more by Christopher John Treacy
[ROCK] To some, James Taylor might seem like little more than a purveyor of bittersweet sentiment on the outskirts of rock and roll — a crooner in troubadour’s clothing that soothed the weary minds of a counterculture rendered exhausted in the early and mid 1970s.
[COUNTRY] Just because they’re Canadian doesn’t mean they can’t produce country music, and Blue Rodeo has been at it for nearly 35 years, winning awards and collaborating with some of Canada’s best along the way.
[ROCK] Once dubbed “the world’s sexiest vegetarian,” Aussie singer songwriter Xavier Rudd released his new Storm Boy late last month, and it’s a considerably pared down affair from the previous Nanna — a collaboration with the United Nations.
[ROCK] Dave Matthews Band fans have been waiting for new music for six years – 2012’s Away From the World was their last release. Come Tomorrow was finally released earlier this month, and it’s as varied as the list of producers that oversaw the album.
[FUNK] When you hear skillfully rendered music pouring out into the street or onto the tracks of a train station, you tend to notice.
[BLUEGRASS] The Grammy Awards may be flawed in countless ways, but there’s good reason why bluegrass-hybrid chanteuse Alison Krauss has won 27 of them: over 30 years into a career she began at the wee age of 10, her talent remains downright shocking.
[POP] A Minneapolis-born trio, Bad Bad Hats makes indie pop that’s built around Kerry Alexander’s breathy warble, but the band has hinted at being capable of more than the generic sound of its debut, It Hurts, in the five years since it was released on the MN
[AMERICANA] Multi-instrumentalist Bruce Hornsby may never have eclipsed the commercial success of his 1986 RCA debut, The Way It Is, but his career as a touring musician has remained quite fertile.
[TRIBUTE] When John Mayer joined forces with Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann to form Dead & Company (along with Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti), many figured it wouldn’t last.