WILLY DeVILLE [2008] Pistola

Tracklist ...
01. So So Real (4:16)
02. Been There Done That (4:09)
03. When I Get Home (3:22)
04. Louise (3:54)
05. The Band Played On (4:43)
06. You Got The World In Your Hands (4:05)
07. I Remember The First Time (4:09)
08. Stars That Speak (5:19)
09. I'm Gonna Do Something The Devil Never Did (5:46)
10. The Mountains Of Manhattan (3:42)
NOTE
was voted "2000's Album of the Month" - March 2009

COLIN BLUNSTONE [2009] The Ghost Of You And Me

Tracklist ...
01. The Ghost Of You And Me (4:00)
02. Follow (3:34)
03. Dance With Life (5:45)
04. Second Avenue (3:57)
05. Beginning: Let's Keep The Curtains Closed Today (6:45)
06. Any Other Way (2:38)
07. Now I Know I'll Never Get Over You (3:14)
08. Feels Like Rain (3:06)
09. Love Left A Long Time Ago (3:10)
10. The Sun Will Rise Again (3:48)

CYNDI LAUPER [2005] The Body Acoustic

Tracklist ...
01. Money Changes Everything (5:15) / adam lazzara
02. All Through The Night (4:40) / shaggy
03. Time After Time (4:17) / sarah mclachlan
04. She Bop (4:17)
05. Above The Clouds (3:57) / jeff beck
06. I'll Be You River (4:47) / vivian green
07. Sisters Of Avalon (5:27) / ani difranco & vivian green
08. Shine (3:32)
09. True Colors (4:10)
10. Water's Edge (4;49) / sarah mclachlan
11. Fearless (4:08)
12. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (3:01) / puffy ami yumi

Review
Cyndi Lauper looks back at her hits on The Body Acoustic, with a number of guests including Adam Lazzara, Shaggy, Sarah McLachlan, Vivian Green, Ani DiFranco, and Jeff Beck. Conceptually, this looks like a disaster. Alanis Morissette did it as well and the results were mixed at best. But Lauper has always possessed a talent that goes beyond the material she has sung — and she can sing anything. The album is produced by Lauper with Rick Chertoff and William Wittman — who recorded and mixed the disc. Lauper's band is a wide and varied assortment that includes contemporary jazz bassist Mark Egan. "Money Changes Everything," with Lazzara, is a down-home calypso and country ramble. "All Through the Night," with Shaggy, begins as an Appalachian folk tune until Shaggy begins toasting and Lauper shifts it into ballad gear. It's a conflicting set of styles that's held together in the genuine ache of her voice. "Time After Time" would be a beautiful song in anybody's hands. Here, with McLachlan, she goes down into the tune's lyrics and abandons the drama of the original for the intimacy of its words. The human heart becomes the interlocutor of memory and loss. Lauper and McLachlan trade verses as 12-strings, muted drums, and space define the place where lost love becomes the center of the question of devotion across time and space. "She Bop" is almost a blues song, and as a result it reveals deep eroticism as the pleasures and sweet release of masturbation fall from the singer's voice like raw honey. And so it goes with "Above the Clouds," as Beck's trademark biting tone is juxtaposed against piano and space. This is a ballad that actually hurts. Its drama is realized in Lauper's phrasing and Beck's playing bites harder accentuating it — relaxed, slow, and deeply emotive. "Sisters of Avalon" features soul chanteuse Green and DiFranco. It's funky as hell. Deep roiling bass pops and drones with acoustic guitars, fiddles, and a dulcimer moving through and around it. The drums fall just behind the beat as the singer goes for the crack in the lyrical spine of the track. The chorus-like refrain punches up its drama. Green takes her verse before an instrumental slide guitar interlude, and her wailing voice makes it among the album's best. Lauper sings without friends on a number of cuts as well, such as the beautiful "Colors" and the stunning "Fearless". This may be a slanted look at a greatest-hits package, but it comes off as an entirely new album full of adventure, grit, polish, and soul. -- AllMusic

REGINA SPEKTOR [2006] Begin To Hope

Tracklist ...
01. Fidelity (3:47)
02. Better (3:22)
03. Samson (3:11)
04. On The Radio (3:22)
05. Field Below (5:18)
06. Hotel Song (3:29)
07. Après Moi (5:08)
08. 20 Years Of Snow (3:31)
09. That Time (2:39)
10. Edit (4:53)
11. Lady (4:45)
12. Summer In The City (3:50)

