Roxanne Howe Murphy

Throughout her storied career, composer and music activist Mary Howe elevated the status of women composers and the Washington DC music scene and gained notoriety for her orchestral works. Many of her pieces for smaller ensembles, however, remain unpublished. On BETWEEN US, premiere recordings of Howe’s duos at last see the light of day and showcase her knack for drawing out the melodic qualities and dynamic timbres of the piano, voice, and stringed instruments. The pieces transcend time, simultaneously pulling from the sensibility and formal structures of romanticism and 20th-century idioms, spanning and bridging the gaps that typically pigeonhole music into a specific milieu.

The cover's cutout silhouette of these guitar-slinging soul/blues women is a succinct visual overview of the rather ambiguous contents within. Recorded in preparation for 2007's Blues Caravan tour featuring journeywomen singer/songwriters Sue Foley and Deborah Coleman along with the comparatively fresh-faced Roxanne Potvin (whose first widely distributed set was released earlier the same year), the disc seems more like a respectable concert souvenir than an actual collaborative affair. The 11 tracks break down into three solo cuts from each participant, one shared and joyous effort on the closing cover of a Chess oldie, "In the Basement," and a crackling instrumental dominated by Foley's always impressive guitar. There are many fine moments here, especially as Coleman lays into an easy funk groove on James Brown's "Talking Loud" and on Potvin's emotionally charged ballad "Strong Enough to Hold You".

The bilingual multi-instrumentalist (guitar/piano) and vocalist will likely be lumped with fellow Canadian blues women such as Sue Foley (who was instrumental in bringing her to Ruf's attention), but on the basis of this sophomore release, that's misleading. Rather, the Ottawa raised musician infuses blues into a variety of singer/songwriter styles. The Way It Feels, which was released in Canada almost a year before it came out in the States, revels in different musical set pieces that display Roxanne Potvin's sultry voice and eclectic stylings. The guest roster of Daniel Lanois, John Hiatt, Bruce Cockburn and Memphis Horns veteran Wayne Jackson indicates that Potvin is comfortable in styles besides the blues and R&B that characterize, but doesn't monopolize, this album. Terrific, even revelatory covers of Joe Tex's "I Want To (Do Everything for You)" and Freddie King's "Your Love Keeps Working on Me" find Potvin immersed in the soul aspects of the blues, and her own compositions that dominate this set occasionally follow suit. The lovely solo piano ballad "Don't Pay Attention" is clearly aimed at the Norah Jones crowd, as is the waltz time, French-sung "La Merveille".

Not many bands can say they are releasing their third album thirty-five years after their debut, but not many bands have the history that California rockers Roxanne have. Originally formed in the late 80’s, Roxanne garnered commercial success with their 1988 self-titled debut album which was well received with two songs charting on rock radio; “Cherry Bay” and “Sweet Maria”, as well as a cover of Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music.” The band is back with their first album of new material in five years and second for Rat Pak Records. Stereo Typical features ten brand new songs from the quartet comprised of Jamie Brown (Vocals, Guitar), John Butler (Guitar), Joe Infante (Bass) and Dave Landry (Drums). The new album also features guest appearance from Paul Gilbert of Mr. Big, dUg Pinnick of King’s X and Jeff Scott Soto. Stereo Typical is scheduled for release worldwide on February 24th.

File under "Yes." When this version of the band couldn't obtain rights to the name, they put their album out under their combined names, but it's still Yes by any other name. Jon Anderson's tenor wails through spacy lyrics, Rick Wakeman constructs cathedrals of synthesized sound, Steve Howe rips high-pitched guitar leads, and Bill Bruford makes his drums sound like timpani. For all that, it's a pedestrian effort for these veterans, not as bombastic as some of their stuff, not as inspired as others, but it definitely has the "Yes" sound. "She Gives Me Love" even refers to "Long Distance Runaround."