Editorial Review

It is not just the timbre of Norah Jones's voice that is mature beyond her 22 years. Her assured phrasing and precise time are more often found in older singers as well. She is instantly recognizable, blending shades of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone without sounding like anyone but herself. Any way you slice it, she is a singer to be reckoned with. Her readings of the Hank Williams classic "Cold Cold Heart" and Hoagy Carmichael's "The Nearness of You" alone are worth the price of the CD. Jones's own material, while not bad, pales a bit next to such masterpieces. They might have fared better had she and producer Arif Mardin opted for some livelier arrangements, taking better advantage of brilliant sidemen such as Bill Frisell, Kevin Breit, and Brian Blade; or if the tunes had simply been given less laconic performances. Jones has all the tools; what will come with experience and some careful listening to artists like J.J. Cale and Shirley Horn is the knack of remaining low-key without sounding sleepy--sometimes less is not, in fact, more. Read more

Subjects:  1. Ballads    2. Bass (Upright)    3. Contemporary Jazz    4. Drums    5. Guitar (Acoustic)    6. Guitar (Electric)    7. Guitar (Steel)    8. Jazz Blues    9. Jazz Music    10. Percussion    11. Piano    12. Pop    13. Rock    14. Rock/Pop    15. Slide Guitar    16. Torch Songs    17. United States of America    18. Vocal Jazz    19. Vocals   

Editorial Review

Some singer/songwriters (think Paul Westerberg and Elliott Smith) develop their world-weariness through the unforgiving trials of passing years and the heart-breaking grind of the music business. Others (Van Morrison, Neil Young) seem to have sprung from out of nowhere with the fully formed soul of a life well-lived. Ray LaMontagne belongs with the latter. On this, his debut, LaMontagne has crafted a handful of quietly devastating meditations on life and love--and delivered them with a raspy vocal all his own. The simple, mournful lyrics of "Burn," "Shelter" and the title track recall a Hank Williams ballad, and the reserved production by alt-country/americana genius Ethan Johns (the Jayhawks, Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon) make this a great disc for smoky Saturday nights, and rainy Sunday mornings. Read more

Subjects:  1. Adult Contemporary    2. Modern Electric Blues    3. Pop    4. Pop/Rock    5. Rock    6. Rock/Pop    7. Singer/Songwriter   

Editorial Review

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Subjects:  1. Blues-Rock    2. Boogie Rock    3. Jam Bands    4. Pop    5. Rock    6. Rock/Pop   

Editorial Review

The simple blues-informed pop charms of L.A. songwriter Kevin Moore remain unchanged on his eighth album. All twelve of these songs about romance and its triumphs and failures go down easy, thanks to his unhurried and unmannered singing, and arrangements that run slow and spare. That openness allows Moore's slide playing, perfected on the porch of Mississippi delta bluesman Eugene Powell, to add subtle, pretty decoration to tunes like "Your Love" and "Eileen." He's got a sympathetic cohort in John Porter, who also produced Moore's debut album and is especially adept at capturing the sounds of the acoustic instruments that dominate this disc. After pursuing all the twists and turns of love and its baggage on Read more

Subjects:  1. Adult Contemporary    2. Blues    3. Contemporary Blues    4. Modern Acoustic Blues    5. Modern Electric Blues    6. Pop   

Editorial Review

Jack Johnson has found himself a groove. Indeed, the Hawaiian surfing champion turned alternative pop-folk star really hasn't changed things one iota for his sophomore release. Fans of Read more

Reviews (246)

classic Jack J
If you love Jack Johnson, you will love these tracks. Soothing, fun, simple, and mesmerising to listen to.

On and On
Wonderfully relaxing music; makes you want to turn off the TV and turn on the music.People walk in and say"who is that" and they're off to buy the CD.

