As the frontman for the Mavericks and a member of Los Super Seven, Raul Malo has applied his Orbison-like delivery to an eclectic array of material. On this, his latest solo effort, the warbler enlists veteran producer Peter Asher to focus on romantic balladry, as string-laden arrangements surround Malo’s tremulous voice on the opening […]
The release of this compilation suggests that the coal miner’s plight hasn’t improved appreciably since the 1976 release of Barbara Kopple’s 1976 documentary, Harlan County, USA. Few industries have inspired such impassioned folk music, as most of these 22 cuts depend more on the power and conviction of the musical testament than any polish […]
Toumani Diabate, scion of one of Mali’s oldest hereditary musical dynasties, was born into a few-centuries-worth of hard-acts-to-follow. But his output continues his father Sidiki’s life-long exploration of the manifold possibilities of the kora, West Africa’s glorious 21-string harp-lute. Aside from folklore-based recitals, such as New Ancient Strings with fellow kora virtuoso Ballake Sissoko, […]
New Orleans tenor saxophone legend Kidd Jordan’s annual treks north to perform late-night sets with Windy City tenor legend Fred Anderson during the run of the Chicago Jazz Festival have become an institution. Though Anderson isn’t featured on Palm of Soul, recorded in Brooklyn a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina destroyed Jordan’s home, two […]
Don Byron and the Bang On A Can All-Stars occupy front-row positions in the interstices where jazz, world music, and avant garde art music meet. Put them together in this stimulating new album, A Ballad For Many, and you get a lively, genre-busting experience. All of the compositions are by Byron, including “Eugene,” written […]
Every song was a certifiable hit back in the 1980s–the kind that MTV played incessantly (back when MTV actually played videos). Granted, superstars like Madonna, Prince, and Duran Duran are nowhere to be found, but this 15-track line-up of Brits, Yanks, and Aussies is a pretty accurate representation of an era. Twenty years have […]
An all-American original, Johnny Dowd combines a sound that suggests roots rock from the Twilight Zone, writing steeped in film noir, and a craggy voice that raves more than it croons. Prophet or musical madman? With the return of vocalist Kim Sherwood-Casio to smooth some of Dowd’s rough edges (though in these surroundings she […]
It’s a heck of a start to a career. Before he had released any material in the States, Alexi Murdoch was championed by KCRW’s influential tastemaker Nic Harcourt. (Murdoch moved to LA in the late 1990s.) This led to the release of the Four Songs EP, which led to appearances in Garden State and […]
While working on the two “Pirates Of The Carribean” films, Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski became fascinated with the lore and fable of the pirates and sailors who ran the high seas. Enter legendary producer Hal Wilner, who brings his knack for matching maverick musicians with extraordinary material. Artists on this double disc […]
Laura Keopke (Performer), Anik Oulianine (Performer), Bill Weisbach (Composer), The Baby Einstein Music Box Orchestra (Orchestra), Bill Weisbach (Performer), Tom Nazziola (Performer)
Parents have to admit: the brains of the folks behind Baby Einstein seem awfully big when it comes to scheming up additions to their charming series. Baby Noah, the latest, leads crib-bound musical […]
The first five tracks on the soundtrack to this Sandra Bullock/Keanu Reeves romantic drama are wonderfully wistful songs. The first, Paul McCartney’s “This Never Happened Before” from his 2005 album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, sets the tone. The low-key mood is then picked up by new romantic souls like the Clientele (the […]
This teaming of Linda Ronstadt and Cajun folk traditionalist Ann Savoy, billing themselves as the Zozo Sisters, shows how wide is the musical range of bittersweetness. The harmonies and shared lead vocals offer a complementary contrast between Ronstadt’s purity of tone and Savoy’s more piquant expressiveness. The arrangements turn folk songs into art songs, […]
Partially recorded in Kingston, Jamaica, “Yell Fire!” is part of a thematic trilogy that includes the film and book “I Know I’m Not Alone,” which document Michael Franti’s recent visits to Iraq, Israel and Palestine. That’s a lot of ground for anyone to cover, but his ambitions pay off on this strapping, if sprawling, […]
Less than a year after the U.S. release of her genre-defying chill-out gem “Let It Die,” Canadian singer/songwriter (Leslie) Feist offers a coda with remixes and alternate versions as well as three unreleased tracks. As VV, Mocky, k-os and others reshape her sparse beats and jazzy French-pop grooves, Feist’s slippery, ethereal voice only grows […]
