“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 [...]

by S. Victor Aaron I know no one will believe it, but a couple of weeks ago I heard Muddy Waters‘ 1948 classic recording of his first hit “I Can’t Be Satisfied” for the first time in a while and decided then and there that it needed the One Track Mind treatment. Really, I was going to do it. That [...]

by Nick DeRiso I wasn’t sure what to make of this album when it came out earlier this summer. Was Brothers a smart pivot back to the Black Keys’ creative strengths, after some time spent noodling around with only partially successful side projects? Or was it a calculated, and maybe unsatisfying, cash-in retrenchment? I’ve decided it’s the first. Singer/guitarist Dan [...]

by Nick DeRiso Grateful Dead co-founder Bill Kreutzmann, great groovy Meters bassman George Porter Jr. and hoodoo guitarist Papa Mali have joined together to form 7 Walkers, a rousing fusion of Bay area jam-rock with greasy New Orleans rhythm and blues. Their self-titled debut, issued Nov. 2 on Response Records, bills itself in the liner notes as a love letter [...]

by Nick DeRiso While John Mellencamp continues a run of career-defining records, dating back to 2007′s “Freedom’s Road,” best leave your dancing shoes in the closet. Producer T Bone Burnett cops to it, in the liner notes to “No Better Than This,” set for release Aug. 17 on Rounder Records: “All those ghosts. All those spirits. This is a haunted [...]

Today, we remember Texas jazz guitarist Herb Ellis, who has passed at 88 in his Los Angeles home after a long bout with Alzheimer’s. Over a career that spanned six decades, Ellis worked with a number of legends, including Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong and in the classic line-up of the acclaimed Oscar Peterson Trio. Here’s one of our [...]

Willie Nelson certainly has worked in more unexpected contexts lately — not least of which was his thoroughly surprising and just as thoroughly enjoyable turn alongside Wynton Marsalis at the Lincoln Center. There have also been other, occasionally unfortunate duets with pop singers, reggae guys, and rappers, too. So, yeah, “Willie and The Wheel,” a recording with Western swing preservationists [...]

by Nick DeRiso  Fascinating and enigmatic, a quirky delight, Leonard Cohen has nevertheless found a series of devoted, adult audiences over the years — selling 21 million records worldwide across four decades, including the gold-certified “Songs of Leonard Cohen,” his 1967 debut, and 1975′s “The Best of Leonard Cohen.” That still amazes me. Popular music rarely makes room for true [...]

by Nick DeRiso It’s fitting, of course, that singer/songwriter/keyboardist Leon Russell’s real last name is “bridges.” Claude Russell Bridges, born April 2, 1942, would one day write a tune called “The Masquerade” that, in jazz singer and guitarist George Benson‘s hands, hit No. 1 simultanously on the jazz, pop and R&B charts. It’s the footnote on Russell that got a [...]