Nice melow music
I got this cd after hearing a song of his on itunes.I loved this cd from the first song.Every song is very acoustic and relaxed.For all you people out there who get home from work and are stressed out and need to relax this cd is for you.Just put on some comfortable clothes, get a beer, turn down the lights, turn the phone on low and just feel the music.This is a great cd and each song should grab you and make you want more. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Bass    3. College Rock    4. Drums    5. Drums (Steel)    6. Guitar (Acoustic)    7. Guitar (Electric)    8. Percussion    9. Piano    10. Pop    11. Rock    12. Rock/Pop    13. Singer/Songwriter    14. Slide Guitar    15. Vocals   

Editorial Review

Fans of Willy Porter, Ben Harper, and G. Love will all want to check out Jack Johnson's engaging folk- and blues-inflected pop. Born in Oahu, Hawaii, Johnson, a former surfer and film-school graduate, has a knack for acoustic ballads whose calm surfaces hide a subtle but strong lyrical undertow. "It seems to me that 'maybe' pretty much always means 'no,'" sings Johnson on "Flake," which features crony Harper on slide guitar. Production by J.P. Plunier (who also handles Harper's recordings) is simple and uncluttered: acoustic guitar and drum tracks share the foreground with Johnson's easygoing vocals, which evoke everyone from G. Love (who recorded Johnson's "Rodeo Clowns" on his Read more

Reviews (481)

Terrific, as the other reviews say
How can such a seemingly simple, barely instrumented album sound so convincing, so riveting?Great lyrics, sung with perfect (nearly telepathic) intonation by Jack Johnson and great communitative playing come together to grab your attention.You can sense something transcendent, something spiritual while listening to Brushfire.Very special and highly recommended.

Pleasant and light but not a keeper
I'm a big fan of acoustic-based singer/songwriter stuff, so I thought I might like Jack Johnson too. And at first I did. His music is laid back, quite catchy, softly sung, undemanding. Anybody would like it, I guess. But after a while I started to find this CD a bit annoying. When you listen over and over to something really good, it reveals things you didn't see the first few times you played it. But all that's revealed here is a rather `lite' and one-dimensional approach to songwriting and arranging. Lyrics that sound cute at first soon sound empty. It's okay on whimsical songs like `Sexy Plexi', but when he tries to be more serious it doesn't hit the mark. And you may soon tire, as I did, of the crack of the drum that accompanies every song, not to mention that one guitar lick Jack can manage and always does. The band's instrumentation is admittedly fairly minimal, but somebody like Josh Ritter or Garrin Benfield gets more variety with just a guitar and fewer notes.
Another Jack Johnson plus
Love the music - always relaxing and upbeat. Even my 12 year old son thinks the music is great. He really appreciates the fact that most of Jack Johnson's songs have an actual message that is common sense - something we all think and/or understand. Overall Good buy! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Alternative Pop/Rock    3. Bass    4. Drums    5. Drums (Steel)    6. Guitar (Acoustic)    7. Guitar (Electric)    8. Percussion    9. Piano    10. Pop    11. Rock    12. Rock/Pop    13. Singer/Songwriter    14. Slide Guitar    15. Vocals   

Editorial Review

Subtlety is both a blessing and curse for Robert Cray. In the studio, his increasingly restrained arrangements have served to frame his growing mastery of classic Memphis soul, allowing his soaring, vibrato-rich voice to carry tunes that directly echo the Stax years. That can work well live, too, and does so here in "Phone Booth" and the funky distillation "Back Door Slam," an ode to sexy down-home belters like Little Johnnie Taylor. But too often Cray downplays his incendiary guitar abilities on stage, which makes long numbers like "The One in the Middle" interminable, and leaves this two-disc live set--recorded during a week of shows opening for Eric Clapton at London's Royal Albert Hall in May 2006--full of cold spots. Things heat up whenever Cray picks up his Stratocaster in earnest, whether he's plucking out fat, singing notes à la Albert Collins in his radio hit "I Guess I Showed Her" or weaving a slow, soulful path through the bridge of the ballad "The Things You Do to Me," using his whammy bar and unpredictable variations on the melody to conjure shades of introspection. Overall, this set will please Cray's die-hard fans, but is unlikely to lure new listeners. Read more

Features

• Live

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Contemporary Blues    3. Modern Electric Blues    4. Pop    5. Rock    6. Soul-Blues   