Review
On Begin to Hope, Regina Spektor treads a delicate balance between her anti-folk past and her present home on Sire Records. Though the label re-released Soviet Kitsch in 2004, Begin to Hope is Spektor's first original material for Sire, and it feels more like a major-label debut than Soviet Kitsch ever did. The album's big, glossy production and preponderance of drum machines and keyboards inches Spektor toward territory that isn't exactly mainstream, but is closer to a more conventional adult alternative singer/songwriter sound. Her songwriting mirrors this, too: "Field Below," which finds her wishing for the countryside while living in the city, has a mellow, appealingly rambling vibe that grows from the traditional singer/songwriter roots of Joni and Carole; "Better" takes the breathy, literate, pretty side of Spektor's music and tailors it into a radio-friendly single. "On the Radio" takes it a step further and becomes a smart, funny, and sad meta-single, with lyrics like "We listened to it twice/Because the DJ was asleep" backed by poppy synths and beats. But even though Begin to Hope's first few songs might suggest otherwise, Spektor is much too freewheeling and quirky a talent to stick to the straight and narrow for the entirety. Show tunes, classic soul, the Bible, and the backs of cereal boxes are all inspirations for the album. And whether she quotes the melody from Doris Payne's "Just One Look" and pairs it with lyrics about orca whales on "Hotel Song," or begins the lovely, confessional closing track, "Summer in the City," with the line "summer in the city means cleavage," Spektor uses them in unexpected ways. She also places some truly surreal, heady tracks toward Begin to Hope's end: "Lady" is a torchy number arranged for piano, saxophone, and typewriter, while "20 Years of Snow" is buoyed along by impressionistic keyboards that twinkle and tumble like a just-shaken snow globe. "Apres Moi," one of the album's most impressive tracks, showcases her classical piano training, her Russian heritage, and those biblical influences to ominous, paranoid effect. Leaving the more unique, quintessentially Regina Spektor-esque tracks at the end of Begin to Hope isn't so much a bait-and-switch as is a clever way to lure in and loosen the inhibitions of new fans. The album feels like getting to really know someone: at first, it's polite and a little restrained, but then its real personality, with all of its charming idiosyncrasies, finally reveals itself. -- AllMusic

NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS [2003] Polaris

Tracklist ...
01. Eyes (4:05)
02. Meet Me In The City (4:07)
03. Conan (4:04)
04. All Along (2:44)
05. Otay (2:57)
06. Kids These Daze (2:58)
07. One To Grow On (4:44)
08. Never In All My Days (2:52)
09. Bad Bad Pain (2:43)
10. Polaris (3:22)
11. Time For The Sun To Rise (4:17)
12. Be So Glad (6:10)

Review
North Mississippi Allstars return with Polaris, their most ambitious album yet. They added Duwayne Burnside on guitar and vocals, and brought an even more eclectic group of songs to the table. Starting with the soulful rocker "Eyes," they slide right into a fabulous version of Junior Kimbrough's "Meet Me in the City." "Conan" starts with nice fingerpicked acoustic guitars before moving into and out of a country boogie before the guitar solo. Luther Dickinson's meaty slide is featured on all over the place, often recalling Duane Allman. Pegged as roots rockers and loosely identified with the jam-band scene, North Mississippi Allstars might surprise some people with tunes like "Otay" and "Time for the Sun to Rise," which are extremely well-produced pure pop tunes. The Dickinson brothers have done a great job with production all the way around: crisp and clean without sounding glossy, and a rich, warm tone throughout. The band seems equally at ease doing greasy country blues or bright shiny pop, making it all seem effortless (or like on "Be So Glad" where 95-year-old Othar Turner's fife mixes with drum machines and Cody Burnside's rapping, bridging three generations and at least two styles of music). Things end with a hidden track called "Goin Home," an up-tempo instrumental that recalls the best elements of the Allman Brothers Band. With Polaris, North Mississippi Allstars have turned in their best set yet, showing that they're at the vanguard of a new Southern rock. -- AllMusic

J.J. CALE [2009] Roll On

Tracklist ...
01. Who Knew (3:30)
02. Former Me (2:48)
03. Where The Sun Don't Shine (3:07)
04. Down To Memphis (3:05)
05. Strange Days (3:11)
06. Cherry Street (3:44)
07. Fonda-Lina (3:21)
08. Leaving In The Morning (2:37)
09. Oh Mary (3:34)
10. Old Friend (3:56)
11. Roll On (4:43)
12. Bring Down The Curtain (2:54)

