Following up his 2009 Grammy-winning outing The Crow, Steve Martin, no dilettante he but rather a serious bluegrass picker in his own right, surpasses his previous achievement in teaming with North Carolina’s burgeoning bluegrass giants ...

Fado (pronounced FAH-doo, with a very soft “d”) is Portuguese urban folk music. Ana Moura sings these songs, new and old, in a traditional style, clearly influenced by one of the Fado greats, Amalia Rodrigues ...

One hazard of being on the retail side of the audio biz is that you end up hearing a lot of the same music—ad nauseam. And while I haven’t sold high-end gear for 16 years ...

Asked why he had written the songs on the 1971 concept album What’s Going On, soul singer and composer Marvin Gaye told labelmate Smokey Robinson that the inspiration had come from a higher power. “I ...

After a series of ambitious, atmospheric concept albums over the years, Robbie Robertson delivers his fifth album, the bluesy How To Become Clairvoyant, his most personal and appealing. Finally comfortable writing about his past, Robertson ...

Philosophical and musical differences created such a volatile atmosphere around the time Santana recorded Caravanserai that lineup changes seemed nonstop. Musically the chemistry among band members remained, however, as did the Latin fire, the rhythm ...

Billy Joel’s 52nd Street was huge—a certified- platinum monster that’s logged over ten million sales since its 1978 release. While The Stranger, which debuted a year earlier, cemented Joel’s status as a global star, 52nd ...

Fans of British folk and folk-rock performers like Pentangle, Ralph McTell, Bert Jansch, and John Renbourn owe it to themselves to check out Wizz Jones, who all of the above would consider not only a ...

American roots-music has moved to the cities. Only a few old-timers and hardy ex-urbanite pioneers are still playing the fiddle tunes, dance ditties, country blues, rags, chain-gang hollers, minstrel songs, and mournful mountain-music ballads of ...

As in its original 1959 release and expanded 2002 reissue, so in this new 180-gram vinyl edition by Impex Records: The Fabulous Johnny Cash consolidates the strengths that had catapulted the singer to regional stardom ...

London-born, Georgia-dwelling Holly Golightly (not a pseudonym—her mother was a Breakfast at Tiffany’s fan) has made some 30 albums in various incarnations. No Help Coming is the fourth with her strychnine-voiced, multi-instrumentalist Texas-bred partner known ...

In the 1970s, when musicians mining America’s rich musical history were a much rarer breed, Ry Cooder was a pivotal figure. If initially I was wary of artists plunging into roots music from bygone days, ...

Super groups are a stock-in-trade in the rock world but seldom live up to their billing. That’s the case with Superheavy. Producer and ex-Eurhythmic Dave Stewart built this East meets West band in 2009 around ...

John Hiatt’s songs are a rich tapestry of stories and moods, alternately tough and tender. The opening track, “Damn This Town,” is a gritty tale of a lost soul trapped by the circumstances of birth ...

Steve Cropper, Grammy-nominated Rock Hall of Fame guitarist, recorded Dedicated as a heartfelt tribute to fellow guitarist Lowman “Pete” Pauling and his pioneering 50s R&B group, The 5 Royales. Cropper was the house guitarist of ...