Editorial Review

Tony Joe White says he always saw the friends he invited to play on his new album--Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, J.J. Cale, Michael McDonald, and the late Waylon Jennings--as "keepers of the fire." They're also premier custodians of loneliness and despair, the two emotions that lie at the heart of this hypnotic submersion into country/swamp blues. From the kickoff track, "Run for Cover," with Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns, these meditations on mourning--lost lovers, spiritual struggles, anxiety that knows no name and no bottom--grab the listener fast and pull him down into swirling dark waters. For that reason, there's a numbing sameness--on occasion, two songs back-to-back seem to simply be extensions of each other. But while Jennings's effort is more a portrait of the artist testing his chops after suffering a stroke, other collaborations stick in the mind. The dour Knopfler shows up on the most optimistic song, "Not One Bad Thought," but his vocals still sound like the barely uttered words of a depressive on a bad down. Clapton's voice remains characteristically modest on "Did Somebody Make a Fool Out of You," yet his guitar work--measured and full of emotion--proves what you don't play is as important as what you do. Still, the best pairing is that with Michael McDonald on "Baby, Don't Look Down." When White's smoky rumble meets McDonald's bruised, angelic tenor, you'll know why God made music. Read more

Subjects:  1. Country-Rock    2. Electric Blues    3. Oldies    4. Pop    5. R&B    6. Rock    7. Rock & Roll    8. Singer/Songwriter    9. Southern Soul   

Editorial Review

Some inspired music has arrived in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (mainly on New Orleans-themed benefit albums), but nothing as audaciously ambitious as this cross-generational collaboration between Crescent City mainstay Allen Toussaint and former British upstart turned adventurously eclectic veteran Elvis Costello.As a songwriter, producer, and arranger, Toussaint has been responsible for hits from artists ranging from Irma Thomas, Ernie K-Doe, and Lee Dorsey to the Pointer Sisters and Labelle. Costello, long a huge fan of Toussaint's music, sings relatively familiar fare such as "On Your Way Down" and "Freedom for the Stallion" from Toussaint's extensive songbook along with obscurities mainly recorded by Dorsey. Toussaint supplies his distinctive piano and horn arrangements--as well as lead vocals on "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?"--with Costello's Imposters serving as the rhythm section. Yet the real revelation comes from the new material, including the title track (a searing Costello composition in the Toussaint soul-spiritual mode) and five new Costello/Toussaint compositions that spotlight Toussaint's signature sound without diminishing Costello's creative contributions.What could have been a curiosity is instead a hallmark in the catalog of each artist. Read more

Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Blue-Eyed Soul    3. England    4. Modern Electric Blues    5. New Orleans Blues    6. New Orleans R&B    7. Pop    8. Pop/Rock    9. Retro-Soul    10. Rock    11. Rock/Pop    12. Singer/Songwriter    13. Soul   

Editorial Review

"I can't even crack a frown since the blues slipped out of town," sings Keb' Mo' on "Prosperity Blues," with a patented big wide grin you can practically hear. It's a witty and accurate assessment of his approach to the often lowdown genre. Even on the album's title track, where Mo's tough National steel slide playing is most prominent, he's concerned with the daunting amount of coffee choices at his local java emporium. Call it the middle-class blues then, as Mo' wraps his grits-and-honey voice around another set of gently rolling, melodic, and warm compositions. Similar to, say, James Taylor, he spins beautifully crafted, meticulously produced, uncluttered roots-influenced music that is no less satisfying because of its smooth qualities. Traces of gospel, folk, and even bluegrass sprinkle these pop-oriented tunes, and while most of the edges here are sanded off--nobody will mistake him for Howlin' Wolf--Mo's cushy voice and charm create another winning entry in his catalog. Sophisticated and burnished, Read more

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Contemporary Blues    3. Modern Acoustic Blues    4. Modern Electric Blues    5. Pop   

Editorial Review

Slim Harpo, Dr. John the Night Tripper, Tony Joe White … one can't help but flash on those illustrious practitioners of swamp music, be it blues, rock, or pop, when listening to CC Adcock's latest effort. As with all of the above, Layayette, Louisiana's Adcock makes music that's dense, damp, and malodorous as a Baton Rouge bog. What's so welcome about Read more

Subjects:  1. Modern Electric Blues    2. Pop    3. Rock    4. Rock/Pop    5. Swamp Blues    6. Traditional Cajun    7. Zydeco   

Editorial Review

Those who know Jack Johnson only as college radio fave are in for a pleasant surprise here, as are wave-riding aficionados with a taste for eclectic, cooled-out musical vibes. The project Read more

