Reviews

Piper & The Hard Times — Revelation

Remember the iconic ad for Maxwell audio cassettes back at the turn of the 1980s? Similar blowback effect with Revelation.

Reviews

Charlie Parker — Bird in Kansas City

A saxophone—correction, the saxophone of its era—instantly blazes out of the box with no introduction, no windup, no warning.

Reviews

Blue Moon Marquee — New Orleans Sessions

The mystique of a Blue Moon Marquee record lies as much in the atmosphere generated as in the music itself.

Reviews

John Hammond — You’re Doin’ Fine: Blues at the Boarding House, June 2 & 3, 1973

Who needs electricity anyway? Or, for that matter, a band? After all, Robert Johnson rose to the status of godhead without either stuff.

Reviews

B.B. King — In France: Live at the 1977 Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival

Oh, what a night. It is 1977. B.B. King sports a three-piece suit and a seven-piece band. He is In France. And he is “on.”

Reviews

Big Frank / Mike Smith — Outskirts of Town

Between them, singing guitarist “Big Frank” Mirra and harmonicat Mike Smith deliver straight-up blues as if rock-n-roll never existed.

Reviews

Various — Won’t Have to Cry No More

Needless to say, holy house-wrecking hollers are in no short supply. Brace yourself. As well as anyone else within earshot.

Reviews

Mitch Woods — Happy Hour

Horns naturally gravitate to Mitch Woods. Evidently, saxophones can pick up the scent of a real good time.

Reviews

Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan — In Session (Deluxe Edition)

Time has come for the great to be all the greater. And for those two poor guitars to take even more of a licking.

Reviews

Little Feat — Sam’s Place

Sooner or later, everyone returns home to the blues. Sam’s Place is Little Feat’s homecoming.

Reviews

Duke Robillard — Roll with Me

Yes, even Duke Robillard has the proverbial “lost” album. Wait, correction: Had a lost album.

Reviews

Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. & the Zydeco Twisters — More Fun with Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. & the Zydeco Twisters

Sorry, you cannot sit this one out. Simply not possible. No way.

Reviews

Gráinne Duffy — Dirt Woman Blues

The blues has its share of personal pits of inner torment. In 1937, for instance, Robert Johnson thrashed inside “Hell Hound on My Trail.”

Reviews

Jontavious Willis — West Georgia Blues

West Georgia Blues could just as well live as a black stack of shellac 78s. Its sepia-tinted performances are that heroically old-school.

Reviews

Brad Vickers & His Vestapolitans — “Peace in My Time” (single)

It is but one song. A standalone single. A gem just unearthed on a dusty hard drive. Yet “Peace in My Time” carries the weight of the world

Reviews

Ten Years After — Woodstock 1969

Only an hour was needed. And the crowd went wild.

Reviews

Terry “Harmonica” Bean — Drop Dead in Front of Your Door

Toast. ‘Have a nice day’ is toast, along with smiley faces and rainbows. Deflated, each and every one.

Reviews

The Fabulous Thunderbirds — Struck Down

I think you know why we are gathered here: A new Fabulous Thunderbirds record just dropped.

Reviews

Staples Jr. Singers — Searching

You see, as under-the-radar legends go, the Staples Jr. Singers are secretly famous. And Searching is not your typical anything.

Reviews

Joe Bonamassa — Live at the Hollywood Bowl—With Orchestra

Live at the Hollywood Bowl—With Orchestra ranks, hands down, as some of the most absolutely majestic misery you’ll ever experience.