A review of Susheela Raman’s 33 1/3 There’s nothing Susheela Raman can’t sing. I remember thinking this the first time I heard her first record, Salt Rain, in 2001. Raman is a British singer of Indian origin (who grew up … [read more]
A review of Dwight Yoakam’s This Time (1993) Even though I had Hillbilly Deluxe and Cadillacs, Guitars Etc. Etc. on vinyl in the 80s and liked them (really, they provided my first ‘country music’ experiences that weren’t related to the … [read more]
Reviews of Joey + Rory’s The Life of a Song and Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson’s Rattlin’ Bones “Turn it up loud so we all can sing along,” sings Joey Martin Feek at the beginning of The Life of a … [read more]
A review of Jill Barber’s Chances (2008) Jill Barber is a Halifax-based… traditional jazz singer? Swing singer? Country singer? Torch singer? Maybe “western swing,” antiquated as it sounds, is a good genre for her. I had previously heard, and loved, … [read more]
A review of Eric Clapton’s 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974) I don’t really remember where I first got this, just that I first heard it when I was a teenager. Prior to this, I had only read about Clapton – the … [read more]
Here are my best CDs of 2008, in no particular order: Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson, Rattlin’ Bones Hayes Carll, Trouble In Mind Sugarland, Love On The Inside TV On The Radio, Dear Science Lambchop, OH (Ohio) Calexico, Carried To … [read more]
Leonard Cohen in 2008 by Rama. This Christmas, music took a strange turn towards the democratic, at least in the UK. And it did so in a fairly unexpected way: not in iTunes or because consumers voted with their credit … [read more]
A review of Michelle Shocked’s Short Sharp Shocked (1988) Some of the most memorable music from the 1980s, for me at least, stems from this album (and that’s perhaps because none of it sounds like the 80s at all). Michelle … [read more]