The best albums October has to offer.
The ghost of Sam Cooke seems a little restless these days. Back in June, soul-man-of-the-moment Leon Bridges resurrected the smooth side of Sam with his debut set, Coming Home. This month, Missouri-raised folkmeister Nathaniel Rateliff and his band, the Night Sweats, reincarnate the dirtier side of the original Soul Stirrer with this set of 11…
On this Steve Berlin-produced longplayer, Jackie Greene adeptly inhabits the same neighborhood of fashionable yet forthright pop and roll that was built 40 years ago by Andrew Gold and Stephen Bishop and has been regularly reinhabited by the likes of Matt Nathanson and Howie Day.Greene’s somewhat more soulful, though -- more a mix of Daryl Hall…
Pat Green is one of those guys who can ride the fine line between commercial country and Americana, the kind of singer who can be a labelmate to the likes of Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban, and friends with guys like Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett.On this record, he makes the peace with both…
As R&B collections go, this four-disc, 108-song set gets high marks for its intelligent and well-conceived presentation. Producer James Austin wisely eschews the folly of the eye-burning, 5,000 word "expert essay" in six-point type in favor of a few hundred introductory words of enthusiasm for the music, the kinds of singles for which every crate digger lusts with…
There's a reason why pretty much everything to come from the house of David Rawlings and Gillian Welch immediately goes to the top of every Americana list on planet Earth. They are a pair of formidable talents -- artists who precisely evoke the essence of traditional country music yet never sound like Americana mockingbirds.For this record…