Doug Collette

With Still Shakin', North Mississippi Allstars hearken to their roots in more ways than one. Its title a specific reference to their debut album,

Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts’ Talkin’ To The Trees is nowhere near as confounding as the Canadian’s latest efforts with Crazy Horse. It’s far more compelling than 2019’s Colorado and Barn from two years later and even World Record from 2022, in part because its comparably impromptu atmosphere enhances rather than detracts from the credibility of the material and the performances.

Since Mary Halvorson began her prolific affiliation with Nonesuch Records, she has refused to repeat herself except with a purpose. The simultaneous release of Amaryllis & Belladonna (Nonesuch Records, 2022) was the precursor to the expansive Cloudward (Nonesuch Records, 2024), while About Ghosts represents a retrenchment, albeit a productive one.

The smiling visage of the late Richard Manuel that adorns the dust cover of Stephen T. Lewis’ biography belies the sorrowful tragedy of the musician’s life. And intentionally or not, the author’s narrative follows the ups and downs of the man’s troubled existence.

The curators of the Gregg Allman Live series set a high bar for themselves through last year’s Uncle Sam’s release, but with One Night In DC, May 15 1984, the archivists have adhered to those elevated standards.

The third and final entry in the so-called “Ditch Trilogy” of albums Neil Young released following the major success of 1972’s Harvest, Tonight’s The Night, sounds like the most abrasive of them all, five decades later. If the 1973 live album, Time Fades Away, which featured all unreleased material, epitomized the Canadian rock icon’s difficulty in handling the acclaim of his popular breakthrough. The following

By the time Robin Tower’s For Earth Below was released a half-century ago, the former guitarist for Procol Harum had hit his stride creatively and commercially as a solo artist. Thus, the third album under his name began a process of refinement that, not surprisingly, involved a shift of personnel: ex-Sly Stone drummer Bill Lordan took over for Reg Isidore.

With the benefit of half a century of hindsight, Bob Dylan and The Band’s The Basement Tape s would appear to represent the first of a series of revisionist projects overseen by the late Robbie Robertson. As with his archival work on The Band (a/k/a/ ‘The Brown Album) and Stage Fright, the late guitarist/songwriter of the iconic group modifies the famous recordings in such a way that they lose some of their intrinsic charm and impact.

Based in part on the resounding impact of Ragged Glory, Neil Young’s return to form with Crazy Horse in 1993 earned him the nickname ‘The Godfather of Grunge.’ So, while the iconoclastic Canadian’s collaboration(s) with genre icons Pearl Jam didn’t raise many eyebrows three decades ago, hindsight further suggests it was destiny calling.

Paradoxical as it may sound, the simplicity of the blues may be the key to its malleability. On A Spoonful of Willie Dixon, British chanteuse Emma Wilson reaches for and grasps the fundamentals of the music in homage to Willie Dixon—one of the genre's greatest composers. Meanwhile, the title of Terry Hanck's Grease To Gravy