Editorial Review

To fake or not to fake: That is the question consumers must answer for themselves in assessing this feat of aural Photoshopping: an "imaginary concert" created by combining recently discovered soundboard tapes of Ray Charles's vocals from a mid-'70s European show and newly recorded backing by the Count Basie Orchestra--the "ghost band," still on the road 22 years after Count's passing. Charles is in exceptional voice, singing the heck out of standards like "How Long Has This Been Going On?," Genius classics like "Busted," and pop covers like Melanie's "Look What They've Done to My Song." His performance is a thrilling corrective to forgettable posthumous albums like Read more

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Jazz    3. Jazz Blues    4. Piano Blues    5. Pop    6. United States of America   

Editorial Review

This album's title cut finds the veteran folk-blues troubadour, now in his early 60s, pondering the possibility of living to be 100, thus setting the thematic tone for an uncommonly reflective, meditative set. The ragtime Zen of "Open Up," the philosophical "Seems So Real," and the rock-bottom despair in his cover of Peter Case's "Cold Trail Blues" all suggest that the virtuosic fingerpicker and evocatively smoky vocalist has reached a point in his life where he's pondering the biggest issues of mortality, a perspective that informs the complex relationship in "Father's Day."Not all of the material is that introspective, as the uptempo, electric rock of "Diplomacy" is as sardonic as Randy Newman, while "Origin of the Species" encapsulates Adam and Eve, Charles Darwin, and intelligent design. Smither also pays homage to two seminal influences, transforming Bob Dylan's "Visions of Johanna" into an acoustic, accordion-laced waltz and reviving Lightnin' Hopkins's version of the traditional "Blues in the Bottle." Ollabelle provide harmonies on two cuts, with mandolinist Tim O' Brien also offering instrumental and vocal support. Read more

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Contemporary Folk    3. Folk & Traditional    4. Folk-Blues    5. Modern Acoustic Blues    6. 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

The fact that Read more

Features

• Enhanced

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Jazz Blues    3. Piano Blues    4. Pop    5. Pop-Soul    6. R&B    7. Soul    8. United States of America    9. Urban Blues   

Features

• Enhanced

Reviews (10)

lemonadeby: G. Love
this is a great cd. yes, a couple of the songs are mediocre at best, but the rest make up for it.Missing my baby is a true groovy ballad. Holla, a bit queer sounding at first, is a really fun and tight song.beautiful is an awsome song as well. Get the cd!

fresh, new,a little funk and soul
this is my first cd by G-Love, I like it and I think it has some
Smooth like GLASS
Solid offering from G. Love.Start to finish, nice record for anyone who like G. Love or Jack Johnson. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Alternative Rap    3. Blues-Rock    4. Indie Rock    5. Pop    6. Rock    7. Rock/Pop    8. United States of America   

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

This is Etta James's first full-length album, recorded for Chess Records' Argo subsidiary in 1960. It taps all aspects of her then-blossoming talent. There's the crooning rock ballad "My Dearest Darling" and the elegantly symphonic "Sunday Kind of Love." Her classic, brokenhearted "All I Could Do Was Cry" follows the sweet title track and the bawdy blues stomper "I Just Want to Make Love to You." And there's a version of Harold Arlen's "Stormy Weather," which Lena Horne made famous. James's fine way with such a wide embrace of material wouldn't again be this well displayed on a single album until she was united with producer Jerry Wexler for 1977's Read more

Features

• Extra tracks
• Original recording remastered

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Blues Music    3. Pop    4. R&B    5. Soul    6. Soul-Blues    7. United States of America    8. Vocals   

Subjects:  1. Acoustic Blues    2. Blues    3. Country Blues    4. Piedmont Blues    5. Pop   