Features

• Soundtrack

Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Bass    3. Drums    4. Drums (Steel)    5. Guitar (Acoustic)    6. Guitar (Electric)    7. Percussion    8. Piano    9. Pop    10. Singer/Songwriter    11. Slide Guitar    12. Soundtrack    13. Soundtracks & Film Scores    14. Vocals   

Editorial Review

Jonny Lang cut his debut album in Memphis when he was just 15, and, upon its release in 1996, the guitar prodigy from Minneapolis instantly became one of the leading lights of modern blues. He's a fast and flashy player whose approach rests equally on technical assurance and musical intelligence. Sizing up a dozen songs, he gets a pleasing, razor-sharp sound out of his ax while building excitement in his lead lines--thankfully, he steers clear of cliché and bombast. As a fledging singer, he acts out the lyrics of Ike Turner's age-old shuffle "Matchbox" and his own romantic ballad "Missing Your Love" with surprising poise and believability. Kudos to producer David Z for surrounding Lang with alert, first-rate sidemen and for helping select good material from Turner, Sonny Boy Williamson, Tinsley Ellis, and others. Read more

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Blues Music    3. Blues-Rock    4. Contemporary Blues    5. Modern Electric Blues    6. Pop    7. Rock/Pop   

Editorial Review

It sounds like the beginning of a story: "So, Slowhand and the King of the Blues were riding in a car ..." If this is a musical journey, it's the kind that rolls down long, empty stretches of country highway at 80 miles an hour, with the top down and the stereo blasting. Clapton and King may be more city than country, but this collection has the relaxed, laid-back feel that only comes from a pair of veterans doing what they do best. What they do here is cover 12 classic blues songs, many of them staples of King's repertoire, so the title of this album makes sense. Whether it's the rollicking rock & roll of the title track, or the acoustic shuffle of "Key to the Highway," or the sweet notes of "When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer," a real sense of pleasure comes through on this album, the kind of pleasure one gets from jamming late at night with a good friend. Read more

Features

• Enhanced

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Blues Music    3. Blues-Rock    4. Modern Electric Blues    5. Pop    6. Rock/Pop   

Editorial Review

With a series of terrific albums, Cassandra Wilson has established herself as one of the day's great vocalists and, in branching out from jazz into blues and folk and pop, paved the way for genre-crossing stars including Norah Jones. But the Mississippi native has rarely sounded as relaxed or winning as she does on "Thunderbird," which teams her with the stalwart Read more

Subjects:  1. Ballads    2. Contemporary Jazz    3. Electric Blues    4. Jazz    5. Modern Delta Blues    6. Modern Electric Blues    7. Modern Electric Chicago Blues    8. Pop    9. Soul-Blues    10. United States of America    11. Urban    12. Vocal Jazz   

Subjects:  1. Album Rock    2. Blues-Rock    3. Contemporary Blues    4. Electric Texas Blues    5. Modern Electric Blues    6. Modern Electric Texas Blues    7. Pop    8. Popular Music    9. Rock    10. Rock/Pop    11. Texas Blues   

Editorial Review

Guest-star projects can be such tiresome affairs. Too often, the high-profile "friend" is nothing more than the record label's idea of someone they can feature on the front cover to generate additional sales. Additionally, these performances are frequently overdubbed, so the artist and the guest never actually come in contact with each other. Thankfully, neither is the case on Walter Trout's first studio album of new material since 2001's Read more

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Modern Electric Blues    3. Pop    4. United States of America   

Editorial Review

The sweet, husky mix of sugar and sandpaper in two-time Grammy nominee Susan Tedeschi's voice breathes sultry life into the art of classic soul singing on Read more

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Contemporary Blues    3. Modern Electric Blues    4. Pop    5. United States of America   

Features

• Original recording remastered

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Blues Music    3. Blues-Rock    4. British Blues    5. Modern Electric Blues    6. Pop    7. Rock/Pop   

Features

• Limited Edition
• Original recording remastered

Subjects:  1. Album Rock    2. Blues-Rock    3. Electric Texas Blues    4. Modern Electric Blues    5. Modern Electric Texas Blues    6. Pop    7. Rock    8. Rock/Pop    9. Texas Blues