Tim Easton plays and sings like an old man. For the record, that’s meant as praise, not a taunt. He often sounds as if he’s channeling any number of discovered-late bluesmen, as well as Doc Watson and everybody’s favorite great-uncle Bob Dylan (especially right after Uncle Bob went electric in his younger days). His voice [...]

Soul music. With its categories and subcategories – from northern and neo to country and deep – it can be a tough concept to pin down. You might want to rely on a variation of that classic method for identifying porn: you know it when you hear it. On the first half of this assured [...]

Let’s start at the end, with “Don’t Be Afraid of the Light That Shines Within You”, a prayer of a song so glorious that it is required to conclude a record. It opens with piano drizzling on the trademark electro-acoustic strum of veteran singer-songwriter and presumptive Suzanne Vega/James Joyce fan Luka Bloom (real name: Barry [...]

John Wesley Harding has long been one of our most literary singer-songwriter types and a true cineaste. After all, he’s had two novels published under his given name, Wesley Stace, with a third on the way, plus his first two full-length releases were named after Frank Capra movies and his third after Capra’s autobiography. Thus, [...]

In addition to a place on the year-end list, some artists end up with a place in the heart. A special spot is reserved for those who not only drift into radar range unexpectedly but also have to jump up and down and wave their arms to get noticed once they get there. J.P. Olsen, [...]

When Wreckless Eric Goulden and Amy Rigby tied the knot back in April, it would have been fitting if the long-playing cult faves’ wedding announcement were a flier stapled to a telephone pole. Despite a body of work that recalls in varying doses such kindred-spirit peers as Nick Lowe, Robyn Hitchcock, and the late Ian [...]

On the surface, Mitty Collier’s story seems somewhat stock in soul-music circles. She began singing in church as a child; sampled the secular music world in the ’60s with a smattering of singles, one LP, and a signature song as her legacy; and then returned to the church, performing only gospel music. But the surface [...]