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

Just in his mid-twenties when this album was released in early 2006, the guitar tone of Allman Brothers Band guitarist Derek Trucks (nephew of founding drummer Butch) has become one of the most recognizable sounds to be squeezed out of the instrument. Snake-like, swampy, and filled with tense soul, his slide work has been compared to Ry Cooder's, and perhaps inevitably, to Duane Allman's. On his first album of new studio material in four years, Trucks steers his malleable band through a heady blend of jazz, Jamaican, gospel, blues, and world music, occasionally even combining styles in a single track. Any disc that covers deep soul man O.V. Wright, Pakistani music legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and reggae journeyman Toots Hibbert can't help but swim in eclectic waters. But Trucks pulls it all together with a sure sense of flow and arrangements that never let the tunes descend into free fall.Read more

Subjects:  1. Blues-Rock    2. Pop    3. Rock    4. Rock/Pop    5. Slide Guitar Blues    6. United States of America   

Editorial Review

This double CD collects not only Brother Ray's best-known '50s and '60s singles, but some choice semi-obscurities (the 1953 jump blues "Mess Around," his 1959 cover of Louis Jordan's "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'") that earn their places next to "What'd I Say" and "I Can't Stop Loving You." The man's originality and infectious feeling bleed through on each of these 36 tracks, whether he's transforming "One Mint Julep" or "America the Beautiful" or collaborating (separately) with Willie Nelson and Chaka Khan. Read more

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Country-Soul    3. Jazz Blues    4. Pop    5. Popular Music    6. R&B    7. Soul    8. United States of America    9. Urban Blues   

Editorial Review

The incomparable Maria Muldaur has always traversed a wide expanse of American music--in 2003, she recorded Read more

Subjects:  1. Adult Alternative Pop/Rock    2. Adult Contemporary    3. American Popular Song    4. Blues    5. Pop    6. Vocal Jazz    7. Vocal Pop   

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

Ray Charles is the Genius of Soul, but he's always had a bit of country boy in him, too. Between playing hillbilly piano when he was a kid and landing several duets on the country charts in the '80s, Charles released this 1962 classic, taking 12 country standards and proving that great songs can remain great, no matter what the setting.Behind blaring brass and thrilling strings, Brother Ray transforms "Hey, Good Lookin'" and "Bye Bye Love" into big-band swing; "You Win Again" into the Nashville Sound; and "I Love You So Much It Hurts" into the most elegant of pop."I Can't Stop Loving You" was the big hit, but everything else here is just as timeless and beautiful. Read more

Features

• Original recording reissued
• Original recording remastered

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Country-Soul    3. Pop    4. Popular Music    5. R&B    6. Soul    7. United States of America   

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

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

Inspired by the lovable Read more

Features

• Original recording remastered
• Soundtrack

Subjects:  1. Pop    2. R&B    3. Retro-Soul    4. Soul    5. Soundtrack    6. Soundtracks & Film Scores   

Editorial Review

After the disorganized and often unlistenable Alan Douglas-produced reissues in the '70s and '80s, MCA has been releasing the vast Hendrix archives in an intelligent and methodical manner. Read more

Subjects:  1. Acid Rock    2. Album Rock    3. Blues-Rock    4. Hard Rock    5. Pop    6. Psychedelic    7. Psychedelic Soul    8. Rock    9. Rock & Roll    10. 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

Hard as it is to go wrong when shopping for a Brother Ray package, some career-spanning compilations bundle the decades better than others. Count this one, true to its title, among the very best. The track sequencing is straight-up chronological, opening with 1954's groundbreaking blues and gospel mingling "I've Got a Woman." From there it charges through the late-'50s Atlantic era, rounding up classic singles like "Hallelujah (I Love Her So),""(Night Time Is) The Right Time," and "What'd I Say." By the time the disc lands us in the '60s, the Genius has saddled up to explore his country side, turning in such popular-music-altering hits as "Georgia on My Mind" and "I Can't Stop Loving You." A final cut jumps into the '80s for the Willie Nelson duet "Seven Spanish Angels," leaving the listener with a solid--and deeply satisfying--sense of Charles' bold artistic wanderings. All that's missing is his soul-dunked rendition of "America the Beautiful." Read more

Subjects:  1. Blues    2. Country-Soul    3. Jazz Blues    4. Piano Blues    5. Pop    6. Pop-Soul    7. R&B    8. Soul    9. Soul/Reggae/Rhythm & Blues    10. Urban Blues