Machete Joe (2010)

Apparently his time in Chickenfoot made Joe Satriani want to get back to where he once belonged, so he goes retro on 2010’s Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards. About as far away from the heavy-footed party rock of Chickenfoot as possible, Black Swans is pure guitar prog, filled with compressed boogies, sci-fi synths, exotic flourishes, and all of Satch’s phasers and flangers in full-tilt overdrive…

The 21st century saw Tony Joe White resume his recording and performing career, and experience a resurgence of critical interest in his older music as well. Since 2002, "the Swamp Fox" has recorded sporadically for his own Swamp imprint, and also had his back catalog remastered and reissued. Earlier in 2010, Rhino Handmade made available That On the Road Look, a previously unreleased live date. The Shine is a (mostly) low-key, basic affair. White wrote or co-wrote everything here with his wife, Leann. The band is a quintet: White plays guitars and harmonica with drummer Jack Bruno, cellist John Catchings, bassist George Hawkins, and Tyson Rogers on piano, organ, and Wurlitzer. The sound is warm and raw; the album feels like it was cut mostly live from the floor (with guitar and vocal overdubs added) and it's full of natural atmospherics. White's acoustic nylon-string guitar is prevalent, sometimes more so than his quavering, downright spooky baritone. His electric six-string work paints the backdrop.

Joe Hisaishi conducts Beethoven. Featuring Symphony No. 1 to 9 on five discs. Performed by the Future Orchestra Classics (Nagano Chamber Orchestra)

Listening to the the title track of Have Blues Will Travel that opens the second Alligator set by the no-jive, grit-and-gravy Texas blues duo of Smokin' Joe Kubek and Bnois King, one can't help but recall another Texas outfit that used to rock this hard, playing the roadhouse boogie loud and proud: ZZ Top. Kubek's wicked slide playing and King's wrangling, razored leads trade places; the locked-in rhythm section of bassist John Morris and drummer Adrian Marchie gives them some room to really wail. The comparison is not an idle compliment since ZZ Top haven't sounded like themselves since Deguello. This track alone is almost worth the price of the disc. There are other cuts here that hammer just as hard, too, however: "Out of Body, Out of Mind," "One Step at a Time," and the closer "What a Sight to See" carry the same raw, blistering blues and boogie torch…