River The Joni Letters

On paper, River sounds like a match made in several versions of heaven. Legendary pianist Herbie Hancock re-imagines Joni Mitchell with his hand-picked, star-studded band–including saxophonist Wayne Shorter–in tow. Luminary guests lend vocals to a song apiece: Norah Jones (“Court and Spark”), Tina Turner (“Edith and the Kingpin”), Corinne Bailey Rae (“River”), Luciana Souza (“Amelia”), [...]

Celtic Thunder The Show

Album Description For Celtic Thunder, Sharon Browne has teamed up with Grammy-nominated Irish songwriting and composing veteran Phil Coulter to produce a show that includes an eclectic mix of songs ranging from the traditional “Mountains of Mourne” and “Come By the Hills” to international hits such as “Brothers in Arms” and “Desperado,” as well as [...]

Keep It Simple

Van Morrison was born in Belfast in 1945, the son of a shipyard worker who collected American blues and jazz records. Van grew up listening to the music of Muddy Waters, Mahalia Jackson, Lightnin’ Hopkins and John Lee Hooker. Surrounded by every kind of musical influence – country, blues, jazz, and folk – from 13 [...]

The Reminder

Feist is the solo project of Canada’s Leslie Feist, a prolific artist who has also played in one capacity or another with Broken Social Scene, Kings of Convenience and half a dozen other bands. The Reminder, her third release, comes from the same well of quiet, appealing songwriting, and delicate vocalizations that made 2004’s Let [...]

Symphony

I have been eagerly anticipating getting the new Sarah Brightman cd SYMPHONY from my library for some time now. This weekend I finally got the cd and have been listening to it quite a bit. I never thought I would be saying this about a Sarah Brightman cd but wow! I was left somewhat unimpressed. [...]

Warpaint

Until Warpaint came out, it had been years since I listened to the Black Crowes. I never bought or have I heard By Your Side or Lions…when Marc Ford left the band, I stopped listening. I loved Southern Harmony & Musical Companion. I still feel like that was their masterpiece, but I liked Amorica alot [...]

Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings

“Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is the story of what happens when all the bright lights start to burn instead of glitter and you become more of a part of the shadow they cast behind you than the person you are in front. Produced in two parts by Gil Norton & Brian Deck, it’s about [...]

New Amerykah

Erykah Badu, a Dallas native emerged in 1997 with her masterpiece debut album Baduizm as a primal force of nature connecting old school soul with contemporary R&B. The album garnered her numerous award nominations, pulling 2 coveted Grammys (Best Female R&B Vocal, Best R&B Album) and multiple Top spots on critics’ Best-Of-The-Year Lists. In 2000 [...]

In Rainbows

On the deliriously satisfying In Rainbows, Radiohead returns to a more straight-ahead (though subdued) rock sound. Much hubbub has been made about this record’s innovative release. Radiohead allowed fans to pay what they wished to download fairly low-resolution tracks from the band’s own website. Like so many innovations, it already seems funny both that it [...]

Here Come The 123s

The release date is early February, but it’s hard to imagine a more hotly anticipated kids’ CD arriving all year. Here Come the 123s, the companion piece to 2005’s Here Come the ABCs, is among the buzziest properties to hit kid-land since Laurie Berkner started shaking things up in the late ’90s. That’s because the [...]