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 [...]
By Nick DeRiso For all of her wandering, Allen Toussaint remains this touchstone for New Orleans-born vocalist Christina Gaudet. But Gaudet doesn’t let her lasting affinity for a hometown soul legend pigeonhole her wider ambitions on Solid, though it’s subtitled “Featuring new songs by Allen Toussaint.” She’s particularly adept at engrossing Cocteau Twins-inspired dream pop, an ethereal landscape that couldn’t [...]
by Nick DeRiso Nothing drove old Levon Helm down. Not the messy dissolution of his group, The Band; the perhaps inevitable subsequent financial ruin; a terrifying bout with throat cancer; a pair of shatteringly tragic deaths within his inner circle; or a yawning quarter century span between solo records that made him all but obscure in modern musical circles. This [...]
by Nick Deriso Irma Thomas, whose Louisiana legend of a voice has darkened into a more expressive place, is taking a similar career tack. The new “Simply Grand,” in fact, finds Thomas moving deeper into the emotional underpinnings of her best work at a time when safer environs would probably be more profitable. That perhaps started with her most recent [...]
by Nick Deriso The Blues Foundation announced its 2009 inductees for the Blues Hall of Fame on Wednesday. Luck us. We already love ‘em: Multiple Grammy Award-winner Taj Mahal; Irma Thomas, the “Soul Queen of New Orleans”; as well as late Chicago bluesman Son Seals and the Reverend Gary Davis. Several singles or album tracks are also set to be [...]
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