Review
While songwriter J.J. Cale has established himself as an elusive and even reluctant legend in popular music with his sporadic string of releases over the last 38 years, he's never drastically changed his approach. Cale is a workmanlike songwriter whose roots in blues, Okie folk, and roots rock music have been informing his tales of travel, nocturnal pleasure, and everyday life all the while. Even the acclaimed but spaced out Travel Log (which was Cale's equivalent to Neil Young's Trans) never managed to root his sound that far afield from its wellspring. 2009's Roll On, is more strange, laid-back grooves and road-weary tales of quark strangeness and charm from an inveterate master. Where the erratic but acclaimed Road to Escondido with Eric Clapton reeked of laziness and kitsch, Roll On is steeped deep in slow boogie, slower jump jazz, swampy blues, and minor-key laid-back guitar workouts. Cale not only plays guitar and sings here, but on almost all of these cuts he does double and triple duty on drums, bass, and even Rhodes piano! His guests — including Dave Teegarden and Jim Keltner on drums on a track each, and Clapton on one number — only appear on four of these dozen tracks. Check, "Who Knew?," the jazzy shuffle that opens the set. Cale plays everything but the drum kit (Teegarden), and lays down a smoking set of Wes Montgomery-esque chords as well as some funky Rhodes. His syncopated vocals all slip right down the backbone of the blues with lyrics worthy of Louis Jordan. "Where the Sun Don't Shine" commences with some spooky synth loops (that could have come from Travel Log), and beefy guitars, with a rudimentary snare and hi-hat keeping the I-IV-V progression moving and popping. The guitars are pure Cale choogle and the bassline is just off enough from the main rhythmic progression to add a freaky twist. Other standouts include the acoustic electric boogie "Strange Days," with some mutant five-string banjo and mandolin work from the artist; the triple-time, space groove of "Fonda-Lina" that feels like it was taken from a B-movie soundtrack during a motel lounge scene, and the popping roots rock of the title track with Slowhand and Keltner. This is a set that proves that Cale is still a vital artist who has a few interesting tricks up his sleeve, even if he doesn't change his attack all that much. Hell, he doesn't need to, he's got weight, sleight of hand, and the Okie soul in every cell of his being, and it all comes out in the tunes. This one is solid from top to bottom. -- AllMusic

LITTLE FEAT [2000] Chinese Work Songs

Tracklist ...
01. Rag Mama Rag (4:38)
02. Eula (4:26)
03. Bed Of Roses (4:48)
04. Sample In A Jar (4:54)
05. Just Another Sunday (7:52)
06. Gimme A Stone (5:06)
07. Rio Esperanza (4:54)
08. Tattoo Heart (6:55)
09. Marginal Creatures (5:16)
10. Chinese Work Songs (6:27)
11. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry (6:07)

Review
Some fans of Little Feat's classic 1970s recordings argue that the band should have lost the right to use that name when Lowell George died in 1979; as they see it, the band heard on 2000's Chinese Work Songs isn't really Little Feat. If this band can get away with calling itself Little Feat, the argument goes, why shouldn't Bob Weir assemble a band without the late Jerry Garcia and call it the Grateful Dead? You have no doubt heard those arguments, and while it's true that Little Feat recorded its best work in the 1970s, the lineup heard on Chinese Work Songs isn't half bad. In its 2000 incarnation, Little Feat's lineup ranges from 1970s members Bill Payne (keyboards), Richie Hayward (drums), Paul Barrere (guitar), Kenny Gradney (bass), and Sam Clayton (percussion) to more recent additions like guitarist Fred Tackett and female singer Shaun Murphy. The addition of Murphy in the 1990s proved to be a plus for the band, and her whiskey-voiced, Bonnie Raitt-influenced belting is a definite asset on this CD. Chinese Work Songs isn't in a class with 1973's Dixie Chicken or 1974's Feats Don't Fail Me Now, but it's a decent, if uneven, outing, and the 2000 lineup is faithful to the band's roots rock-Southern rock history on original material as well as covers of Bob Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," the Band's "Rag Mama Rag," the Hooters' "Gimme a Stone," and Phish's "Sample in a Jar." Although not essential and not recommended to casual listeners — who would be better off with a collection of Little Feat's 1970s recordings for Warner Brothers — diehard Feat fans will find that Chinese Work Songs, despite its imperfections, is enjoyable more often than not. -- AllMusic

