In these cynical times, with authenticity an ever-dwindling commodity, the likes of an aging yet untapped talent such as Junior Kimbrough happen about once in a lifetime. An under-recorded Mississippi juke-joint troubadour with hard-bitten songs and a modal guitar style (think Mississippi Fred McDowell), Kimbrough was ultimately discovered by the world at large in Robert [...]

Dan Israel’s sixth album reflects the plight of the lone ranger singer-songwriter these days. A homemade basement job cut with just a smidge of outside keyboard and percussion help, it’s insular, ardently wistful, and in its own way, bitterly uncompromising. Flitting from downcast soul-searching balladry to mercurial folk-rock, it’s less a radical departure than a [...]

Time was, any rock ‘n’ roll band worth its salt knew the Chuck Berry songbook backward and forward. The whole of rock ‘n’ roll was a tribute to the man, and, in the empirical view of the music’s development, Berry — even more so than Elvis — provided the crucial steppingstone between American R&B and [...]

This bunch from Columbus, Ohio, has all the familiar hallmarks — an agreeably scruffy sound, a mile-wide blue-collar populist streak, and the kind of persistent hunger that has driven many a like-minded band down this particular path: the Replacements, Uncle Tupelo, Drive-By Truckers. In fact, they’re third-generation alt-country rockers, having taken their cues from, among [...]

Considering the contentious political spirit of the era, it was only a matter of time before politically astute songs of conscience from the Vietnam era (or earlier) were dusted off and tested for resonance in the new social landscape. Eric Andersen, who wrote a few good ones back then — “Violets Of Dawn” and “Thirsty [...]

Like a grand philosophical tablet rendered in miniature, Beaver Nelson’s fifth album slips by almost without being noticed. Nelson’s pithy melodies and fairly conventional roots-folk-rock (with splashes of power-pop) are not flashy, and the artist certainly wasn’t afforded the kind of recording budget his songs deserve. Instead, with sidekick Scrappy Jud Newcomb on guitar, Nelson [...]

Perpetually misunderstood, hugely influential, always a mover and shaker behind the scenes, Dave Van Ronk never truly got the recognition he deserved. Van Ronk, who died in February 2002, was a walking repository of folklore, ancient blues and fingerpicking genius whose keen sense of history and marvelously expressive guitar playing were attributes valued by every [...]