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Details: CD music

December 2014

Beguiling and Energetic Holiday Songs and Dances from Canada

ATMA Classique ACD2 2523
Format: CD

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This hasn't been a bumper year for new recordings of holiday music. But there have been a few, and La Veillée de Noël is one of the best. It's the only holiday album I will be writing about here this year, in plenty of time for you to order a copy from Amazon.com or any other reputable mail-order house.

Details: CD music

August 2014

Another Comfortable Album from the Villains

Toucan Cove/Universal Records
Format: CD

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One of the neatest things about being in my position is the flood of indie recordings that arrive weekly in my post-office box. Back in 2010 one such package introduced me to the Villains, an Atlanta-based bar band. Dan Call produced the album, and he also played bass, sang vocals, and wrote many of the songs. It was simply called The Villains, but it was re-released the same year with one track, "Amie," added, as Just Another Saturday Night.

Details: CD music

July 2014

Henry Mancini’s Jazz Score in a Modern-Recording Homage

Harmonie Ensemble/New York; Steven Richman, conductor
Harmonia Mundi HMU 907624
Format: CD

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Remember TV's pioneering Peter Gunn? From 1958 to 1961, women wanted to meet someone like him and men wanted to be him -- both thoughts that would apply to James Bond seven years later. He wore a suit and tie, was oh so debonair, and was so very cool and hardboiled. He had a gorgeous girlfriend (Lola Albright) who sang at the waterfront jazz club Mother's, and he dispatched villains with aplomb (after all, it was a half-hour show). But I bet that more people remember the name of the show's composer (Henry Mancini) better than the actor who portrayed Gunn (Craig Stevens).

Details: CD music

May 2014

Protest Songs Still Relevant Today

Kristalyn Records KLCD1
Format: CD

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Barb Jungr is an English singer-songwriter known as a chansonnière and cabaret performer. Though she has drawn from many different styles to fashion her arrangements, it's her singing of the songs of Bob Dylan that has made her famous. She recorded two albums for Linn Records that feature his songs, and even in albums devoted to other performers such as Elvis Presley, she has managed to slip in a song or two from Dylan.

Details: CD music

April 2014

The Art of the Arranger

Jazzbill Records
Format: CD

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Music arrangers seldom get their due. Though they handle instrumental ensembles that can make or break the artist out front, their names are usually in fine print on the back cover of the album. I found With Love intriguing because it is the arranger, Jeremy Fox, who takes top billing. Fox has degrees from Western Michigan University and the University of Miami, and since 2001 has coordinated the SMV Vocal Jazz Camps around the US. Since 1999 Fox has received ten awards from DownBeat Magazine, including Best Written Song, Best Arrangement, and Best Studio Engineering.

Details: CD music

April 2014

Will Kimbrough Takes the Lead

Daphne (self released)
Format: CD

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Will Kimbrough has often served as a sideman in backup bands for the likes of Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris (just to name a couple; the list is long), but on his new album, Sideshow Love, it's all his show and he proves more than up for it. He's a terrific songwriter, an appealing singer, and he plays mean, lean guitar, banjo, mandolin, and more. At times I heard shades of Rodney Crowell (no surprise there), Tom Waits, and Loudon Wainwright III. I use those names merely as a reference point, because Kimbrough doesn't actually sound like any of them, but he triggered those connections in one way or another when I listened to his superb CD.

Details: CD music

February 2014

Acoustic Rock Singer Effectively Meshes Different Styles and Genres

Compass Records 4623
Format: CD

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Not content to coast on the success of prior albums, A.J. Croce took on the Herculean task of creating a 12-cut album using six different producers and recording locations. The main thing his producers have in common is that they're all considered legendary -- Cowboy Jack Clement, Allen Toussaint, Greg Cohen, Mitchell Froom, Tony Berg, and Kevin Killen.

Details: CD music

February 2014

Solid Acoustic Rock from El Paso

Self released
Format: CD

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I have a theory that folk and acoustic music will never die. No matter what the decade or the prevailing musical styles, musicians will find a way to include folk and acoustic elements. Look at the recent popularity of Mumford & Sons and Lady Antebellum. They play sold-out houses in very large venues. The Iveys aren't quite there yet, but they have played over 500 shows and had six national tours, albeit in some smaller venues. Their fans pay more than lip service to the three-piece sibling band, having entirely funded their third and newest album, Jenna's Song.

Details: CD music

February 2014

A Swinging Delight

Summit Records DCD 619
Format: CD

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The title song for Better Than Anything was written some years ago by David "Buck" Wheat and Bill Loughborough and has become a standard for many jazz performers, but I've never heard it set forth so persuasively as in the first cut of Rebecca DuMaine's new CD. With its endless list of delights, always culminating in "better than anything except being in love," the tune can become breathless or kitschy, but DuMaine manages to make it swing with her beautifully enunciated approach. It's a great start to an album that's the swingiest affair I've heard in some time.

Details: CD music

January 2014

Upbeat Jazz at 90

Merry Lane Records LLC
Format: CD

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Back in the day, one of my favorite bands was Spanky and Our Gang. They were a little stronger on folk than rock and sang some devilishly clever tunes, one of them being "Five Definitions of Love." I marveled that anyone could create such flowing music from reading the dictionary, and I was at a loss to describe the style. Spanky and Our Gang weren't just rock, or just folk, and what was that other element that made them irresistible?

CD Music

Suzie LeBlanc: "La Veillée de Noël"

Beguiling and Energetic Holiday Songs and Dances from Canada

The Villains: "A Little Something for the Pain"

Another Comfortable Album from the Villains

Henry Mancini: "Music for Peter Gunn"

Henry Mancini’s Jazz Score in a Modern-Recording Homage

Barb Jungr: "Hard Rain: The Songs of Bob Dylan & Leonard Cohen"

Protest Songs Still Relevant Today

Jeremy Fox: "With Love"

The Art of the Arranger

Will Kimbrough: "Sideshow Love"

Will Kimbrough Takes the Lead

A.J. Croce: "Twelve Tales"

Acoustic Rock Singer Effectively Meshes Different Styles and Genres

The Iveys: "Jenna's Song"

Solid Acoustic Rock from El Paso

The Dave Miller Trio with Rebecca DuMaine: "Better Than Anything"

A Swinging Delight

Bob Dorough: "Eulalia"

Upbeat Jazz at 90