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Genere: Jazz

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Genere: Jazz

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Genere: Blues

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Trama: This energetic, foot-tapping, no-filler album from the multi-talented Kenny Neal is a sheer delight, showcasing his fine skills on guitar and harmonica and his rich, powerful voice. <I>Blues Fallin' Down Like Rain</I> starts off with a bang, with an up-tempo rendition of the classic "Big Boss Man." Things settle down with "Shadow on the Moon," which features some tasteful guitar work and smooth, excellent vocals. In fact, Neal's voice is one of this album's major strengths, moving smoothly from richly sung melodies to expressive growls just as the music requires. The highlight of this album is the title track, a slow, lonely ballad with excellent guitar work and backing vocals. However, neither is as powerful as Neal's singing; when he pulls out all the stops, the results are impressive. Highly, highly recommended. --<I>Genevieve Williams</I>

Genere: Blues

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Trama: Kenny Neal is such a terrific singer that he can make any kind of blues sound good. On <i>Hoodoo Moon</i>, Neal does the Delta blues justice on a version of Elmore James's "It Hurts Me Too," and does a fine job on the Chicago blues with "I'm a Blues Man." He even pulls off some James Brown funk on "Just One Step." Nonetheless, Neal makes his most valuable contributions when he allows his Louisiana roots to show. On "Don't Fix Our Love," for example, Neal lays his blues-harmonica solo and gravelly vocal over a New Orleans second-line parade rhythm. Lucky Peterson plays the Professor Longhair-like piano part expertly and does the same with the Fats Domino-like piano triplets on "Why Should I Stay." "The Real Thing" and the album's title track boast the slippery shuffle beat of upstate Louisiana's swamp blues. As the son of Raful Neal and the former protégé of Slim Harpo and Lazy Lester, Neal is the legitimate heir of this tradition and he plays it beautifully. These four Louisiana-influenced songs are the highlights of <i>Hoodoo Moon</i>. Neal is a tremendously talented young man--excelling as a guitarist as well as a singer and harmonica player--but lots of talented young men are plowing the overworked ground of Chicago, Memphis, and Delta blues. Neal would be better off leaving those crowded fields alone and concentrating on his inspired swamp-blues inventions. <i>--Geoffrey Himes</i>

Genere: Jazz

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Genere: Jazz

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Genere: Jazz

Durata: 36:32

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Genere: Blues

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Trama: Tracy Nelson, who's toured with Marcia Bell and Irma Thomas, approaches the blues with authority and barely contains her euphoria on this strong "comeback" album of 1993--her first effort in 13 years. The former Mother Earth singer has a keen ear for flattering material and she makes the most of interpretative opportunities presented in the lyrics of durable old tunes and resplendent new ones. Her big voice sweeps through Elmore James's "It Hurts Me Too" and delivers Willie Dixon's "Whatever I Am" with a sassy bravura that Koko Taylor would appreciate. And she phrases with surety on "Living the Blues," a shuffle co-written with top Nashville scribe Gary Nicholson. Irma Thomas joins Nelson for a memorable rendition of the Percy Mayfield standard, "Please Send Me Someone to Love." Accompanists like ex-Stevie Ray Vaughan keyboardist Reese Wynans and guitarist Mike Henderson make sure they're heard, but never get in Nelson's way. <I>--Frank-John Hadley</I>

Genere: Country

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Trama: <i>Across the Borderline</i> was produced in 1993 by Don Was, then flush with work following his helming of Bonnie Raitt's commercial breakthrough, <i>Nick of Time</i>. In fact, his celebrated clients at the time included everyone from Iggy Pop to Neil Diamond. Here he surrounds Willie Nelson with a vast cast of superstar admirers that includes Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Lyle Lovett. If the thought of Nelson and Lyle Lovett dueting on Peter Gabriel "Don't Give Up" with Mark Isham blowing dulcet trumpet lines above it all gives you the willies, surprisingly, it shouldn't. In fact, it's a highlight of this very successful all-star album. Nelson, coming off a dry spell, sounds invigorated, the material is strong, and the musicianship sparkles. <i>--Steven Stolder</i>

Genere: Country

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Genere: Country

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Genere: Country

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Genere: Country

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Trama: More so than most country artists, Willie Nelson is difficult to thoroughly investigate without delving into his individual releases, which often revolve around either musical or lyrical concepts. So give Columbia credit for assembling such a cohesive, provocative collection, one that covers every aspect of his glorious career and that amply showcases his distinctive singing, songwriting, and gut-string work. Disc 1 (entitled Pilgrimage), worth the price of admission alone, focuses on his remarkable 1970s and early-1980s work: the Red Headed Stranger cuts, the Lefty Frizzell tributes, the Stardust standards, searing live cuts, the Electric Horseman cowboy odes and Honeysuckle Rose gems, and the best of Always on My Mind. Disc 2 (Sojourns) pairs Nelson with an impressive array of partners: Haggard, Price, Miller, Pierce, Charles, Young (both Neil and Faron), Santana, Possum, Dylan, Cash, Snow, Jennings, Julio, Dolly, Kristofferson. Disc 3 (Exodus) collects the mid-1980s and early-1990s stuff, and while it contains moments of brilliance, it doesn't match up to the first two discs. All in all, a marvelous 60-song collection filled with an astonishing number of spine-chilling moments. --Marc Greilsamer

