best and most cutting-edge rock releases of the '90s. AMG.

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Stephen Bruton - What It Is 1993

Long before launching a recorded career as a singer/songwriter, Stephen Bruton had amassed a daunting résumé. He had served as a sideman/guitarist, songwriter, or producer for such industry notables as Bonnie Raitt, Delbert McClinton, Bob Dylan, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Hal Ketchum, Christine McVie, T-Bone Burnett, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Patty Loveless, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Alejandro Escovedo. Bruton grew up in Ft. Worth, Texas, the son of a jazz musician and record-store owner. He got his first big break when Kris Kristofferson tapped him to fill a vacant band slot in the early '70s. After working with an impressive array of artists for over 20 years, Bruton released his first solo album in the early '90s. Later that decade, he signed to New West Records, the home of such Americana talent as Billy Joe Shaver, the Flatlanders, and Delbert McClinton. Bruton's fourth release, Spirit World, a mixture of blues, country, and rock & roll, came out in early 2002, followed in 2005 by From the Five. Sadly, Bruton died at age 60 from complications of throat cancer at the home of T-Bone Burnett in Los Angeles on May 9, 2009; Bruton and Burnett had been working together on the film Crazy Heart, an Academy Award-winning vehicle for actor Jeff Bridges. Bruton and Burnett co-wrote much of the music for the film, and Bridges' Bad Blake character was in fact inspired by Bruton. Bruton's death came shortly after he completed his work on Crazy Heart, and the film was dedicated to him. AMG.

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The Mother Hips - Part Timer Goes Full 1995

The second album from the Mother Hips, Part-Timer Goes Full and was the first for American Recordings and was released in 1994. The disc continues the guitar-driven roots rock of their debut Back to the Grotto by mixing country, folk, pop and soul together. Part-Timer Goes Full was the band's first attempt to further their sound, but hardly as drastic as The Green Hills of Earth. "We tried to use Beggar's Banquet-era Rolling Stones as a model for the instrumentation," says guitarist and vocalist Tim Bluhm. The Mother Hips use piano and horns on several songs in this set. The standout track is "Bent Carousel" which the band claims is their mix of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and John Sebastian's "Stories We Could Tell." AMG.

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Old & In the Way - That High Lonesome Sound 1996

Twenty-one years after the first album Old & In the Way came the second, an amazing development for a group that existed for only nine months and about 30 gigs in 1973. That High Lonesome Sound, like its predecessor, Old & In the Way, was drawn from the group's stand at the Boarding House in San Francisco in October 1973. And like that release, it combined traditional bluegrass material, in this case standards like "Orange Blossom Special" and "Uncle Pen," with interpolations from the world of rock & roll ("The Great Pretender") and new originals that touched on contemporary issues (Peter Rowan's "Lonesome L.A. Cowboy," a comment on the Southern California country-rock scene of the time). Old & In The Way was a great crossover album, largely because the bandmembers had enjoyed careers in rock, especially banjo player and singer Jerry Garcia, moonlighting from his day job in the Grateful Dead. What was less-well-known was that the group had real roots in the music, as Neil V. Rosenberg pointed out in the second album's liner notes. Four of the five members had experience in bluegrass, and two had been members of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. Old And In The Way was a hybrid, but it was far more bluegrass than rock. AMG.

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Stephen Bruton - Spirit World 2002

Famed producer and New West recording artist Stephen Bruton plays a warm, inviting brand of acoustic rock on his 2002 release Spirit World. His feet wade through the streams of blues, country, and American trad rock equally, with a heavy accent on the Hammond B-3 organ reminiscent of a Texan version of the Wallflowers' good natured pop/rock. While there is nothing wrong with the album, the songs don't necessarily explore any new ground, so all of the songs feel comfortable, but not necessarily compelling. AMG.

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