Finnish trio Southpaw Steel’n’Twang delivers another superb set of musical pieces inspired by American roots music. The signature sound of the band is based on…
Twangy Feel-Good Hooks
Category: Album reviews
A Musical Voyage with Clear Charts and Beautiful Destinations
It is remarkable that an anthology can be as homogeneous as this. The nine acts represented hereon seem to see eye-to-eye on the foundational aspects…
Musical Eye-Opener to Refugee Crisis
Various Artists – The Long Road (British Red Cross, 2016) With proceeds going to the British Red Cross UK Refugee Support Service and with help…
Cuban Musical Roots Propelled Into the Future
Gilles Peterson’s Havana Cultura Band – Havana Club Rumba Sessions (Brownswood Records, 2016) The British DJ, record label owner and producer Gilles Peterson is mastermind…
Buoyant Afrika Mamas
Sub-Saharan African vocal harmony CDs are like cats; it’s hard to find an ugly one. That does not mean that some are not better than…
Dynamic Mix of Rock and Reggae
Mighty Mystic’s crossover style brings together roots reggae with rock and music. It’s representative of American reggae bands that mix reggae with pop, rock, hip…
Heavy Mardi Gras Indian Funk Sound with Modern Recording
Cha Wa – Funk ‘n’ Feathers (Upt Music, 2016) Superb New Orleans multi-ethnic band Cha Wa brings together the vibrant Mardi Gras Indian tradition and…
Yeominrok, a Thrilling Musical Journey
E-Do – Yeominrok (Pony Canyon Korea, 2015) Every once in a while I get the musical version of a kick in the pants and Korean…
Captivating Chants from the Desert Sands
Aziza Brahim – Abbar el Hamada (Glitterbeat, 2016) Western Saharan musician and activist Aziza Brahim explains, “I’m not able to separate politics, cultural and personal…
Arrawak Dance (My World)
Mushy Widmaeir’s album My World went fairly unnoticed in the United States, as it is the case for most Caribbean art music and Jazz albums…