Rose of Sharon: 100 Years of American Music, 1770-1870

"The little Shaker song 'Simple Gifts,' by Joseph Brackett, comes with performance instructions built in. And when Joel Frederiksen and the Ensemble Phoenix Munich sing, '’Tis the gift to be simple,' they clearly believe it. ... [T]he disc from the Munich-based Ensemble Phoenix, directed by the American abroad Mr. Frederiksen[, is] a widely varied collection of musical Americana rendered with consistent beauty and restraint. Mr. Frederiksen sets a soulful tone at the start with a solo rendering of the Shaker spiritual 'Lay Me Low' and later adds the sober ballads 'The Death of General Wolfe' and 'Captain Kidd.' Three numbers by the great New England hymnist William Billings include the classic song that gives the album its title, 'I Am the Rose of Sharon.' A Civil War segment looks southward with the instrumental ditty 'Dixie's Land' and the song 'Maryland, My Maryland.' ... This one is to treasure, from beginning to end. " (James R. Oestreich, "Complex Pleasures Rooted in Love, Delight and Song," New York Times, 7/28/11).
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Ron Sexsmith: Long Player Late Bloomer

"His albums come in two flavors: good and very good. His new CD -- Long Player Late Bloomer -- is very good. ... Chances are, if you're smart and daring enough to lay some money down on a CD by a man who crafts brilliant pop music for adults, Ron Sexsmith will become a new favorite of yours. ... Sexsmith has a McCartney-esque gift for melody, but they're not the sort of hooks that grab you by the throat. They're sneaky, slithery things that slide into your subconsciousness -- always hummable, always memorable but in a very low-key manner. First you listen, then you sing along, then you start hearing the melodies in your head all the time. By the fourth or fifth listen to Long Player Late Bloomer, you'll swear you've known these songs all your life. For Sexsmith, it's also quite a forceful album. His voice always brings a melancholy air, a blue-ish tinge to all he sings. But here the arrangements practically rock out, especially for an act whose mellowness is one of his chief attributes" (Michael Giltz, "CD of the Week," Huffington Post, 3/6/11).
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Bruno Mars: Doo-Wops and Hooligans

"[H]is debut album, 'Doo-Wops and Hooligans' ... has already spawned two No. 1 singles, 'Just the Way You Are' and 'Grenade,' which is still at No. 1. Mars has an easily marketed wholesome feel that predates much of pop itself -- he evokes, both physically and tonally, Jackie Wilson, the sixties pop star who inspired Michael Jackson perhaps more than any other performer. ... Although Wilson, unlike Mars, conveyed pain and joy in even his most anodyne numbers, he had the same kind of permanent approachability that Mars exudes. There is little threat or discontent in Mars, or in his work, and it's no surprise to learn that he spent his childhood impersonating Elvis, in a Waikiki hotel, in a family band called the Love Notes. Mars describes the outfit as 'straight Partridge family.' ... Mars's current ubiquity is unremarkable -- he's a light, dashing figure who can write melodies that lodge quickly and repeat painlessly" (Sasha Frere-Jones, "Pop Music," New Yorker, 2/14&21/11).
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Gregg Allman: Low Country Blues

"MR: So, after you and [producer T-Bone Burnett] bonded, you went into this project together with a hard drive that contained 10,000 blues songs on it. GA: He said, 'Well, how about we peel you off about twenty-five of them and I send them to you, you listen to them over and over, then you pick fifteen of them that you wouldn't mind recording.' MR: What made you choose such a strict blues album this time out? GA: T-Bone is pretty into the blues himself, and this band is out of sight man. They didn't tell me 'til about a week and a half before I was supposed to be there, they said, 'By the way you can't bring your band.' ... He had in mind what he wanted to do, and I had in mind what I wanted to do. I sat home and arranged fifteen of those songs -- well, actually thirteen of them, one I wrote and then another one I threw in there called 'I Can't Be Satisfied.' MR: Dr. John is on the album, right? GA: Yeah. ..." (Mike Ragogna, "A Conversation with Greg Allman," Huffington Post, 2/16/11).
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The Cox Family: Just When We're Thinking It's Over

