Faithfull’s 1960s material is the subject of a recently released six-CD, 81-track anthology that shows she was capable of handling everything from traditional and modern folk to Brill Building tunes and rock.
Read More »Jeff Burger
Music Reviews: Bob Dylan Covers, plus Ray Peterson, Memphis Minnie, America, and a Clifton Chenier Tribute
If you’re a Dylan fan, this eclectic box is a great place to go treasure hunting.
Read More »Music Reviews: Anthologies from the Pale Fountains and the Kinks, plus the Feelies and Kissing Other Ppl
Perhaps the Pale Fountains will finally garner some notice following the appearance of a new four-CD box set devoted to Michael Head's critically acclaimed band, which formed in Liverpool in 1980 and split up in 1987.
Read More »Music Reviews: Nick Drake’s ‘The Making of Five Leaves Left’ and Eric Andersen’s ‘Blue River: Live in Tokyo’
Let’s hope we’ll soon see similar boxes devoted to the making of Drake’s other two studio albums, both of which are as noteworthy as his debut. The world needs all the music from him that it can get.
Read More »Music Reviews: Counting Crows’ ‘Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!’ plus Freedy Johnston and Mike Henderson
Adam Duritz is still singing about loneliness, dislocation, alienation, and the pitfalls of stardom, but he remains an intense, attention-grabbing vocalist, and these nine tracks are up to the high standards that the group established early in its career.
Read More »Music & Video Review: An Expanded Edition of Talking Heads’ ‘More Songs About Buildings and Food’
This new box includes three CDs, a Blu-ray, and a copiously illustrated hardcover book that features reminiscences by all the group’s members.
Read More »Music Reviews: A Live Buck Owens Compendium, plus Tami Neilson, Maria Muldaur, Jeffrey Foskett, and a Rockabilly Anthology
“Buck took the shuffle beat and he took the lyrics and the style of honky-tonk, and he added the spunk, the vitality of rock and roll to his sound.”
Read More »Book & Music Reviews: A Biography of Joe Meek, England’s Counterpart to Phil Spector; plus Bobby Lee Trammell, the Rain Parade, and Brian Wilson
As Darryl W. Bullock writes in 'Love and Fury: The Life, Death and Legacy of Joe Meek,' the producer was a “pioneer, genius, maniac, naif…all of those things…and more.”
Read More »Music Review: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Tracks II: The Lost Albums’ Reveals 83 Previously Unheard Tunes
Bruce Springsteen's Tracks II: The Lost Albums includes 83 performances, many as good as those on his well-known CDs.
Read More »Music Reviews: The Wandering Hearts, Willie Nile, Christopher Cross, Iron Horse, and the Black Watch
The Wandering Hearts do stick close enough to CSNY's 'Déjà vu' arrangements to give fans of the original album a bit of the feeling named in its title.
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