The name Dan Catullo may not be a name on everyones lips, but he is the man behind the band when it comes to video and audio recording of a concert. The world has changed a lot from the days where you just smuggled a cassette recorder into a Grateful Dead concert. Dan Catullo is […]

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Before receiving this album, I had about as much knowledge about the DragonLance series as the next guy on the street. So, in all fairness to those uninitiated I’ll give a brief rundown. After some quick quick researched, it appears that DragonLance is a huge fantasy adventure novel series that takes place in a Dungeons & Dragons type world. Recently […]

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Like most people who have heard of the now relatively eminent Gladys Hardy because of her phone call to Ellen DeGeneres and the hilarity that ensued from Ellen’s subsequent call back, I love the idea of Gladys Hardy: the sweet, little 88-year old woman from Austin, Texas. I can picture her in a rocking chair, holding an old […]

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Now this is a musician with a resume. In the 40 years he has been recording, over 25 million albums have been sold, he has been a constant feature on the Billboard 200, and has scored a couple aces.
Surprisingly though, prior to this boxed set he […]

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TCOOO Productions and Bonfire, Inc. have set out to heat up the planet in a good way with the release of “18 Karat Gold Reggae: Global Warming.”
In a world filled with artificial music, Reggae continues to stay true to its roots, and “18 Karat Gold Reggae’s” tracks stay true to Reggae’s concepts and messages.
Beginning […]

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Our Side of Town
Lucy Kaplansky, Storyhill, Ray Bonneville, The Wailin’ Jennys, Greg Brown, Jimmy LaFave, Lynn Miles, Cliff Eberhardt, John Gorka, The Pines, Eliza Gilkyson, Jorma Kaukonen, Peter Ostroushko, Bill Staines, Robin & Linda Williams and Meg Hutchinson — that’s a fairly powerhouse collection of contemporary American folk singers and songwriters, and each is represented […]

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This is not a DVD for wimps. I pretty much can handle anything, but at 6am on a Sunday morning even I found this one a little tough to take.
Rap (esque) is not a style I like. I can find very few redeeming features in this so called music genre. If you like it, and […]

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If your blessed you might get to see what J. Spencer called a “blue moon things only to be seen once in a life time.” Estelle’s CD “Shine” is a blue moon, eclectic yet rooted in Hip-Hop. You can also hear the strong influenced of soul music “Shine” is clutter breaking the delicate and unique […]

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Award winning film maker Tony Palmer has created quite the opus with this 17 part series about popular music. It comes in a 5 DVD boxed set, and is an absolute must have for any music fan.
Todays music map encompasses a seemingly endless mixture of styles, from a cappella (unaccompanied) to zydeco (A Cajun Louisiana […]

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There are lots of Elvis impersonators, in fact there are several Marriage Chapels in Los Vegas that offer Elvis inspired preachers to perform the ceremony. There are are even the Flying Elvii, that perform dare-devil stunts with parachutes while dressed in matching Elvis costumes. Lets face it folks, this is an Elvis world! Pick up […]

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Did you miss them, they’re back!
Back in college my roommate Dustin and I made a pledge that if Van Halen ever toured with David Lee Roth again we would be at the show no matter what. That promise was fulfilled in October of last year when we saw the mighty VH at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans […]

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To most film score enthusiasts, or even casual listeners, the name Lalo Schifrin is instantly familiar. Personally, I’ve written about Lalo Schifrin a few times before, interviewing him and reviewing his work, from scores (Rush Hour 3) to his jazz compilations (Lalo Schifrin & Friends). I’ve also seen him perform live in Chicago with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. But […]

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This CD caused a bit of a fight in the Barret household. When Jan saw me open the Fed-Ex envelope it was like a scene from professional wrestling! I have never seen my wife move so fast, “Give me that, Give me that right now”! So I handed her the Fed-Ex envelope. “Not that, you […]

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I swear there are more music genres than there are items on a Chinese Take-Away menu! Even in the metal world there are a gazzilion different styles, we have Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Prog Metal, Neo Metal, and a whole bunch more. Well I have found a new one, Roo Metal. Mortification are an Australian […]

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Whats not to love! It is 5am and I am listening to metal! I am pretty sure my wife is on the verge of divorcing me, citing ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ as the reason!
Metalmania is is a live recording from the premier Central European metal festival. Although the bands come from around the globe I […]

