With the absence of a bluegrass history in my music listening repertoire, I did recognize Ms. Alison Brown’s name as a well established and talented musician in her genre. Stemming from an early career with Alison Krauss, Alison Brown has branched out in developing her own form of jazz –infused...

I love Andrew Bird. I have since I heard Fake Palindromes last summer. Since discovering the handsome gentleman from Illinois, I’ve learned three things: 1. There’s a reason he’s a professional whistler; this man has the cleanest whistle I’ve ever heard! 2. The violin rocks. 3. Andrew Bird is not...

After garnering tons of attention from critics and radio listeners alike, Ben Folds decided to reform Ben Folds Five around his own name and call his act solo. Ben Folds Five was a great band in its own right, but being a solo act required Ben to seriously focus on...

So who would have thought of Arkansas as a hotbed of grunge? Black Suit Karma’s debut CD NEGATIVE WHITE is Exhibit ’A’ for that proposition, a quartet of large (actually, three are large; one appears to be hulking) individuals with the requisite tattoos and ’tude, and yes, songs...

The music of Bobbie Gentry at first blush would seem to be an odd choice for the Raven treatment of two album releases reissued on one CD. Indeed; Gentry released several albums over the course of her career but, notwithstanding the quality of what she did, she was essentially a...

Carlon, the name says it all. Never heard it before? Neither had I, but isn’t that what we are looking for, something new? Something new it is, Johari Window has broken every cliché of the indie band scene. Carlon pulls from artists like Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon, and My...

To say that THE HAPPINESS PROJECT by Charles Spearin is unlike anything you have heard before would be only partially inaccurate. Brian Eno and David Byrne laid at least the foundation for what occurs here on the original MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS project, as did, uh, Simon...

As one might expect from the title (and for that matter, the name of the band), FIND ME A DRINK HOME by Cheap Girls (love that band name) is not without its wry humor. It does not, however, sacrifice basic songwriting principles to deliver a punch line. A Lansing Michigan...

Hailing from Toronto, Canada, Circle Research includes DJ's Astro & Nik T, who make sure to introduce themselves right off the bat on their 2008 album, Who?, immediately taking credit for their beat-making skills shown off throughout the album. For 38 minutes, Astro & Nik T experiment with different genres,...

It is not an uncommon thing for a musician or a band to fly over the Atlantic and try to make it big traversing Europe. Even Jimmie Hendrix had to fly from Seattle to England doing backup studio work just to get noticed. This time around, it’s a reversal role...