"The Cox Family is an American Bluegrass family group from Cotton Valley in Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, United States. ... The singing group comprises father Willard, son Sidney, and daughters Evelyn and Suzanne. Their distinctive sound derives from a combination of Country, bluegrass, and gospel styles. ... Their career was given a big boost when in the early '90s they met Alison Krauss, who brought them to the attention of Rounder Records. They also gained massive exposure when in 1994 they caught the ear of Adam Duritz, frontman of the multi-platinum-selling Counting Crows, who was so impressed with the Cox Family that he invited them to open for the band during its North American tour. ... The Cox Family recorded two records of their own on Rounder Records: Everybody's Reaching Out for Someone (1993) and Beyond the City (1995). ... Their major-label debut, Just When We're Thinking It's Over, was released on Asylum Records in 1996" (Wikipedia).
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Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks: Mirror Traffic

"Recently reunited here for the first time since Mr. Hansen (better known simply as Beck) produced 'Mirror Traffic,' a new record by Mr. Malkmus and his band the Jicks, these two musicians, stalwarts of the 1990s alternative-indie-hey-whatever scene, were not immediately inclined to discuss this album or what it represents to listeners realizing that two whole decades have elapsed since the age of insincerity, flannel and insincerely worn flannel. ... It seems fitting that their first collaboration should arrive at a moment when nostalgia for the pop culture of the 1990s ... is approaching peak capacity faster than you can say 'Reality Bites.' And it is in keeping with both artists’ unpredictable, against-the-grain styles that the sonically accessible, lyrically elliptical 'Mirror Traffic,' which Matador Records will release on Tuesday, is not an attempt to mash up or cash in on their best known work but to keep moving beyond it" (Dave Itzkoff, "Together Again for the First Time," New York Times, 8/18/11).
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Esperanza Spalding: Chamber Music Society

"Esperanza Spalding may have won the Grammy for Best New Artist, but some have reveled in her talent for years. A 26-year old, classically trained jazz/chamber music fusion musician and singer, Spalding has been making headlines in the jazz world since before her 2006 debut solo album, 'Junjo.' Having attended the Berklee Academy of Music, where she immediately became a professor after graduating at 20 years old, she began to travel with well known jazz musicians -- and then, the President. Showing prescient hipness, President Obama selected Spalding to perform at the Oslo City Hall when he accepted his 2009 Nobel Prize, as well as at a White House poetry jam. 'Chamber Music Society' is actually her eighth overall album, including her teenage band and collaborations with famous jazz musicians. But she's still excited to be considered Best New Artist" ("Esperanza Spalding: Grammy Award 2011 Winner for Best New Artist," Huffington Post, 2/14/11).
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The Yale Camerata: Music of Calvin Hampton

"(George) Calvin Hampton (December 31, 1938–August 5, 1984) was a leading American organist and sacred music composer. ... He served as Organist and Choirmaster of Calvary Episcopal Church, Gramercy Park, New York City, from September 1963 to June, 1983. His 'Fridays at Midnight' organ recital series, running from 1974 to 1983, was one of the most famous and popular organ recital series in American history. Hampton was also a respected composer for the church and for the concert stage. Before his death, Eric Routley, a noted authority on church music, called Hampton 'the greatest living composer of hymn tunes.' His settings of the Episcopal liturgy are also in use in Catholic churches, and his choral works are milestones of innovative, challenging sacred music. ... Towards the end of his life, Hampton gave up church work and concentrated on composition and organ consulting. ... Weakened with AIDS, Hampton remained active until the final few weeks of his life" (Wikipedia).
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Junior Kimbrough: You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough

"Bluesman David 'Junior' Kimbrough was born in northern Mississippi in 1930, the son of sharecroppers. A self-taught guitarist, Junior quit school and entered the workforce to help his family. Only in the late '50s did Kimbrough begin to find his place in the world of music. After performing for a few years on Chicago's blues scene, Kimbrough went to Memphis to record for the Goldwax label. Disappointingly, he would not realize success for many decades. After years of cutting sides with various labels, collaborating with R.L. Burnside, Kimbrough cut his first official full-length release at the age of 62 under the guidance of the legendary producer Robert Palmer for the Fat Possum label. In 2009, Big Legal Mess Records posthumously released Kimbrough's original Goldwax recordings. The bluesman passed away in 1998 and leaves a treasured path" (Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin, "Dog Ears Music," Huffington Post, 8/19/11).
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Krallice: Diotima

