Celebrating Community
Grammys Less than two weeks have passed since Lizzo conquered the 2020 Grammys, opening up music’s biggest night in the wake of the tragic passing of global icon Kobe Bryant. Lizzo performed her chart-topping single “Truth Hurts” in a medley of her other songs, and won three awards: Best Urban Contemporary Album, Best Pop Solo Performance, and Best Traditional R&B […]
Jalopy Records has recently released the debut album Fatboy Wilson & Old Viejo Bones. Samoa “Fatboy” Wilson and Ernesto “Lovercat” Gomez (aka Old Viejo Bones) are an acoustic duo who specialize in old-time, folk, Americana, blues, and more. Wilson sings and plays baritone ukulele while Gomez sings and plays guitar and harmonica. The sound of this recording is true to […]
The piano player and singer Aaron Louis Hurwitz goes by the nickname of Professor Louie. He was christened as such by Rick Danko of The Band. Professor Louie now has his own group, the Crowmatix. All of its members boast long associations with The Band family tree, having performed with the likes of Levon Helm and the other departed ones. […]
I moved to Cambridge, England for almost a year back in the fall of 2016. I now have a version of the Jack Grace Band in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and one in Cambridge, England. I also have versions in Colorado, Canada, and Austin. I have spent much of my life in a van. Lately, my general approach is to go to […]
When you think of Cuban music, what comes to mind? Perhaps the slow, emotional son and danzon music represented by the Buena Vista Social Club; or the fiery singing from Celia Cruz; or the energetic mambos of Perez Prado; or, if you happen to be the type that digs a little deeper, the Afro-Cuban rumba tradition featuring thick, dense rhythms […]
Much has rightly been made of the drama surrounding and embedded into David Bowie’s ★, an album that not only addressed mortality but directly addressed his fans as well. Less has been said suggesting that it stood upon its release, as it does today, as one of Bowie’s finest records. Opinions vary, of course, and his back catalog is a […]
There’s a wholesomeness to the Sunset Canyoneers’ self-titled debut album, and I can’t quite tell if it works for or against the sun-worshipping California country music outfit. The album’s motif is purposefully and perfectly reminiscent of the Bakersfield Sound that came about in the mid-1950s, influencing a hippie country music scene that gave rise to the likes of The Byrds, […]
Beats pulsed like a throbbing heartbeat thrashing a metallic hymn. Strobes entrapped dancing bodies in an electrified robotic stutter. And Public Records’ hi-fi quadraphonic Sound Room transported Brooklyn’s rapidly gentrifying Gowanus neighborhood into a world-class nightspot. I’d wanted to explore Public Records since it opened in April 2019, but a variety of reasons kept me away. Mostly my friends are […]
Thanks to a friend, I recently discovered the music of Michael Hurley. To say I am late to the game is an understatement. Hurley has a prodigious career that spans more than 56 years and is highly prolific with over 21 albums released and three more in the works. At age 79 he is still going strong and will […]
Would you let a Butthole Surfer babysit your tween? That seemed to be the question – more of a dare, really – implicit in the advance hype for Gibby Haynes’s first foray into fiction. Not just fiction, mind you. The man who once sang for the most dangerous band in rock had penned a novel for the young adult market, […]