Bob Weir and Ratdog - Evening Moods 2000

The long-awaited release from former Grateful Dead icon Bob Weir's jam band Ratdog shouldn't disappoint hungry Deadheads. The bluesy/folky/country/jazz feel of the Dead's live sets have been reborn in this incarnation as well, accented by guest Mickey Hart's loose percussion on a couple of tracks (notably the cover of "Corinna"). Weir's friend and frequent collaborator, bassist Rob Wasserman, anchors the tracks and allows for plenty of bluesy jamming, and the band opens up to make room for gritty keyboard solos and even a bright horn section. After five years of touring without a single album for rabid fans to take home with them in their VW vans and BMW convertibles, the inevitable question is "When does the tour start?" AMG.

listen here

Rufus Thomas - This Woman Is Poison 1989

A masterful comeback album from a blues and soul veteran who was assumed to be ready for the retirement home. Rufus Thomas went back to the comic blues that had been his forte in the 1950s, and the edge in his voice and defiance in his tone proclaimed that he wasn't finished yet. After years of taking heat from purists for not issuing enough "real" blues albums, Alligator didn't get nearly enough credit for being the only label to give Rufus Thomas a fair shot in the 1980s. AMG.

listen here

Sun Ra - Marshall Allen Presents Sun Ra And His Arkestra In The Orbit Of Ra 2014

As the longest-tenured member of the Arkestra (55-plus years and counting as of 2014), there is no one with a deeper understanding of the music of Sun Ra than Marshall Allen, and that's part of what makes In the Orbit of Ra such a special collection. The Arkestra's long history is often divided into musical/geographic periods or spoken of as a progression from inside to outside playing. This set spans from the late '50s to the late '70s but the non-chronological sequencing shows how artificial those stylistic boundaries are. The tracks chosen show how many of the elements of their more outside material were present even back in the late '50s and there was quite clearly a strong, coherent musical vision in place from the beginning (but most audiences probably weren't ready for it yet). There are a few signature tunes here, but this isn't really a greatest-hits collection. Instead, it's a guided tour from Marshall Allen deep into Sun Ra's music. Each track leads the listener a bit further so by the time Art Jenkins' space voice enters at the end of disc one, it makes perfect sense instead of just being "weird" in a different context. "Solar Differentials" is the perfect setup for the second disc (starting with the hypnotic "Astro Black," replete with industrial drill sounds), which continues the journey with more of a focus on vocal pieces over the years, ultimately leading us back full circle to the beginning in Chicago. In addition to the unreleased tracks "Reflects Motion, Pt. 1" and "Trying to Put the Blame on Me" (a wonderful solo piano piece), there's an unedited "Islands in the Sun" and a bunch of great photos by Val Wilmer. Then there's the remastering: this is easily the best sound most of these tracks have ever had before, on CD or LP. There are any number of great performances here, but Ronnie Boykins' work on bass really stands out with the new remastering. Despite the fact that most of this material was already available, In the Orbit of Ra is close to essential for fans and a pretty good place to start for the curious Sun Ra novice. He really was writing music for the 21st century. AMG.

listen here

Stephen Stills & Judy Collins - Everybody Knows 2017

Judy Collins provided Stephen Stills with the inspiration for "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," a song he composed in 1969 as their relationship was coming to an end. Lovers no more, the two remained friends over the years and decided to strike up a musical partnership nearly 50 years later, releasing Everybody Knows in September of 2017. The album deliberately plays off their past, with the duo reviving songs from their individual albums -- "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" from Collins; "So Begins the Task" from Stills -- and selecting covers from their peers, including the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle with Care," Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe," Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country," and Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows," which also lends its name to the album title. It's a clean and crisp production, so much so that its transparency reveals the disparity between Collins' sweet voice and Stills' scraggly singing, a pairing that can sound as smooth as sandpaper. Nevertheless, there's an inherent warmth to Everybody Knows. Stills and Collins have a gentle, easy chemistry and the studio-slick supporting performances provide a nice bed for a project that is less nostalgia than a reassuring reminder of the comfort of growing old together. AMG.

listen here

Cherokee Mist - Anthem Of The Moon 1997

The band drops the compositional pretense and just gets down to business with a non-stop guitar-oriented attack. Like most English bands in the style, Cherokee Mist has a clear idea of style and dynamics, so it’s not a blistering overload of the senses. It’s easy to listen to, and yet there are many fiery jams to behold.

