This is easily Rosnes’ finest recorded achievement and raises the stakes for any who come after her and attempt to do the same thing. The album is a crystalline wonder of tight writing, exceptional playing, and painstaking attention to harmonic detail; it is a tapestry so varied and multidimensional in both conception and execution that it stands in a class by itself.
The Felice Brothers had a banner year in 2008, ditching their gig as New York City street performers in favor of a record contract, increased distribution, and international tour dates. Released just 13 months after the self-titled Felice Brothers – an album that served as the band's de facto introduction to the world at large – Yonder Is the Clock offers another confident, rustic batch of northeastern Americana…
This is a comprehensive collection with countless pivotal sessions. It features 203 separate recordings on seven CDs and collects both the sessions led by Chu Berry and other sessions where he contributed significantly as a sideman. You can study his remarkable surefootedness as a soloist; remember an era where evolution in the music was running rampant and Chu Berry's tenor saxophone was one of the things making it run.
Ry Cooder is not frequently considered a prolific recording artist, yet he has amassed a sizeable catalog of original albums and film scores over the decades. He has also participated in some truly and even historic projects from the 1960s on, including the Rising Sons with Taj Mahal, the Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band, Little Village, and the Buena Vista Social Club. Likewise, many of his collaborative dates are regarded as particularly noteworthy, especially his albums with Ali Farka Touré, V.M. Bhatt, Manuel Galban, and the Chieftains. This box collects in encyclopedic fashion Cooder's solo records for Warner beginning with his self-titled debut album and continues through his final album for the label proper, the brief yet classic Get Rhythm.
The cover of the new CD from The Grascals shows the six bandmates around a table holding seven coffee mugs. It’s almost as if they’re waiting for you to join them. You can call it truth in advertising. Before Breakfast is a very welcoming – and fun – collection from one of the most consistent bands on the bluegrass circuit. If you don’t feel invited to the table after listening to these songs, trust me, it’s not them, it’s you.