Music Review: The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Higher Ground

Published on May 13th, 2016 in: Americana, Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reissues, Reviews |

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It’s difficult to listen to The Blind Boys Of Alabama’s Higher Ground (2002) and not compare it to its predecessor, Spirit Of The Century (2001). Both are Grammy-winning collaborations with producers John Chelew and Chris Goldsmith and both feature bold, spiritual covers of songs by contemporary artists, with the Blind Boys Of Alabama being backed by a band in “musical conversation.”

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Music Review: The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Spirit Of The Century

Published on May 13th, 2016 in: Americana, Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reissues, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

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The Blind Boys of Alabama have performed together for nearly seven decades and have recorded over 60 albums. Joining together as glee club singers at the Alabama Institute For the Negro Blind in 1939, founding members Jimmy Carter, George Scott, and Clarence Fountain (with newest member Joey Williams joining in 2001), The Blind Boys of Alabama make honest, American music, rooted deeply in gospel, focusing on the truly glorious way that their voices blend.

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Music Review: JD Souther, Home By Dawn

Published on February 8th, 2016 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

The third of Omnivore’s expanded reissues of JD Souther’s criminally overlooked solo albums, Home By Dawn, is an unusual album. The things that make his previous albums, John David Souther and Black Rose work are there: his incredible lyricism, gift for melody, and warm vocals. These things have to share space with a particularly 1980s sounding production. Songs are slicker than they need be, and while the writing is, as always, brilliant, they suffer. A bit. But keep in mind, this is JD Souther we’re talking about, and he’s got this.

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Music Review: JD Souther, Black Rose

Published on February 4th, 2016 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

Thank you, Omnivore Records, for reissuing JD Souther’s albums. The recent reissue of Souther’s debut, John David Souther, was like reading a blueprint for Americana music. Souther’s follow up album, Black Rose, shows an artist broadening his horizons, marrying jazz with rock and coming up with something unexpected but very effective.

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Music Review: Game Theory, Lolita Nation (Reissue)

Published on February 2nd, 2016 in: Music, Music Reviews, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews |

By Chelsea Spear

Since its release and quick deletion, Game Theory’s third official LP, Lolita Nation, has carried with it a mystique. Is it because it’s the third album, as producer Mitch Easter has suggested, or because it’s been impossible to find and prohibitively expensive for so long? Now that Scott Miller’s magnum opus is widely available, will we discover that this is actually an average album for the era and subgenre? Happily, Omnivore’s long-awaited reissue reveals an idiosyncratic and breathtakingly ambitious release by a cult-favorite songwriter and band who deserved a greater place in the 1980s college-rock firmament.

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Music Review: JD Souther, John David Souther

Published on January 8th, 2016 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

It’s strange to hear a reissue of an album from 1972 that sounds as current as Omnivore’s reissue of JD Souther’s John David Souther. It’s not a difficult argument to make that Souther’s cult-classic albums were precursors to present day Americana. It’s all here: thoughtful lyrics and a high lonesome voice (on occasion); momentary fiddles and bottleneck guitar. JD Souther is a songwriter’s songwriter, known for writing for the Eagles (all of their good songs? Souther had a hand in those, like “New Kid In Town” and “Heartache Tonight”), and his songs have been covered by artists from Glen Campbell to India Irie to Linda Ronstadt.

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Music Review: Buck ‘Em! The Music Of Buck Owens, Volume Two (1967-1975)

Published on November 16th, 2015 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

“Would we still be talking about Buck Owens if it weren’t for Hee Haw?” I was asked recently and have spent an inordinate amount of time mulling over the answer. The answer, of course, is maybe. Hee Haw was an amazing music delivery system, imbuing Buck’s image with a family-friendly, easily accessible shorthand: he’s that smiling guy on TV every week with his Buckaroos and the pretty girls and Grandpa Jones and Roy Clark, and he’s kind of funny with his dad jokes, and he makes some catchy tunes. You think (if you’ve spent time watching Hee Haw) about what Buck Owens looked like, which, in an pre-MTV/CMTV videos era, is pretty spectacular. You can conjure up what he looks like playing his American flag striped guitar, you know what the Buckaroos look like, you can see Don Rich smiling in your mind’s eye.

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Music Review: The Winding Stream: The Carters, The Cashes and The Course Of Country Music

Published on October 16th, 2015 in: Current Faves, Feminism, Movies, Music, Music Reviews, Retrovirus, Reviews, Soundtracks and Scores |

By Melissa Bratcher

One might say that if it weren’t for the Carter family, country music as we know it (or knew it, rather) wouldn’t exist. Director Beth Harrington’s film, The Winding Stream: The Carters, The Cashes And The Course Of Country Music, explores that notion, starting with A.P Carter, his wife Sara and sister-in-law Maybelle, following that stream to the Carter Sisters, to June Carter and Johnny Cash, all the way to Rosanne Cash. The Carters’ influence was far-reaching, shaping ancient melodies into popular songs, and pushing the guitar into the forefront of American music.

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Music Review: Dr. John, The Atco/Atlantic Singles 1968-1974

Published on September 17th, 2015 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

If there’s one thing Dr. John does well (though he does loads of things well), it’s setting a scene and creating a vibe. In listening to Omnivore Recordings’ Dr. John collection The Atco/Atlantic Singles 1968-1974, there is such a rich, immersive feeling—a deep swamp that reaches slippery fingers up to pull you down—that it is like taking a trip to the Bayou, sans surprise alligators. Dr. John’s mix of blues, funk, and psychedelia is inimitable, much like his trademark boozy vocal yawp. He’s a one of a kind.

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Music Review: Roger Taylor, Strange Frontier (Reissue)

Published on May 1st, 2015 in: Music, Music Reviews, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews |

By Tyler Hodg

Omnivore Recordings has reissued two previously unreleased CD versions of Roger Taylor’s early solo work—with Fun in Space being the first and Strange Frontier the second—and now it’s easier than ever to revisit or become acquainted with them. The latter, which was Taylor’s sophomore solo album, saw its initial release in 1984.