listen here

Cathy Jean - In the Remains 2010

A very gifted singer and songwriter Cathy Jean will blow you away with this cd. Blues, rock, funk, ballads, strings, horns, and a good rocking band.

listen here

Ellen McIlwaine - Women in (E)Motion 1998

This live recording from Germany captures the essence of her stage show at the turning of the millennium. It's stark evidence of how increasingly rhythmic her work became through the years. She routinely incorporates reggae, funk, and other black styles into her distinctive, perhaps unique, sound that includes a fat, rich tone achieved by few guitarists of either gender. Covers of songs by one-time collaborator Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, and the Isley Brothers reveal some of her touchstones, although by this point she's evolved far beyond her blues roots. Her yodeling will put off some listeners. If you can get past that, you're in for a ride. AMG.
 

listen here

Bob Dylan - Shadows in the Night 2015

Other people's songs have long been a staple for Bob Dylan, who first made his name in Greenwich Village by singing folk songs in the early '60s and often returned to old tunes as the years rolled by. Sometimes, he'd dip into the pre-WWII collection of standards known as the Great American Songbook, peppering setlists with unexpected selections as early as the '80s and even covering Dean Martin's "Return to Me" for The Sopranos in 2001, and he's made no secret of his affection for old-fashioned crooning on the records he's made since 2001's Love and Theft, but even with this long history of overt affection for pre-rock & roll pop, the existence of 2015's Shadows in the Night might come as a surprise. Shadows in the Night finds the songwriter whose work marks the divide where artists were expected to pen their own material finding sustenance in the Great American Songbook, with every one of its songs recorded at some point by Frank Sinatra. Its songs are old and Shadows in the Night is appropriately a defiantly old-fashioned album: a record the way they used to make them, long before Dylan had a recording contract of his own. Archaic though it maybe -- it's a mere ten songs lasting no longer than 35 minutes, just like all the long-players of the '50s -- it's hard to call it musty, not when Dylan invested considerable energy in adapting these songs to the confines of his five-piece road band. Occasionally, this roadhouse crew is augmented by horns but the brass coloring bleeds into the sweet, mournful slide of Donnie Herron's pedal steel, accentuating that these renditions aren't nostalgic covers but reflections of Dylan's present. His voice shows gravelly signs of wear but he knows how to use his weathered instrument to its best effect, concentrating on the cadence of the lyrics and digging deep into their emotional undercurrent. In that sense, Shadows in the Night is a truer Sinatra tribute than the stacks of smiling, swinging empty tuxes snapping along to "It Had to Be You," for Dylan inhabits these songs like an actor, just like Frank did way back when. What Dylan is saluting is not the repertoire, per se -- none of these songs is heavily associated with the Chairmen of the Board -- but rather the mournful intimacy of Sinatra's "saloon" songs, the records he made to be played during the pitch black of the night. Four of the songs here can be found on 1957's Where Are You?, one of the very best of its kind, and that connection accentuates how Dylan has made a saloon song album with a band that could be heard at a saloon: just a guitar quintet, taking a moment to breathe, sigh, and perhaps weep. The fact that the feel is so richly idiosyncratic is a testament to just how well he knows these tunes, and these slow, winding arrangements are why Shadows in the Night feels unexpectedly resonant: it's a testament to how deeply Dylan sees himself in these old songs. AMG.

