Dave Austin & The Sound will make a mark on Boston music scene with Revival album
Hub Band Dave Austin & The Sound is one of those bands that could become a big name act in greater-Boston, if they’re noticed and accepted by the right people. The right people are those who would like this fusion of classic rock and neo-hippie funk rock. So, you fans of classic rock and neo-hippie funk rock, and you know who you are, read up, then listen up. This band’s Revival album is actually good for you. Good for your health, good for your soul. Dig it.
Amy Kucharik masters early 20th century music idioms on her marvelous Cunning Folk album
Amy Kucharik’s debut full length CD Cunning Folk is delightful beyond what the word delightful could ever define. Listening to Cunning Folk makes one feel he’s just woken up inside the world of Jay Gatsby in the swinging 1920s. Kucharik has mastered the idioms and nuances of early American music so well that she completely immerses her listener in a lovelier, simpler time in history.
Girls Guns & Glory show the proper respect on fun filled tribute to Hank Williams
A killer album is a killer album no matter when and where it was recorded or who wrote the material recorded for it. Girls Guns & Glory latest CD is a live recording of a tribute show to Hank Williams, titled, simply enough, A Tribute To Hank Williams Live!
Bruce Mattson offers much gumbo fun on Crescent City Swagger CD
Bruce Mattson’s new, mostly instrumental, Crescent City Swagger CD is a fantastic gumbo mix of blues, stride, and Louisiana flavored music. Mattson and his band mates play a huge, polished sound on this album, and it’s very entertaining from beginning to end. Mattson’s piano work adds authentic New Orleans colors and tones to many things on this album, and that keeps it sounding different from anybody else in the local scene indulges in. He’s also a hell of a Hammond B3 organ player.
Joanne Lurgio scores big on Rise From The Storm CD
Joanne Lurgio’s third album Rise From The Storm is a fully realized collection of songs focused on recovery and survival. Every number focuses on loss, struggle, and spiritual injury. Never maudlin, Lurgio presents each one as a story of hope, as there is almost always a way to change course, even if the only course is acceptance. Wrapping her singer-songwriter themes with flinty, gritty, emotive roots style instrumentation, she presents these nuggets as something wholly organic and earthy.
Jon Chi reaches great singer-songwriter heights on rockin’ roots album Another Rising Sun
Jon Chi’s latest album Another Rising Sun is sure to bring him ever greater recognition in his two fan bases. An artist who divides his time between Boston and Milwaukee, Chi’s Berklee education and his flinty life experience in a mill town make him an artist that many can relate to. He also has a lot to draw from in his musical palette, using it to create painterly stories from his well spring of encounters with interesting characters, including a childhood bully who grew up to be a convicted killer.
Anne Stott masters the musical quirk on Love Never Dies
Anne Stott’s third album Love Never Dies percolates with thick, irresistible grooves and sly rhythms. Stott’s voice is so strong that she raises each of her personal reflections into anthems, declarations, statements that her backing players punctuate with hefty slabs of bass and drums and incisive melodic lines from guitar and keyboards. At times, this Provincetown singer casually slides into a down tempo whispery piece of prettiness. Yet, her voice and her message remain as powerful as they come across in her more driving numbers. She also takes some different twists and turns in her song crafting, moving in directions refreshingly unpredictable.
Rob Lytle offers a lot of warmth and honesty on stand out CD A Hypocrite Of Heart And Hope
Rob Lytle has released another album of charming, winsome singer-songwriter material. His new disc, A Hypocrite Of Heart And Hope, travels many personal paths. One cannot help but fall in love with Lytle’s witty, heartfelt reflections on all that has befallen him in his past. He sings these wistful memory songs, down on his luck stories, and failed relationship songs with gentlemanly aplomb and easy going country music influences. These songs gain most of their quality from the palpable personality Lytle injects into each one.
Carolyn Walker shows brilliant potential on Incarnadine album
Carolyn Walker’s sophomore CD Incarnadine offers many shades, nuances, and interpretations of the singer-songwriter genre. Walker is also a masterful multi-instrumentalist who plays violin, viola, acoustic guitar, Chinese instruments and many others. There are enough golden nuggets on this ten track album to suggest Walker is a brilliant artist with the potential for a very bright future in the music business.
Lori Diamond & Fred Abatelli share the love on Lifted album
Lori Diamond & Fred Abatelli have come up with another album of lovely, accessible singer-songwriter material. Lifted is an expression of the love the two share with one another, and they use their sophisticated musical and vocal abilities to share that love with the world through moving, uplifting soundscapes. Though this album clearly falls within the singer-songwriter genre, it offers sweeps of sound and lush harmonies that make it something larger than a pair of players with their acoustic instruments. There is a grander artistic vision than on their previous recordings.
