Author: Kurt B. Reighley
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #55 Jan-Feb 2005
Low – The Great Destroyer
So you think you know Low, that nice indie-rock trio from Duluth, Minnesota, that play as slowly and softly as possible, right? Wrong. Low’s sound has been evolving, ever so subtly, since their 1994 minimalist masterpiece, I Could Live In Hope, which firmly established them at the forefront of the so-called “slowcore” bands. But their [...]
Town and Country - Shorter Artist Feature from Issue #55 Jan-Feb 2005
Nathaniel Mayer – A showman’s life
What grabs your ears right off the bat upon popping in I Just Want To Be Held, the new album by Detroit R&B legend Nathaniel Mayer, is his voice. The timbre is raw, glottal, suggesting an instrument that should have given up the ghost long ago. “His voice sounds like Miles Davis, this evil, devil [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #54 Nov-Dec 2004
Various Artists – Hard-Headed Woman: A Celebration Of Wanda Jackson
With her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination, plus the kudos surrounding her star-studded 2003 comeback Heart Trouble, rockabilly pioneer Wanda Jackson finally seems to be receiving critical due commensurate with her achievements. (On her home turf, that is; in Japan and Europe she’s long been lauded as a goddess.) But while the arrival [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #54 Nov-Dec 2004
Lil’ Cap’n Travis – …In All Their Splendor
Unless you’ve just entered a Polynesian restaurant with health code violations, any experience that begins with the sounds of marimba and steel guitar — as this disc’s opener, “Steady As She Goes”, does — can’t be all bad. But don’t be lulled by those timbres into a false sense of security, or the temptation to [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #54 Nov-Dec 2004
Robyn Hitchcock – A wrinkle in time
IN 1965, Robyn Hitchcock, age 12, became infatuated with the literature of science fiction pioneer H.G. Wells. Duly inspired by such classics as The Invisible Man, The War Of The Worlds, and particularly The Time Machine, the British adolescent set out to construct a time-travel device of his own. A year later, Hitchcock discovered the [...]
The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #53 Sept-Oct 2004
Tift Merritt – The big picture
Where do you file Dusty Springfield’s Dusty In Memphis? Most music historians classify the U.K. pop singer’s 1969 LP a masterpiece of R&B. But ask the clerk at any chain store, and he or she will likely dispatch you to the vocals or oldies section. What about Linda Ronstadt? Never mind her flirtations with operetta, [...]
Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #53 Sept-Oct 2004
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Almost Blue: Deluxe Edition
The chasm between punk and country has narrowed considerably in the two decades since X and the Blasters teamed up for the Knitters’ Poor Little Critter in the Road. Today, Willie Nelson pals around with the Supersuckers, and, for a spell earlier this year, every magazine you leafed through at the grocery checkout featured at [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #52 July-Aug 2004
My Morning Jacket – Acoustic Citsuoca
Do not underestimate My Morning Jacket. Like the Byrds or Lone Justice, they are an act that defies easy classification, providing a perfect gateway for fans of one genre into the joys of another. Such is their draw that folks who would never have considered attending the Bonnaroo Festival, for fear of asphyxiating on patchouli [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #52 July-Aug 2004
A.C. Newman – The Slow Wonder
A.C. Newman is neither a Nobel Prize-winning physicist nor an obscure Krautrock deity, but rather the adopted moniker of Carl Newman, who writes irrepressible songs for Canadian supergroup the New Pornographers and previously fronted the underrated Zumpano. That it has taken a man so gifted this long to make a solo album is a wonder. [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #51 May-June 2004
Carolyn Mark – The Pros and Cons of Collaboration
Carolyn Mark, the rootin’-tootin’ roots music darling of Victoria, B.C., does little to dispel the longstanding myth that booze consumption and creativity go hand-in-hand. Roughly half the songs on her third full-length address drinking, from a tongue-twisting diatribe about men who favor white wine (“The Wine Song”, inspired by Nick Lowe) to the repentant finale [...]
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