CHRIS ISAAK [2009] Mr. Lucky

Tracklist ...
01. Cheater's Town (3:37)
02. We Let Her Down (3:21)
03. You Don't Cry Like I Do (4:11)
04. We've Got Tomorrow (2:22)
05. Breaking Apart (3:39) / trisha yearwood
06. Baby Baby (3:15)
07. Mr. Lonely Man (2:41)
08. I Lose My Heart (2:57) / michelle branch
09. Summer Holiday (3:06)
10. Best I Ever Had (4:11)
11. We Lost Our Way (3:38)
12. Very Pretty Girl (4:20)
13. Take My Heart (2:23)
14. Big Wide Wonderful World (4:05)
BONUS TRACKS
15. I Got It Bad (4:21)
16. Dream Deferred (3:03)

Review
Mr. Lucky is the first album Chris Isaak has released in seven years but it's hard to call it a comeback: it's been so long since Isaak had something approaching a crossover hit that it's hard to say that he's been away, that he has something to come back from — he just appears every few years, such as in March of 2009, when Mr. Lucky appeared as part of a coordinated multimedia attack. In addition to this new album, Isaak has a new talk show on A&E — like Elvis Costello's Spectacle but on basic cable — and Mr. Lucky isn't strictly a soundtrack for the show, but it's fair to say that the show gives Mr. Lucky a larger potential audience than any Isaak album in a long time, probably since the last time he had a television show in the early-2000s sitcom The Chris Isaak Show. Given this bigger platform, it makes perfect sense that Mr. Lucky feels carefully considered: from its production to its construction, it's a deliberate attempt to modernize Isaak's retro obsessions without abandoning them. Usually, this modernization surfaces in echoey atmospherics partway between U2 and Coldplay, textures that suit his melodramatic Roy Orbison tributes. Mr. Lucky works because Isaak and crew don't overplay their hand — he's never swallowed in waves of digital delay, the way Roy himself was on his swan song, Mystery Girl — but tweak subtly, then alternate these coolly romantic mood pieces with swinging rockabilly, sly low-key grooves, duets with Trisha Yearwood and Michelle Branch, breezy pop that harks back to a time prior to the British Invasion, and a big, glitzy Vegas number to close the whole show. As a sensibility, it's no different than anything Isaak's done, so the difference is the execution, not just in the light, fresh touch of the production but the songs, which are his strongest in a long time — and that's good enough to please his longtime fans as well as anybody whose interest might be piqued by the new show. -- All Music

KEVIN BLOODY WILSON [2002] Let Loose: Live In The Outback

Tracklist ...
01. She's The Sorta Sheila (3:20)
02. P.C. Free Zone (0:37)
03. The Local (2:42)
04. Outback Education (4:21)
05. Banjo Country (1:43)
06. She's A Good'n' (3:28)
07. Grandad's Got A Bone (4:24)
08. The Apprentice (2:53)
09. Fuckin' Ferals (3:16)
10. Take It Like A Man (3:58)
11. D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F. (2:11)
12. Pussy Tricks (3:26)
13. Nigel - Fuckin' Legend: Decompositions (8:11)
14. Missing You (3:08)
15. Kev's Courtin' Song (3:12)
16. You Can't Say Cunt In Canada (2:56)
17. Australian Anthems (1:34)
18. The Browneye Medley (4:35)
BONUS TRACKS
19. My Grandfather's Cock (2:48) live in london
20. Absolute Cunt Of A Day (3:44) live in nashville

WILLIE NELSON, MERLE HAGGARD & RAY PRICE [2007] Last Of The Breed

Tracklist ...
"VOLUME I"
01. My Life's Been A Pleasure (3:03)
02. My Mary (3:14)
03. Back To Earth (3:25)
04. Heartaches By The Number (3:04) / vince gill
05. Mom And Dad's Waltz (3:27)
06. Some Other World (3:26)
07. Why Me (3:44)
08. Lost Highway (2:54)
09. I Love You A Thousand Ways (2:57)
10. Please Don't Leave Me Any More Darlin' (3:34)
11. I Gotta Have My Baby Back (3:13)
"VOLUME II'
12. Goin' Away Party (3:25)
13. If I Ever Get Lucky (4:12)
14. Sweet Memories (3:24)
15. Pick Me Up On Your Way Down (3:16)
16. I Love You Because (3:04)
17. Sweet Jesus (3:38)
18. Still Water Runs The Deepest (2:40)
19. I Love You So Much It Hurts (3:10)
20. That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine (3:26)
21. I'll Keep On Loving You (3:05)
22. Night Watch (2:48)

