“Am I Blue” is a largely forgotten argument for Ray Charles‘ striking ability to synthesize jazz, blues, country and gospel into music with a broader appeal. That’s saying something, considering that it appears on The Genius of Ray Charles, a half-big band/half-strings Atlantic release that became one of his most celebrated efforts. Charles effortlessly melds both the secular and sacred [...]

Photo from A Fragile Tomorrow’s ReverbNation page by Nick DeRiso A Fragile Tomorrow builds out from the country-rock synthesis of pathfinders like the Band and the Byrds, starting with the new-wave attitude and propulsive rhythms of descendent bands like R.E.M. and the dBs. But there’s something else, lodged in amidst the brailing mandolin and stamping beat, this heartfelt gravitas. Turns [...]

Photograph by Spencer Tweedy by Nick DeRiso Over the course of a remarkable career, both with her family band the Staple Singers and as a solo artist, gospel-soul icon Mavis Staples has bravely explored the frustrations, sorrows and then joys of the African-American freedom fight. But, lest we forget, she can still rock it. “Last Train,” from Staples’ most recent [...]

Photograph by David Jordan Williams/Williams Studio by Nick DeRiso We find Robbie Robertson, former guitarist with Bob Dylan and the Band, again hurtling through the Mississippi Delta, racing past old churches with scolding signs out front, hanging out with grifters and cardsharps, searching for something deeper, something real. This time, it’s different, though.

by Nick DeRiso Big Apple Blues came by this vintage sound honestly. They put down tracks for Brooklyn Blues in an old hometown studio, Excello Recording, playing live before analog equipment on throwback instruments. Then they picked out a series of cuts by giants of the genre. Included on this Stone Tone release are covers of songs by Chess Records [...]

by Something Else Reviews Writing can feel akin to tossing a flat rock across the surface of a shimmering river. You never know how far it will go, or just how wide those concentric circles left behind might eventually spread. Sometimes, the thing just sinks. Like, well, a rock. But other times, these entries take on a life of their [...]

by Nick DeRiso Lucinda Williams brings a brave, riveting vulnerability to Essence — and, for me, it’s her masterpiece. Yet you are more apt to find it in the cutout bin at a big-box department store than at the top of most people’s desert-island lists. Perhaps the sensual melancholy of Essence was too personal, maybe it held too much dark [...]

For me, “Not Dark Yet” is the best thing Bob Dylan has done in ages, this perfect enigma from a guy who’s made a career of such sleights of hand. An edgy post-modern lament downshifted into quiet Civil War balladry, “Not Dark Yet,” remains a riddle — and maybe that’s the very definition of good art: It’s something that you [...]

by Nick DeRiso Densely layered, with an elegant construction, Black Dub doesn’t start out all that much differently from your average recording by uber-hip producer Daniel Lanois. Then something welcomely dangerous, almost feral, happens. Lanois — famous for his work with U2, Bob Dylan and Peter Gabriel, among others — is the first voice you hear, backed by the respected [...]

by Nick DeRiso A Bob Dylan song reimagined into something like the Beach Boys, and also something like the Beatles — and nothing like folk music — propelled the Byrds to their first No. 1. Oh, and started the folk-rock movement. Among other things. It begins with Roger McGuinn’s guitar, sustained and bright, which was then paired alongside a complex [...]