Neil Young’s Music Box, Here We Are In The Years

By Danny R. Phillips

Doing an unauthorized DVD of any artist, let alone on someone as historically cantankerous as Neil Young, can be a real bitch. Little to no music or performance footage from the artist can be used, forcing the filmmakers to turn the film into a history lesson instead of a flat-out celebration. And sadly, that’s exactly what’s happened with Neil Young’s Music Box, Here We Are in the Years.
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NRBQ, Keep This Love Goin’

By Danny R. Phillips

NRBQ is the beast that refuses to die. Formed in the ’60s by Terry Adams, the band has been making good ol’ bar party music ever since, despite numerous lineup changes, a bout with throat cancer, changing times, and changing flavors. With Keep This Love Goin’ NRBQ are back doing the same as they always have, and that’s just fine.
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Spectacle: Elvis Costello with . . . (Season Two DVD)

By Danny R. Phillips

Elvis Costello has been good at many things throughout his career as a musician. From the snot-nosed, pissed off, former IBM employee who gave us “Accidents Will Happen,” “Alison,” “New Lace Sleeves,” and “Radio, Radio” to the still-much-loved, still-bitchy-at-times entertainer that he is today, his career has run the gamut. But it seems that some of his most curious work has been as host of the love fest known as Spectacle: Elvis Costello with . . .
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Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs, No Help Coming

By Danny R. Phillips

Country music as a genre, in my self-deluded opinion, has been on a downward, pop-infused shit spiral since the 1990s Garth Brooks era, culminating in the current supremacy of Carrie “Screech” Underwood and Taylor “Let’s Go To The Mall” Swift.

I feared all was lost, that the world would be contented with pop songs passed off as country because they contain one of the following things: a fiddle, a steel guitar, or the word “y’all.” Then I heard Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs latest release No Help Coming. Rejoice traditionalists; this record is for you.
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Foo Fighters, Wasting Light

By Danny R. Phillips

I’ll say it right now: In my opinion, the last few Foo Fighters records have not been, shall we say, stellar. And I will add that I stopped buying them after There Is Nothing Left To Lose, my personal belief being it exposed two things that threw a monkey wrench (sorry, corny song reference there) into the works.
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America’s Music Legacy: Dixieland Jazz (DVD)

By Danny R. Phillips

It has been said that Jazz is the only truly American music style. While other genres blend rhythm, tones, and instruments from other countries, Jazz—whether it be Davis, Coltrane, Armstrong, Hancock, Holliday, or Horne (or god forbid, Kenny G.)—was hatched, raised, nurtured, and perfected here within our shores.

Dixieland Jazz, a mash up of blues, ragtime, and other stylings is a perfect choice for the series America’s Music Legacy; it has a rich, colorful history that is explored here by host Al Hirt, the Jazz trumpeter and Dixieland luminary. Much like the Blues installment of the this series, it includes live performances and is packed with clips of giants who have already left us: piano great Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, and Eubie Blake.
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