Genere: Country

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Trama: For better and for worse, this trans-generational pairing of Willie Nelson and producer Ryan Adams takes the veteran into musical territory where he wouldn't have likely ventured on his own. There's long been an organic unity to Nelson's signature sound--the way his conversational phrasing plays against the staccato runs of his gypsy guitar, with the backing of a band that's been with him so long he calls them Family. On <i>Songbird</i>, Adams substitutes the more aggressively electric backing of his own band, the Cardinals, and plainly had a large say in selecting and arranging the material. Two highlights that most bear his imprint are "Blue Hotel," which Adams wrote for the project and with which Nelson plainly connects, and the bluesy, ominous arrangement by Adams of the closing "Amazing Grace," which sounds closer to "House of the Rising Sun." At the other extreme, Nelson's lumbering take on the Grateful Dead's "Stella Blue," which culminates in an electric squall, sounds like the kind of music Willie would rather not listen to, let alone make. And the hard-edged riffing on "$1000 Wedding" practically bludgeons the Gram Parsons song to death. While the three Nelson originals (two old, one new) all work fine, the rest is hit (Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah") and miss (the title cut, by Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie). It has been said that Nelson can sing just about anything--which doesn't necessarily mean that he should. <i>--Don McLeese</i>

Genere: Jazz

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Genere: Jazz

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Genere: R&B

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Genere: R&B

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Genere: R&B

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Genere: R&B

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Trama: Aaron Neville is one of the only singers alive with a voice soulful, strong and emotionally pure enough to warrant comparisons to Sam Cooke--it's easy to see why upon hearing his new gospel-oriented collection, <I>Devotion</I>. With an intensity you just don't hear enough of, he tackles some of the great songs of the genre such as "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" and "Banks Of The River Jordan". Those songs share space with a few originals as well as ingeniously sung covers of pop standards such as "I Shall Be Released", "Bridge Over Troubled Water", and "Morning Has Broke", done in the stirring, tuneful way that only Aaron Neville can achieve. As is the case these days with almost any solo record by a performer over the age of 20, there are guest stars: able-voiced brother Ivan is on here, while adult contemporary act Avalon and diva wannabe Rachel Lampa attempt, admirably, to hold their own with the great singer. Okay, it's gonna sound clichéd, but this record really is as rock solid as its message of faith. --<I>Mike McGonigal</I>

Genere: R&B

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Trama: That great voice demands Spartan settings, but like <I>Warm Your Heart</I> (1991) this is so mellow it ripens and rots. High points: an exquisitely massaged "These Foolish Things" and a "Song of Bernadette" duet with Linda Ronstadt. --<i>Jeff Bateman</i>

Genere: Jazz

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Trama: New Orleans crooner Aaron Neville is known for many things: he first scored an R&B hit with "Tell it Like it Is" in the '60s; his duets with Linda Ronstadt have exposed him to wider audiences; and he sings with his siblings in the Neville Brothers. Produced and arranged by keyboardist Rob Mounsey, the material is culled from a variety of pop and jazz standards. With a rhythm section consisting of bassist Ron Carter, drummer Grady Tate, and guitarist Anthony Wilson, Neville puts his Crescent City charm on old favorites such as "Danny Boy" with guitarist Ry Cooder; "Since I Fell For You" with his saxophonist brother, Charles Neville; and a silken rendition of "Cry Me a River" with tenor sax titan Michael Brecker. Ms. Ronstadt guest stars on "Blame It on My Youth," with Roy Hargrove providing the creamy Clifford Brown-tones. Even as he sings Gershwin's "Summertime" as a reggae number, Aaron Neville's vivid voice echoes the eternal tones of the late Benny Carter's vibrato-rich alto sax sound. One question: Why wasn't this done before? <I>--Eugene Holley, Jr.</I>

Genere: Rock

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Trama: During the 1970s, singer/songwriter Randy Newman distinguished himself by dodging the prevailing confessional trend that was de rigueur for his peers, preferring to build his songs around richly detailed, often grotesque characters, and taking his story lines from anyone's history but his own. By the late '80s, however, his parallel ambitions as a film composer now yielding a separate, equally distinctive body of work, Newman was relaxed enough to allow introspection: 1988's <I>Land of Dreams</I> spins Newman's childhood sojourn in wartime New Orleans into the wonderful, opening title song and the farcical "New Orleans Wins the War," relives grade school traumas ("Four Eyes"), and offers a bleak portrait of a marriage unraveling on the quietly devastating "Bad News from Home." These songs, and two atypically tender love songs, "Something Special" and "Falling In Love," are as close to autobiography as he's ever gotten. <I>--Sam Sutherland</I>

