I have never listened to a mix CD like this one. 4Hero ...Mixing contains a blend of all sorts of different musical styles and genres, which I thought was an interesting concept, but beyond that, the music on the CD did not really hold my attention. The first song, Beat...

The members of A Coastline Ending describe themselves as taking things way too far, and this tendency manifests itself on their album in both positive and negative ways. Their first song does a great job of combining a catchy melody with both insightful and appealing lyrics, making first-time listeners want...

Aaron Tippin is okay in my book. He has the look and exhibits the attitude of the type of guy you would find in a Mississippi blind pig on a Saturday night: you’d want him watching your back if a fight broke out, but you wouldn’t want him to catch...

Some interesting music comes out of the Bay area. Take Alex Statan, who has just released GO BIG OR GO HOME, a five song EP recorded with the primary help of Gawain Mathews, a multi-instrumentalist producer. Statan contributes vocals, as well as composing the tunes (with a co-writing credit on...

I was blessed with a childhood in a city and a time --- Columbus, Ohio in the 1950s and 1960s --- when radio formats were not as regimented as they are now. One could turn on WTVN or WCOL (that’s AM; FM was classical and spoken word, as opposed to...

Belief/Beneath the Shining Water reminded me of church music.  I am not saying this as an insult, implying that it is stodgy or boring, it was just very calming and peaceful.  The lyrics and instrumentals blend well together, and Darren Wharton is not only a talented singer, but sounds sincere...

The first photograph I saw of Elvin Bishop was on the cover of the debut LP of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. I still have it, even though I wore through the record, as well as the cassette, long ago. I loaded the CD onto my Ipod a few weeks...

George Jones is the archetypal country singer. He recorded “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” a song and recording which stand inarguably as the Rosetta Stone of country music. The term “living legend” could have been coined exclusively for Jones. Famous for his, uh, alcoholic moments --- he famously drove his...

I have a problem, occasionally with bands who play electronica-based music such as Kraftwerk and The Human League: how do you define who does what, especially when you have two or more keyboardists or whatever you would call them in the mix? Such a problem does not exist for Mystery...

The youngest of four children, Paul Geng was raised by two deaf parents, but the fact that all either of them could feel from his music was the vibration the sound caused did not deter him from pursuing his dream of being a musician. He always wanted to write and...