Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, The Gordian Knot

HENRY PURCELL'S chamber opera, "Dido and Aeneas," is plentifully represented on disk, but Nicholas McGegan's new recording, with the Philharmonia Baroque and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge is the freshest and most compelling since Andrew Parrott's magnificent account of 1981 (on Chandos). Mr. McGegan's soloists – Lorraine Hunt as Dido, Lisa Saffer as Belinda and Michael Dean as Aeneas – work wonders with the concise characterizations provided by Purcell and his librettist, Nahum Tate.

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band are actually a trio – the Reverend Josh Peyton on primitive slide guitar, harmonica, and vocals; his wife, Breezy Peyton, on washboard and backing vocals; and Aaron "Cuz" Persinger on percussion (often buckets and trash cans) and background vocals – but the sound is big indeed, a boozy, uncontained noise in which jug band, country, blues, and down-home boogie tumble around in a joyous, uplifting cacophony……

Having amassed 20 Grammy nominations, four statues and three Emmy wins, Gordon Goodwin is the most decorated big band leader in the 21st century. After all six of his Big Phat Band albums have garnered Grammy nominations or wins, he’s not elusive about why he trimmed his large 18-piece ensemble for an outing as the 8-member Little Phat Band, which will release their debut album, An Elusive Man, on September 9 via the Music of Content label.

While they're only a trio, the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band deliver a sound that lives up to their name, with thick, bass-heavy, blues-based guitar figures accompanied by muscular but minimal drumming and the metallic percussive scratch of a washboard (making them one of the first rock bands to regularly feature the latter instrument since Black Oak Arkansas).
The group was formed by guitarist and singer Josh "Reverend" Peyton, who was born and raised in Indiana, and first exposed to music through his father's record collection, which was heavy on Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan - all artists with their own take on the blues…