Category Archives: Music

Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity’s A Kind of Love In: 1967-1971

Pianist Brian Auger heard the sound of the Hammond B-3 (as played by Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff) in 1964, and gave up a promising career in jazz for R&B and the sound of the organ. Guitarist John McLaughlin was … Continue reading

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Calexico at the Aladdin Theater

It was a night of sublime “desert noir” for the fans of Calexico at Portland’s Aladdin Theater. The seven members of this road-tested Tucson, Arizona-based combo seemed relaxed but energized as they performed nearly 20 songs old and new in a … Continue reading

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Eric Bibb’s Friends

When I was a young man, before I reached my advanced years, nobody was singing the blues except for Englishmen. The old blues singers were in their dotage, and the younger black musicians avoided the blues like the plague. Then … Continue reading

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The Animals’ Gratefully Dead 1964-1968

Eric Burdon has been in the news recently. As of early July 2004 he has a new CD and a new book, neither of which we will discuss today. He is on tour, somewhere, playing a variation on the blues-based … Continue reading

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Stian Carstensen’s Backwards Into the Backwoods

Stian Carstensen is a Norwegian multi-instrumentalist, the cracked genius behind the group Farmer’s Market, which combines Scandinavian folk, Balkan dance music and wild post-bop jazz into a heady and infectious brew. On Backwards Into the Backwoods, his latest project freed … Continue reading

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Rick Shea and Patty Booker’s Our Shangri-LA

Rick Shea and Patty Booker have both been fixtures on the southern California country and roots rock scenes since the 1980s. With Our Shangri-LA they’ve teamed up to produce a new album of classic California country. It’s a hard-core blend … Continue reading

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Various artists’ No Depression: What It Sounds Like (Vol. 1)

Compilation and tribute CDs are a dime a dozen these days, but if they’re done right, they can make good listening. Here’s a good example of a compilation in the country music category. No Depression magazine is the bi-monthly bible … Continue reading

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Various artists’ Just Because I’m a Woman: Songs of Dolly Parton

Tribute albums can fall into a couple of different traps: the artists either too closely ape the originals or they push them so far outside the envelope that they’re unrecognizable. Ideally, the performer paying tribute strikes a balance between the … Continue reading

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Oddjob’s Koyo and Peaux’s Peaux

Christopher White contributed this review. Amigo Musik is proving to be an excellent source for intriguing music from Northern Europe, principally Sweden. Let me refer you to two recent GMR reviews: Jeanette Lindström’s Walk and the self-titled disk by the … Continue reading

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Rolling Stones’ Forty Licks

Rolling Stones! What the heck are the Rolling Stones doing in Green Man Review!?!? Having tapped virtually every other place in the world for source material, have they finally created the album of Elizabethan folk music that “Lady Jane” hinted … Continue reading

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