Genere: Rock

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Trama: With his career built on twin pillars of concise narrative songwriting for his own albums and evocative orchestral composition for his film scores, Randy Newman is eminently qualified to resuscitate musical theater. And while the initial stage production of his reworking of Goethe has stalled west of Broadway, the 1995 studio version of <I>Faust</I> is a triumph. In Newman's hand, the Faustian myth transforms its title hero into a clueless rocker (sung by Don Henley), the Devil into a huckster (sung by, who else, Newman himself), and God into a callow yuppie (James Taylor, in the project's most revelatory performance, every bit as funny as the composer's). With Bonnie Raitt and Linda Ronstadt completing this dream cast, Newman honors the form's theatrical demands with ensemble show-stoppers (the opening "Glory Train"), expository duets ("How Great Our Lord"), and romantic ballads ("Feels Like Home"), framing the 17 songs with his own rich orchestrations and generous choral support. It's devilishly good. <I>--Sam Sutherland</I>

Genere: Rock

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Genere: Rock

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Genere: Rock

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Genere: Rock

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Trama: Those mean streets sound awfully clean on the latest from veteran bard Willie Nile, who here exchanges his raucous rock from the early 1980s for a more tempered approach that prizes poetry over punch. Though the songwriting remains as heartfelt as ever, with plenty of literary flourish, antiseptic arrangements all but drain the propulsion from "Welcome to My Head" and "Best Friends Money Can Buy," while the slow build of "Faded Flower of Broadway" flirts with power-ballad mawkishness. The epic narrative of the autobiographical "Back Home" and the harmonic-laced "Lonesome Dark-Eyed Beauty" find Nile giving his best Bob Dylan impression (Dylan's son Jakob, of the Wallflowers, guests elsewhere on the album), though the title track edges closer to Billy Joel territory. Only the heart-pumping urgency of "Whole World with You" and the feverish cover of Eddy Grant's "Police on My Back" (in homage to the Clash) show Nile really letting it rip as he as in the past. <i>--Don McLeese</i>

Genere: Rock

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Trama: If <I>Nevermind</I>'s sound is familiar now, it's only because thousands of rock records that followed it were trying very hard to cop its style. It tears out of the speakers like a cannonball, from the punk-turbo-charged riff of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" onward, magnifying and distilling the wounded rage of 15 years of the rock underground into a single impassioned roar. Few albums have occupied the cultural consciousness like this one; of its 12 songs, roughly 10 are now standards. The record's historical weight can make it hard to hear now with fresh ears, but the monumental urgency of Kurt Cobain's screams is still shocking. <I>--Douglas Wolk</I>

Genere: Country

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Genere: Country

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Trama: Track Title
<br />1. Not Fade Away
<br />2. Little Angel
<br />3. Mama Tried
<br />4. One Good Love
<br />5. Losin' You
<br />6. I Fought the Law
<br />7. Mother Of the Bride
<br />8. Don't Underestimate Love
<br />9. What'll You Do About Me
<br />10. The Dream
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Genere: Country

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Trama: A history-making event for both popular and country music, this album brought together the hippieish Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with some of the all-time legends of country and bluegrass music, including Roy Acuff, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, and Mother Maybelle Carter herself. It may not sound earth-shaking now, but in the days before Johnny Cash covered Soundgarden songs, there wasn't too much mixing going on between Nashville and the longhair camp. The result: an epochal meeting of minds exploring the joys of gospel, bluegrass, and old-time country music. Check out traditional acoustic gems like "Wildwood Flower," "Orange Blossom Special," "Soldier's Joy," and of course the heart-wrenching title track. Sixteen years later, <I>Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two</I> made for a worthy sequel to this seminal cross-cultural experiment. <I>--Mary Park</I>

Genere: Country

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Trama: "We've lost the living room," Emmylou Harris says before her ethereal version of "Mary Danced with Soldiers," "but today I think we got it back." Full of back-home warmth, inspired pairings--Roseanne Cash and John Hiatt, Levon Helm and the host Nitty Gritty Dirt Band--and a song selection that walks the line between traditionals and excellent contemporary material, somehow this follow up to the barrier-breaking first volume is never nostalgic nor aimless. In fact, it's nearly as good--even John Denver sounds inspired. Jimmy Martin sings "Sitting on Top of the World" as if his life depended on it, and Ricky Skaggs and Levon Helm both turn in vocal performances that stand comfortably beside any of their careers. <I>--Roy Francis Kasten</I>

Genere: Rock

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Genere: Jazz

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Genere: Rock

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Genere: Rock

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