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 April 15 was the official release date of Frank Sinatra’s Sinatra At The Movies CD, but there is no fear of missing out on getting a copy. This collection, which is a treasure for Sinatra fans, will be around for a long time. Or at least it should be. If for no other reason than to […]

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I grew up loving Country Music so this DVD brought back some of my memories when I was younger. It features 16 classic country songs that were recorded Live at Church Street Station in Orlando Florida in 1984. There are spectacular performances from artists such as TG Sheppard, Tanya Tucker, Dottie West, Freddie Fender, Charlie […]

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Van Morrison is back. In his first album since 2005, Morrison shines with a bluesy, soulful collection of songs which make up the short, but sweet, “Keep it Simple.” Far from simple, however, the album is chalked full of beautiful instrumentation, a wide array of musical influences from the classic blues that has always inspired Morrison’s music, to Celtic and folk melodies.

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Opening quietly and submissively with the floating “F*ck Me, Please - Meeting the Interns” the composers of the Pathology film score seek to prove that their music can rise above the rather simple, and occasionally crude titles of their tracks. Pianist Johannes Kobilke and electronic musician Robert Williamson collaborated on the score, mixing the lightness of piano […]

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Hey all…
I had the good fortune of being sent an early copy of the Smithereens‘ new live album — Live At The Court – Greatest Hits and More — just last week. And all I can say is WOW… What an awesome album!
First of all I’m a huge Smithereens fan. As someone who went to […]

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In 2007 Allan Holdsworth & Alan Pasqua toured extensively with Chad Wackerman and Jimmy Haslip. This DVD captures their concert at Yoshi’s in the Bay area.
This a tour-d-force line up. Holdsworth on guitar and Pasqua on keyboards are the main creative writing force, while Wackerman adds his unique touch on the drums, and Haslip is […]

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Amidst the slew of completely over-poppy, over-produced, and underwhelming new Carrie Underwoods and Jason Aldeans, and the once great sellouts of yesteryear like Tim McGraw and Toby Keith, there are a few genuine country singers striving to make do, living from gig to gig and building a reputation for authentic southern tunes. While they’re often […]

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The Dead Boys originally formed in 1975, and were one of the premier US based Punk Bands. Punk for some reason did grab the American audiences with the fervor found in the UK during this same period. That is not to say that they did not have a large and loyal American fan base, because […]

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Coal
“It’s got to come from the heart if you want it work” is a line Kathy Mattea sings in one her country hits. Mattea has always been good at that, whether she’s singing about the love of an elderly couple in Where’ve You Been, talking about the changes of moving on in Leaving West […]

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“I’m gonna try to see if I can remember as much to make it sound like I’m smart on the subject.”
So says our commander in chief of the last eight years. Though he’s repeatedly proven himself less than adept at public speaking, Bush’s second term was decidedly less filled with malapropisms and times when he “misspoke” […]

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I grew up on PBS.  I watched all the kids’ shows, but back when they were live action and never animated.  Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, Sesame Street, you know the drill.  Those were shows which entertained me, helped me to learn and expand my horizons, and taught me about music and puppets.  Now there is another […]

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I usually cringe and groan inwardly when I am faced with a book that has obviously skipped a few fundamental steps in the getting a book to market process. Such things as Spell Checking, Editing, and Proof Reading, are critical. To the old grizzled, and long in the tooth reviewer that I am, skillfully avoiding […]

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Carly Simon first hit the music scene in the early 70’s with her smash hit You’re So Vain, a song that caused many a bar room brawl over who she was singing about, some said it was James Taylor, her  soon to be husband and confidant at the time, others claimed it was an ode […]

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Americana music has experienced a surge in the past few years.  In  the years following the surprising Album of the Year victory  by the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack, traditional roots music has come to enjoy something of a renaissance. 
 On their new record, Loaded, The Wood Brothers follow up to their debut, Ways to Lose.  On this […]

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Following up his acclaimed House of Sand and Fog adaptation, Ukranian director Vadim Perelman has adapted for the screen an equally depressing and dramatic novel by Laura Kasischke: The Life Before Her Eyes. Centering around two high school girls being forced by a gunman to choose who will live and who will die, the film stars […]

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