listen here

Yo La Tengo - Stuff Like That There 2015

These days, every band seems eager to honor the anniversary of one of its landmark albums, usually in the form of a concert tour or an expanded reissue, and even Yo La Tengo have gotten into the act -- a quarter-century after they released their endlessly charming 1990 LP Fakebook, in which they covered a handful of their favorite songs and reworked a few of their own numbers in semi-acoustic fashion, YLT have recorded what amounts to a sequel, 2015's Stuff Like That ThereJust like a sequel to a 1980s horror movie, Stuff Like That  There follows the template of the original as closely as possible -- there are two new songs, three remakes from the YLT back catalog, and nine covers, which range from the instantly recognizable (Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," inspired by Al Green's version) to the thoroughly obscure (unless you're a Hoboken pop obsessive or a James McNew completist, "Automatic Doom" by the Special Pillows is probably not on your hit parade). Just as importantly, original Yo La Tengo guitarist Dave Schramm, who appeared on Fakebook, returned for the Stuff Like That There sessions, and while his style would have been a poor fit beside Ira Kaplan's clouds of six-string skronk that became a highlight of YLT's work from President Yo La Tengo onward, for stuff like this, Schramm's graceful sound, full of echo and clean single-note leads, meshes gloriously with Kaplan's implacable strum and the steady shuffle of bassist James McNew and drummer and vocalist Georgia Hubley. As "quiet" Yo La Tengo goes, like Fakebook this is top shelf, beautiful, and subtly joyous, and while the songs are well-chosen and the performances are warm and passionate despite the low decibel level, the real secret weapon here is Georgia Hubley's vocals. Like Maureen Tucker singing "After Hours," what Hubley lacks in range she more than makes up for in her ability to infuse a song with feeling, and from the heartache of "My Heart's Not in It" and the lover's kiss-off of "Butchie's Tune" to the sweetly fractured romanticism of "Friday I'm in Love," Hubley's work beautifully demonstrates how much more less can be. If Stuff Like That There isn't as revelatory as Fakebook, it's a splendid, beguiling album that's perfectly suited for late nights and rainy afternoons, and a welcome reminder of one of the many, many things Yo La Tengo do so well. AMG.

listen here

Ballake Sissoko - Tomora 2005

Sissoko is a Malian kora player who found success as a recording artist, generally in collaboration with others, most notably fellow Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté. Born in 1968 in Mali and based in Paris, France, he is the son of Jelimady Sissoko, a master of the kora. Sissoko first made a name for himself as a recording artist in 1999 with co-billing on the Toumani Diabaté album New Ancient Strings. The following year, he released the solo-billed album Déli (2000), which features his wife, the vocalist Mama Draba, among other musicians. Subsequent albums include Diario Mali (2003), a collaboration with Italian contemporary classical pianist Ludovico Einaudi; Tomora (2005); 3MA (2008), a collaboration with Moroccan oud player Driss el Maloumi and Madgascan valiha player Rajery; and Chamber Music (2009), a collaboration with French celloist Vincent Ségal. AMG.

listen here

Nei Lisboa - Telas, Tramas & Trapaças Do Novo Mundo 2015

Keeping a low profile since the early '80s, when he caused a sensation in his home town (Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul) with his iconoclastic show and debut album Pra Viajar no Cosmos Não Precisa Gasolina, Nei Lisboa despised the attraction of Brazil's central artistic billboards represented by the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, continuing to live his own way in the same Porto Alegre. Even having lived in São Paulo and the U.S. and done shows in the so-called university circuit in the late '70s, Lisboa is virtually unknown in the rest of the country. On the other hand, he is celebrated in his state and by a handful of other fans throughout the country as the innovative composer of anthological albums like Pra Viajar no Cosmos Não Precisa Gasolina, Hein!? and Carecas da Jamaica. Touring only the South region to promote his records, he had a grateful surprise with the good reception got by Hi-Fi, an acoustic album recorded live at the São Pedro theater (Porto Alegre), backed only by Paulinho Supekóvia's guitar. In the repertory, no originals, only a panel of his underground and eclectic influences like "Everybody's Talking" (Fred Neil), "Bennie & The Jets" (Elton John), "I'm Having a Gay Time" (Alberta Hunter) and others. In 2000 Lisboa launched in France his book Um Morto Pula a Janela and realized the show Tudo de Novo Um Tanto Talvez pela Próxima Vez in Paris, at the University of Saint-Denis. AMG.

listen here

The Golden Palominos - A Dead Horse 1989

By and large, A Dead Horse tosses out the supersession approach of previous Golden Palominos efforts to concentrate on a steady core roster of Anton Fier, Bill Laswell, and Nicky Skopelitis; vocal chores are evenly divided among the Numbers Band's Robert Kidney and Amanda Kramer, formerly of Information Society. A subdued, moody effort, A Dead Horse lacks the energy and spark of the group's earlier work; only Kramer's lovely "Darklands" makes much of a lasting impression. AMG.