Review
The title Last of the Breed speaks with a defiance that, for the most part, the music on this album does not, and that's just as it should be — while Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price are indeed among the last functioning practitioners of pure, unadulterated Western swing, honky tonk, or countrypolitan blues in the classic manner, on this album they seem less concerned with fighting the changing face of country music than with playing this music with the easy confidence and quiet conviction that's been the hallmark of their respective careers. For the most part, Last of the Breed finds these three friends and occasional collaborators working through a set of old-school country classics (Haggard is the only member of the trio to bring any original material to the sessions, and delivers one of the album's best performances on his new song "If I Ever Get Lucky"), and they treat chestnuts like "Heartaches by the Number," "I Love You Because," "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine," and "Pick Me Up on Your Way Down" with both strength and familiarity — these guys could probably sing these numbers in their sleep after all these years, but they also approach them like pros, realizing these old standards gained their status as classics because they endure and people love them, and they give them the respect and care that they deserve. Haggard is in fine voice on this set, and Nelson sounds good though his phrasing occasionally lags behind the melodies a shade more than is comfortable. As for Price, time has added a slight wobble to his instrument, once one of the most impressive in country music, but he still projects a dignity and commendable emotional warmth, and when he joins voices with his pals Willie and Merle, it's a stirring reminder of just how much these artists still have to offer. Legendary producer Fred Foster supervised these sessions, with a band of seasoned Nashville veterans backing the singers (and the Jordanaires adding harmonies on several numbers), and at its best Last of the Breed really sounds the way these things did in the old days, and Nelson, Haggard, and Price achieve something more than nostalgia — they offer a stirring reminder of the strength of this music when country music spoke to something deeper than just a marketing demographic. -- AllMusic

TOM RUSSELL [2006] Love & Fear

Tracklist ...
01. The Pugilist At 59 (4:29)
02. Beautiful Trouble (6:52)
03. Stealing Electricity (3:07)
04. The Sound Of One Heart Breaking (3:33)
05. Ash Wednesday (3:38)
06. K.C. Violin (3:38)
07. Four Chambered Heart (5:28)
08. Stolen Children (4:20)
09. It Goes Away (3:34)
10. All The Fine Young Ladies (4:10)
11. Old Heart (3:48)

GRETCHEN PETERS [2007] Burnt Toast & Offerings

Tracklist ...
01. Ghost (4:19)
02. Sunday Morning (Up & Down My Street) (4:10)
03. Summer People (3:55)
04. Jezebel (3:58)
05. Thirsty (3:43)
06. England Blues (3:08)
07. The Lady Of The House (4:33)
08. One For My Baby (4:39)
09. The Way You Move Me (4:12)
10. This Town (3:11)
11. Breakfast At Our House (6:27)
12. To Say Goodbye (5:18)

FRANKIE MILLER [2006] Long Way Home

Tracklist ...
01. Guilty Of The Crime (3:24)
02. Win, Lose Or Draw (3:06)
03. You Always Saw The Blue Skies (3:52)
04. Lovin's Too Easy (5:07)
05. He'll Have To Go (5:33)
06. You're The Star (4:43)
07. Over The Line (3:13)
08. The Rose (3:03)
09. Baton Rouge (3:25)
10. Lies Tell The Best Truth Of All (2:55)
11. It's A Long Way Home (6:17)

BOZ SCAGGS [2003] But Beautiful (Standards: Volume I)

Tracklist ...
01. What's New? (4:34)
02. Never Let Me Go (5:10)
03. How Long Has This Been Going On? (6:11)
04. Sophisticated Lady (5:18)
05. But Beautiful (5:40)
06. Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered (3:33)
07. Easy Living (4:17)
08. I Should Care (5:29)
09. You Don't Know What Love Is (5:50)
10. For All We Know (5:30)

MARK KNOPFLER [2005] The Trawlerman's Song EP

Tracklist ...
01. The Trawlerman's Song (5:02)
02. Back To Tupelo (4:32)
03. Song For Sonny Liston (5:30)
04. Boom, Like That (4:35)
05. Donegan's Gone (2:59)
06. Stand Up Guy (4:30)
NOTE
Tracks 1-5: Live from Shangri La Studios

DE STAAT [2009] Wait For Evolution

Tracklist ...
01. Sleep Tight (4:06)
02. The Fantastic Journey Of The Underground Man (3:25)
03. I Am Here To Lose Control (5:21)
04. Wait For Evolution (3:30)
05. Habibi (3:15)
06. We're Gonna Die (3:58)
07. My Blind Baby (5:14)
08. Kill The Man (4:13)
09. Meet The Devil (6:21)
10. You'll Be The Leader (3:00)
11. Taste It (2:27)
12. Love It (3:29)