Kudos to Mobile Fidelity for this extraordinary release of Marvin Gaye’s 1971 masterpiece, What’s Going On. A major artistic step, this brilliant psychedelic-soul song-cycle’s themes of social and economic injustice, the horrors of war, displaced ...

It’s hard not to feel a little conflicted about aging in tandem with a musical hero. But Wilco founder Jeff Tweedy, now nearly a rock elder statesperson, aims to soothe his longtime listeners into bittersweet ...

Exploring the themes of unity, inclusiveness, and social justice from a spiritual perspective, Eric Bibb delivers a double-disc masterpiece in Global Griot, an album ideally suited to the temper of progressive times, or “challenging times,” ...

Father John Misty is the alter ego of Josh Tillman, who played drums for the Fleet Foxes before becoming a popular indy rock singer-songwriter. His studio albums favor a soundscape so lush and dreamy that ...

The best, most affecting singers tend to meet us at the intersection of Nuance and Intimacy Street, a corner the folk-leaning vocalist Meiko has clearly made her home. For this tight-knit collection of an even-dozen ...

With his baritone voice, haunting melodies, brooding stage presence, and dark lyrics, Peter Murphy was tailor made to perform goth rock, a musical style he helped usher in while a member of Bauhaus. Peter Murphy—5 ...

The 1970 release of the James Gang Rides Again helped define 70s rock and served as a calling card for guitarist Joe Walsh, who went on to greater fame as a solo artist and member ...

Chicago blues guitarist and vocalist Buddy Guy honed his chops during the 1960s as house guitarist for the legendary Chess Records. The electric blue pioneer’s blistering chops have influenced everyone from Eric Clapton and Jimi ...

When music labels search for unreleased tapes connected with memorable albums, the results can be less than scintillating: an inferior take here, a poorly-recorded demo there, perhaps some performances that should have stayed on the ...

Jacintha’s first album in ten years, Fire and Rain pays homage to James Taylor. As everyone familiar with the Singapore-based singer knows, she can really put over a song, especially in the torch, blues, and ...

Thanks in large part to rock guitarists such as Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, by the late 60s a new and wider appreciation emerged for the previous generation of black American blues musicians. Prominent among ...

Singer, songwriter, and skilled guitarist Doug MacLeod has won four Blues Music Awards, including 2017’s Acoustic Artist of the Year. As a singer and guitarist, this New York native is a cross between John Hammond ...

The variety in Holly’s first two albums reveal why he’s an icon of American popular music. There’s no self-pity or pathos in his voice, just an unmistakable clear tone and that wild hiccup. Almost every ...

Even Linda Ronstadt fans dating back to the Stone Poneys could not have seen Heart Like a Wheel coming. The X factor in this 1974 multi-Grammy-nominated effort was Peter Asher, herein announcing himself a producer-arranger ...

Very much a meditative, singer-songwriter affair, Thank You for Listening finds Chris Thile offering bromides to a society roiled by political, social media, and cultural upheavals in 2017. Playing almost all the stringed instruments himself—with ...