listen here

Peanut Butter Wolf - My Vinyl Weighs A Ton 1999

Digger of crates, master of tracks, Peanut Butter Wolf has an influences list that stretches into the hundreds (nearly all of them are actually listed in the credits, broken down by year) and a working knowledge of beats and samples that must number in the thousands. There aren't quite that many on his first production album, but he winnowed it down to a cool 75 or 100 to create one of the grooviest, funkiest underground records of the '90s. Unlike fellow NoCal mixer/producer DJ Shadow, PBW has plenty of space for collaborations, with nearly a dozen different rappers stopping by, along with nearly every top turntablist of the era: Babu, Q-Bert, Rob Swift, Cut Chemist, Kid Koala, Z-Trip, Shortkut, and A-Trak (granted, quite a few of them all show up for one gigantic posse track, "Tale of Five Cities"). My Vinyl Weighs a Ton boasts deep beats and choice samples, all of them working brilliantly together, and enough great cutting to keep each track raw and full of energy. Obviously learning a few lessons about sequencing and pacing from classic mixtapes (of his and of others), PBW sprinkles the rappers throughout this record and only recruits the best. Vocal highlights come with Planet Asia's mid-tempo grind "In Your Area," Pablo's feature on "Rock Unorthodox," and a two-part soundclash for the excellent Lootpack crew on "Styles Crew Flows Beats." He name-checked Wild Man Fischer along with Erick & Parrish; got recommendations from rare-groove heroes like Reuben Wilson, Galt MacDermot, and Fred Wesley; and delivered an excellent record that offered just as much to fans of rare grooves, great rappers, and deft DJs. AMG.

listen here

Chico César - Chico César 2000

His melodies and lyrics reflect the centuries of European-African-Indian intercultural strife and matings that provide the essence of modern northeastern Brazilian music. César's style draws heavily on the region's signature off-center, chugging forro rhythms and breathlessly fast, unrelenting frevo beats, but hearty helpings of Carioca samba and African-based imports like reggae, R&B, and rock are also grist for his busy mill. His songwriting is influenced by the rebellious art-song esthetic of the Tropicalismo crowd, but also reaches further back to the chilled-out, boozy intellectualism of '60s bossa nova. He surrounds his high, reedy vocals with undulating vocal chorales, mellow guitars, blithe squeezeboxes, and percolating drums and shakers, and occasional lush overlays of brass, violins, and flutes. Despite his obvious taste and aplomb, César's compositions tend to come across as pleasing, graceful exercises that don't aspire to touch a deeper chord. Nonetheless, despite the fact that he seldom approaches the complexity and passion so often exhibited by, let's say, Caetano Veloso or Milton Nascimento, his work has considerable charm. His melodies are easy to fall into, they are catchy enough to augment the pleasure of an idle hour but barely avoid being facile. This confection is would add a festive, relaxed ambiance to al fresco pursuits like picnics, cocktails on the patio, and beach parties. Detailed liner notes and English lyric translations are included. AMG.
 

listen here

Amina Claudine Myers - The Circle of Time 1984

In terms of depth, spirit, originality, and diversity, this is the recording that best brings those vibrant elements of Aminda Claudine Myers' musicianship to ultimate fruition. With bassist Don Pate and drummer Thurman Barker, Myers freely explores jazz, blues, and gospel-tinged creative music in her own inimitable way. All of these six pieces were written by Myers, each showcasing a different side of her joyous persona, making her music deep, listenable, tuneful, and emotional. Starting off with the hot instrumental modal bop number titled "Louisville," the pianist proves to be a capable, refreshing melodicist in this area, with Pate's complimentary lines to the piano and Barker's crackling drums setting the upbeat pace nicely. "Plowed Fields" has a loose structure with equally peaceful and soulful, tender and poignant motifs. Myers sings the line "seeing the plowed fields, made me want to go barefooted, until my mother spoke of soles (souls?) tied to her feet." "Do You Want to Be Saved?" is an anthem for the ages -- organ and piano strains are overdubbed for this hip, steady tempo gospel blues. Inexorable caravan-like processional pacing for "Christine" has a dual line of Myers cascading piano apreggios with a deft chordal four-bar line that is dramatic and dynamic. Pate's avant bowed bass introduces "The Clock," which has several aspects of time musically represented. Creaking bass, meandering piano, free stride, and completely free segments are featured, and are liable to speed or slow at a moment's notice. "The Circle of Time" further illuminates this with the lyric "time moves by slowly, time moves by quickly." Myers adopts a little girlish falsetto over another patiently slower, steady rhythm, injecting ai-yi-yis in a rather Native American inflection on this song that represents Myers at her creative, free-flowing zenith. This recording and Sings Bessie Smith are must-buy items for fans of this brilliant musician, and iconic signposts for where African-American expressionism can be directed. AMG.

listen here