"[Guitarist Mick] Barr is showing copious love to the scene he grew up in. ... Rick Omonte — the impresario behind, among other things, the once-great 'Sundazed at BAR' concerts — is publishing selections from Barr's music and visual art in the next Ephemeroptera Quarterly, a multimedia zine/compilation record, and Carlos Wells' equally discriminating Safety Meeting Records is putting out Coiled Malescence, Derby-born Barr's first vinyl LP to be released under his own name. If that name is unfamiliar to you, you might not have heard of his wild array of past and present projects, either, ranging from Ocrilim (Barr solo), to guitar/drum duos Orthrelm (with Josh Blair) and Crom-Tech (with Malcolm McDuffie), to yet more collaborative efforts like Krallice, the quartet that every blogger seems to be calling a 'black metal supergroup,' and which released one of the most acclaimed metal records of 2011" (Daniel Stephen Johnson, "How Mick Barr Became an Unlikely Guitar God (and Composer!)," New Haven Advocate, 8/18/11, p. 12).
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Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Piano Concerto No. 2

"The latest young pianist from China to excite classical music audiences and earn raves from critics is the 24-year-old Yuja Wang, a distinctive artist with a comprehensive technique. That Ms. Wang is already a musician of consequence was made clear this year when Deutsche Grammophon released her first recording with an orchestra: performances of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Second Piano Concerto with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. The conductor is Claudio Abbado, no less, a towering maestro who is extremely discriminating in his choice of collaborators. Ms. Wang’s virtuosity is stunning. ... Ms. Wang, who will make her New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall in October, can play anything" (Anthony Tommasini, "Virtuosos Becoming a Dime a Dozen," New York Times, 8/14/11).
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Todd Snider: Live: The Storyteller

"Some singer-songwriters just play their songs and get offstage. Others, like Richard Thompson and Loudon Wainwright III, go for droll repartee. And then there's Todd Snider. For years now, Snider has endeared himself to crowds with his endlessly digressive between-song commentary, which combines the sly phrasing of a stoner, the perfect timing of a standup comedian, and a mastery of the tiny detail. Snider's monologues are a dice roll, at least: he'll hold forth on everything from the war on drugs to the self-aggrandizing graffiti he scrawled in an Oregon tunnel to the apparently boorish behavior of the NASCAR driver Bill Elliott, and his stories are sometimes as long as the songs they're introducing. Snider's most recent album, 'Live: The Storyteller,' collects some of his best routines -- the K. K. Rider story, about his early days in show biz, is without equal -- along with sharply funny, lyrical, sometimes mournful songs" (Ben Greenman, "Critic's Notebook," New Yorker, 2/7/11).
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The Decemberists: The King Is Dead

"After a series of increasingly complex albums, the Decemberists step away from ornate chamber-pop trappings on their latest, an album with no harpsichord, no hurdy-gurdy and barely any bouzouki. In fact, 'The King is Dead' (Capitol) is startlingly straightforward, featuring 10 songs steeped more in American roots music than the English folk (and, on 2008's 'Hazards of Love,' prog) traditions that leader Colin Meloy has more often drawn from over the past decade. ... The Portland, Ore., band's sixth album is full of acoustic guitars, mournful pedal steel licks and bursts of harmonica and violin. There are also lovely vocal harmonies, many of which come from Americana singer Gillian Welch. Nobody sings close harmony like Welch, and her voice hews to Meloy's as closely as the backside of a shadow on seven songs, starting with opener 'Don't Carry It All.' ... Meloy's lyrics are again full of naturalistic imagery, with plenty of rivers and streams ... and a particular emphasis on seasons" (Eric R. Danton, "CD Review," Sound Check, 1/18/11).
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StarFish: Enter Sandbox

"StarFish is five dads from New Jersey who describe their sound as 'cool, classic rock-style jams for families' and that’s a pretty fair assessment. In an obvious nod to Metallica, Starfish titled its second CD Enter Sandbox. Now don’t be scared; their roots are securely in 70’s classic rock rather than the headbanging of Metallica. At the same time, the more I listened to Enter Sandbox the more I felt the label of classic rock isn’t fair to them, because their sound is so much more than that. Because I'm more of a fan of alt-pop kids music, I was a little hesitant on this album. Kids and rock music doesn’t seem like a natural pairing, but StarFish makes it work. ‘Sick Day’ is a fun reggae track, ‘Elephant’ is bouncy pop ditty, or the beautiful acoustics of ‘Joshua’s Treehouse’ make this a surprisingly well-rounded album. Don't get me wrong; there is plenty of rock on this album, but 'Enter Sandbox' offers enough variety to keep everyone in the family happy" (Dan Walsh, "CD Review," milwaukeemoms.com, 6/7/10).
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Ben Williams: State of Art

