Suddenly Southern

A direct descendant from the traveling bundled artist packages of the '60s right down to its retro "hatch show"-styled cover art, Tommy Castro and his band play host to a relatively diverse assortment of high-energy blues and soul acts. The concept originated on the yearly Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise where such musical collaborations are typical. Castro's concept was to take that concept on the road, resulting in this dozen-track live album cherrypicked from various tour stops. It's a rollicking, very plugged-in affair, perhaps not surprisingly geared toward some of Castro's current crop of Alligator labelmates such as Janiva Magness, guitarist Michael Burks, and ex-Little Charlie & the Nightcats frontman-gone-solo Rick Estrin…

The brilliant musician, composer, and guitar virtuoso Eric Johnson comes shining through with a record breathing with aura of romance, sweeping melodicisms, and breathtaking mystical quality. Venus Isle, released by Capitol records gave a genuine and much deserved positive boost to the popularity and image of Johnson. This is certainly is most enduring and captivating work since his grammy nominated gem, Cliffs of Dover. The songs are stringed together perfectly and spontaneously glide in and out of other, and the album as a whole sizzles with musical quality throughout…

While most bands undergo a number of changes over the course of their careers, few groups experienced such radical stylistic changes as Fleetwood Mac. Initially conceived as a hard-edged British blues combo in the late '60s, the band gradually evolved into a polished pop/rock act over the course of a decade…

Musicians play music. That's what they do. Unless they suddenly can't go out and perform for people because, say, there's a global pandemic that has almost entirely shut down live music. Life in a divided nation under the rule of Donald Trump was already weighing heavy on the minds of the Drive-By Truckers on 2016's American Band and 2020's The Unraveling, and being stuck at home and unable to tour, with little to do but watch their nation burn, hasn't made them feel any better. In many respects, 2020's The New OK is an album that came to be because the DBTs couldn't do much else.

Even before the first KuschelRock album, Kuschelrock was named as a weekly nightly music program for HR3 radio station (HR3 broadcasts from Frankfurt, Germany), the author and host of this project was Thomas Koschwitz, who is considered to be the co-author of a number of albums in Kazle … After Sony Music patented the right to release a series of albums called "KuschelRock", the HR3 radio station can no longer air this night music show … And now Sony Music regularly releases every year on the album …