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Something Else loves these 
Ginger Baker – Horses & Trees (1986, 2011 reissue)
Fusion in the most complete sense of the word, Ginger Baker‘s all-too-brief Horses & Trees melds jazz, funk, world music, electronica, reggae, hip-hop and something noiser still.
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One Track Mind: A Fragile Tomorrow, “I Just Never Said Enough” (2010)
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 [...]
One Track Mind: Robbie Robertson, “He Don’t Live Here No More” (2011)
Photo from RobbieRobertson.com by Nick DeRiso “He Don’t Live Here No More,” the edgy lead single from Robbie Robertson‘s upcoming album How To Become Clairvoyant, is a rollicking rebuke of the dark demons that stole too many friends. “I was higher than a lost kite — too far gone,” Robertson wails, channelling lost souls like Richard Manuel and Rick Danko, [...]
Unsigned treasures: Don’t Ask – Nothing (2010)
Photo from Todd Christoffel’s ReverbNation.com page by Nick DeRiso Seattle-based folk-rockers Don’t Ask have a fondness for the comfy sounds of 1970s pop, though they are careful not to get too caught up in nostalgia. They simply use that era’s singer-songwriter-inspired prose, its soaring symphonic pop structure and its feel-good ethos as a springboard. In fact, the album-closing “My Memories” [...]
Something Else! sneak peek: Robbie Robertson, “When The Night Was Young” (2011)
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.
Movies: Michael McDonald – This Christmas (2010)
by Nick DeRiso The Doobie Brothers’ ex-frontman sneaks in a few of his former band’s more popular tunes during a new Eagle Rock Entertainment DVD, “This Christmas: Live in Chicago.” Thankfully, though, Michael McDonald leaves behind the treacly synth-soaked production values of those old records. I’d often wondered what it would have been like if McDonald had been able to [...]
Ryuichi Sakamoto – Playing The Piano/Out Of Noise (2010)
by Mark Saleski The complete list of collaborators attached to pianist/composer/modern day Renaissance man Ryuichi Sakamoto could easily fill the space reserved for a full-length review. The short list includes Brian Wilson, Thomas Dolby, Iggy Pop, David Sylvain, Robbie Robertson, and Daniel Bernard Roumain. His film score resume, while somewhat more brief, is still equally impressive, including: The Little Buddha, [...]
Elton John and Leon Russell – The Union (2010)
by Nick DeRiso Elton John’s long and often dispiriting journey back to his 1970s muse led him to an early idol, Leon Russell. The result is “The Union,” a sturdy new collaboration full of spiralling soul and timeless revelations about starting over. Produced by T Bone Burnett and set for issue by Decca on Oct. 19, the album refurbishes John’s [...]
Levon Helm – Electric Dirt (2009)
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 [...]
Diana Jones – Better Times Will Come (2009)
by Nick DeRiso From the South, but not really, Diana Jones sings with an unforgettable, old-time lonesomeness — like a late-arriving featured act at an old Carter Family jubilee. She then expands on the familiar bluegrass vocabulary with a character-driven, literary touch, nowhere to better effect than on the new “Better Times Will Come.” Jones, an adopted kid, keenly felt [...]
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