Randy Weeks has described his music as “late ’60s AM to early ’70s FM,” but on his new disc Going My Way, I hear a bit of early-mid ’70s AM in there as well. Which may be parsing eras and frequencies just a little too precisely, perhaps…but to me, the hits that dominated the AM [...]

Syd Straw works at her own pace when its comes to releasing solo albums. Pink Velour, her first studio CD since War And Peace in 1996, carries the credit line “Produced (very slowly) by Syd Straw.” But it proves to be worth the wait, as Straw delivers an intensely personal collection of songs (ten originals [...]

Kentucky veteran singer-songwriter Mickey Clark epitomizes the term “flying under the radar.” There’s no listing for him at the otherwise fairly comprehensive All Music Guide website; there are no back albums on Amazon for sale; Google searches for his name turn up “Mickey Gilley” and “Guy Clark” more than Mickey Clark. After an early career [...]

Musical shapeshifter Eleni Mandell is a cult favorite among lounge lizards; her coolly detached vocals and sly humor are well-suited for late nights and ready cocktails. Artificial Fire, however, drags her sound from the dark recesses of the corner bar and into the daylight. For a songwriter who is celebrated so much for her live [...]

If ever there was a time when a song about a man giving up on life because he can’t support his family made a disturbing sort of sense, that time is now. Whether it’s due to timeliness or just a naturally melancholic disposition, that’s how Jason Isbell chooses to begin his second solo album – [...]

With approximately 30 albums and compilations as a solo artist or band member, Robyn Hitchcock has recorded something like 500 songs, almost all of which he’s written himself. Throw his complete oeuvre on an Ipod and put it on shuffle, and odds are that all but the most ardent fans would be hard-pressed to guess [...]

Titling this album Underground is the equivalent of Wall Street bankers pulling out their CBGB T-shirts on Memorial Day weekend in the Hamptons. Marykate O’Neil, a Boston music vet now based in New York City, incorporates as many East Village references into her fourth album to earn credibility among couture thrifters, yet the resulting songs [...]

Nearly 150 years before Bruce Springsteen helped provide the musical backdrop for Barack Obama’s election and inauguration, Stephen Foster’s songs helped provide the backdrop for Abraham Lincoln’s rise to power. Will the Boss’ “Working On A Dream” be heard 150 years from now, the way Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer” still is today? Listening to The Voices [...]

Eddy Arnold, the first country star who aspired to succeed in both the country and the pop music markets, didn’t make it with the first wave of Nashville Sound stars in the 1950s. Despite a hit streak that began in 1945, his success flattened in the late ’50s. It wasn’t until 1965 when orchestrated hits [...]

Jorma Kaukonen never really stopped playing. He may have been most famous for his relentless improvisational explorations in Jefferson Airplane, he may have achieved greater rock stardom with the tough electric boogies of Hot Tuna, he may have been a hippie icon with solo albums such as Quah – but even after all that, Kaukonen [...]