// Category Archive for: Reviews

Music Review: Patti Page, From Nashville to L.A. – Lost Columbia Masters 1963-1969

By Melissa Bratcher

The new Patti Page release From Nashville To L.A.—Lost Columbia Masters 1963-1969 is comprised of unreleased masters from recording sessions in the 1960s. In those days, recording sessions consisted of laying down several tracks in a span of three or so hours, usually three or four songs live with an orchestra. The most commercial pieces would be put out as singles, others would be used as B-sides or album tracks, but there would almost always be songs that didn’t meet either criteria. From 1962-1970, Patti Page recorded almost 200 songs for Columbia. Fifty or so were singles; many were on albums. These leftovers, in no way inferior, are being released on From Nashville To L.A. for the first time.

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Music Review: Rene Lopez, Let’s Be Strangers Again EP

By Chelsea Spear

Could Rene Lopez be headed for Broadway? A cursory listen to his EP, Let’s Be Strangers Again, suggests a passing familiarity with contemporary show tunes. He writes songs with melodies so memorable you’ll be singing along and dancing down the street before the song has ended. His strong, sure baritone ably catches the ear, and his songs encompass conga drums, polyrhythms, and horn charts that suggest both Fania and 42nd Street. The slick yet straightforward production gives the album an inviting sound.

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Music Review: The Fratellis, We Need Medicine

By Melissa Bratcher

After a five-year hiatus, The Fratellis have returned with their third album, We Need Medicine. It attempts to be a return to former glory, but it falls painfully short. The songs aren’t as punchy as the ones on their surprising debut, Costello Music, or even its follow up, Here We Stand. Jon Fratelli’s voice is still brilliantly distinctive and compelling, and the guitar riffs are as crunchy as always, but the songs start with bombast and furor and then peter out to . . . not much. It’s disappointing.

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Music Review: Various Artists, The Dawn Of Psychedelia

By Melissa Bratcher

After listening to Cherry Red Records’ vast two-CD set The Dawn Of Psychedelia, I feel that I can say without a doubt that the humble flute launched the psychedelic revolution. Or possibly the sitar. Or a combination of both.

The Dawn Of Psychedelia attempts to trace back the origins of the Aquarian Age that defined the music of the ’60s. Sometimes, it hits the nail on the head. Other times, it sounds a bit like filler.

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Book Review: Comfort Foods: This Ain’t Your Momma’s Cooking!

By Lisa Anderson

October is here! And just in time for Halloween, the Nashville Writer’s Group presents Comfort Foods, a horror anthology edited by Nashville author Nikki Nelson-Hicks. The collection includes 13 short stories from local writers, many of which have distinctly Southern, if not uniquely Nashville, flavor to them. Some of these tales offer new takes on classic chills such as ghosts or zombies, and others invent entirely new nightmares for the reader.

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Concert Review: Le Trouble at The Garrison

By Alexandra West

Toronto, ON
October 15, 2013

There’s a lot to be said for a band that can play a back room like their headlining tour has just hit Madison Square Garden, but that exactly what the Montreal-based band Le Trouble did last night at The Garrison in Toronto. It was a quiet night; the only marking besides the sandwich board outside was the artfully scruffy group of smokers. Tucked away in an unmemorable room on Dundas Street, The Garrison offers shows to those in the know and Le Trouble did not hesitate to take the stage with unrelenting energy while the small crowd looked on.

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TADFF 2013 Movie Review: The Battery

By Less Lee Moore

What would happen if the only other person remaining after the apocalypse was your annoying co-worker who always had his headphones on? What if the only other person smelled terrible? It may sound comical, but these are the hard questions you have to ask yourself when watching The Battery. Despite taking place after an apocalypse (of the Z-word variety), there are definitely funny moments, but on the whole, The Battery is a brutal movie. Things get fucked up and people die.

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Movie Review: Hellaware

By Less Lee Moore

One of the greatest things about Kids in the Hall was the show’s ability to convert the utterly banal into comedy. It requires far more skill to underplay a scene and still get laughs, as the audience imagines a waggling finger pointing at the object of the joke. Hellaware, from writer/director Michael M. Bilandic, achieves this so well it leaves the viewer breathless, both from amusement and admiration. At 75 minutes, Hellaware is expertly paced, wringing the most out of every detail in every scene and each seemingly throwaway secondary character.

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Music Review: Jon Batiste and Stay Human, Social Music

By Melissa Bratcher

Jon Batiste was born into New Orleans musical royalty—it is not mere coincidence that Wendell Pierce’s character Antoine shares the surname. On their debut album, Social Music, Jon Batiste and Stay Human dip effortlessly into different genres and make a remarkable album. It’s warm and engaging, and Batiste’s piano prowess is awe-inspiring.

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Music Review: James Booker, Classified: Remixed and Expanded

By Melissa Bratcher

All Music Guide calls the original edition of James Booker’s Classified his best album. I can only imagine how delighted they will be upon hearing Classified: Remixed and Expanded. Released on CD and limited edition double LP vinyl, this remixed version offers nine never-before-released songs as well as voluminous liner notes.

James Carroll Booker III went by many self-given monikers: The Bayou Maharajah, The Bronze Liberace, The Piano Pope, The Ivory Emperor. A flamboyant and astoundingly talented pianist, he fits neatly into the lineage of New Orleans piano greats: Jelly Roll Morton, Professor Longhair, James Booker, and Booker’s student, Harry Connick, Jr. Booker was a bit of an odd duck, and perhaps that’s why he’s not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or comes to mind as unbidden as the other demigods of NOLA piano. Dr. John, himself no slouch, called Booker “the best black gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced.”

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