"Ben Williams won first prize in the 2009 Thelonious Monk Competition for double-bass and has played with Wynton Marsalis, Pat Metheny, Roy Hargrove, and Stefon Harris’ Blackout. Like Harris, Williams incorporates R&B and hip-hop into his work. Here, he leads a fine group composed of saxophonist Marcus Strickland, guitarist Matthew Stevens, pianist Gerald Clayton, drummer Jamire Williams, and percussionist Etienne Charles. Williams might draw on contemporary pop elements but the core of his sound is clearly rooted in pre-free jazz styles. 'Dawn of the New Day' swings in a pleasingly mellow way, while 'The Lee Morgan Story' features guest MC John Robinson providing a rhymed biography of the great trumpeter. The group operates in a fiery Latin mode on 'November,' a track that finds Jaleel Shaw on alto sax. Williams nods to his Washington D. C. roots by adding a go-go groove to Woody Shaw’s 'Moontrane.' 'Mr. Dynamite' pays homage to James Brown. ..." (iTunes review).
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Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Speed of Life

"JH: ... We continue to make albums, we have a new one called Speed Of Life on Sugar Hill Records, and we got a lot of great press on it. MR: Are all of the members back for this album? JH: Well, most of us. Jimmy Ibbotson left the band in 2004. So, for the last seven years, we've been playing as a quartet with John McEuen, Bob Carpenter, who has been with us for about 30 years, Jimmie Fadden, and me. Jimmy and I have been playing together since the start. John left for a while then came back, which we're really glad about. MR: Great. Is there an emphasis track on your latest album? JH: No, actually, there are several. There are two that I really like--one is called 'The Resurrection,' and it's a song I really like that was co-written by my wife Matraca Berg. She's a great songwriter. The other is called 'Tulsa Sounds Like Trouble To Me,' which was written by Shawn Camp and Mark D. Sanders. Another very cool tune" (Mike Ragogna, "Fishin' in the Dark: Chattin' with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Jeff Hanna," Huffington Post, 5/27/11).
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Amos Lee: Mission Bell

"MR: Let's talk about your new album, Mission Bell. It was produced by Joey Burns of Calexico, and it features Lucinda Williams and Willie Nelson. AL: Yeah, they're both on it. Sam Beam's on it. ... MR: How did your Lucinda Williams collaboration come about? AL: I think Lucinda's Car Wheels On A Gravel Road was one of the records I was really drawn to when I was first writing songs. Her work as a writer and a singer has always touched me deeply. When we were thinking about that song, to me, there was always a female voice in there singing the second verse. When Joey and I were talking about who we could get to sing the part, I really heard her voice on it. We reached out to her, and she happened to be in the studio at the time, so we sent it over. I feel like, as a listener, she takes the song into a whole other place. It really changed the track for me from something that I liked, to something that absolutely had to be on the album" (Mike Ragogna, "Mondo Amore, a Mission Bell, and Joey's Song," Huffington Post, 2/1/11).
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Mavis Staples: You Are Not Alone

"Mavis Staples [at the Bell House in Brooklyn] ... opens with a gospel number, tosses in one or two new tunes, chats amiably with the audience by telling the same jokes but making them sound fresh, brings in The Band's classic 'The Weight' to turn things up and does an extended version of 'I'll Take You There.' She even tells the classic anecdote about the very first song that Pop Staples taught to his children after being disgusted with the no-shows at rehearsal for his gospel group. That first song? 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken.' Will she sing it? Yes, of course she will. The crowd at the sold-out show in Brooklyn ate it up, perhaps since many of them were seeing Staples in concert for the first time. Her every reference to Jeff Tweedy (who oversaw her latest album, one of the most acclaimed of the year and gave Staples a lovely new standard with the title track 'You Are Not Alone') was greeted with applause. Calling him a funny little thing pleased them even more" (Michael Giltz, "Music," Huffington Post, 1/21/11).
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The Black Eyed Peas: The Beginning

"will.i.am is the co-founder and creative force behind dance and hip hop juggernauts The Black Eyed Peas. To date, the band has sold an estimated 27 million albums worldwide, plus an additional 20 million singles. With the Peas' new album, The Beginning, set to hit stores worldwide, the enigmatic songwriter and I caught up to talk a little music, live performing, and politics. ... SS: With the 'Time of my Life' lyric and melody being the anchor of your Dirty Bit single, I'm guessing you were a fan of the old Bill Medley / Jennifer Warnes song. w: Just the chorus. I didn't like the verses. (laughs) ... We were on tour when we recorded this record, so our studio was our hotel room. We had a traveling studio: laptops, microphones, etc... So we recorded as we toured. And every night after the Black Eyed Peas shows, I'd do an underground DJ set and play some new beats in front of different audiences" (Steven Shehori, "A Conversation with will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas," Huffington Post, 11/26/10).
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