A few weeks ago, I wrote about The Spirit of Radio, a box set of Bob Dylan interviews and performances dating from as long ago as 1962. Those were early days indeed for the former Mr. Zimmerman, but another collection turns the clock back even further: Carnegie Chapter Hall, which originally appeared in 2011 and is being reissued in May,...
Bentley’s Bandstand: April 2019
Luther Dickinson and Sisters of the Strawberry Moon, Solstice. In the land of Mississippi musician Luther Dickinson, there are moons of every persuasion. Those people that live on the land there find a strong rapport with things which glow in the sky, and Dickinson has made a life of using that inspiration in making his magical music. This time around,...
Album & DVD Reviews: Bob Dylan – The Spirit of Radio, Plus Music from Girls on Grass and Nils Lofgren, and a Woody Guthrie Tribute Concert
The Spirit of Radio collects three CDs’ worth of Bob Dylan’s seminal early radio performances and interviews. Especially considering that these recordings are more than half a century old, the sound quality is excellent. The CDs, which include informative liner notes, have been available separately and together in the past but have often been difficult to find or prohibitively priced....
Album Reviews: Van Morrison – The Healing Game (Deluxe Edition), and More New Music
The latest installment of Legacy Recordings’ Van Morrison reissue project finds the label turning its attention to 1997’s The Healing Game, which followed a pair of jazz-oriented side trips. When originally released, the album garnered some lukewarm reviews and made it to only number 32 on the U.S. Billboard chart. This three-CD deluxe edition, which features remastered sound and a...
Bentley’s Bandstand: March 2019
Gary Clark Jr., This Land. Those moments when a musician explodes into a whole other galaxy are ones to cherish forever. There is usually a sign in the artist’s previous work which predicts what the possibilities for true greatness might be, but still there is no sure-fire way to know it will happen. Gary Clark Jr. has been a candidate...
Bentley’s Bandstand: January 2019
JD Allen, Love Stone. The tenor saxophone has always sounded like the closest instrument to the human voice. There is something about the range and the tone of the tenor that captures the inner soul of what a gifted singer can express. The long line of America’s saxophonists beautifully encapsulates the entire history of jazz from its earliest beginning, and...
Favorite Albums of 2018 (Second Half) Haiku Reviews
This year once again showed the ultimate test of longevity: great music never stops. It keeps coming like the wind and the waves. So here is this year’s list of favorite albums, starting with the first half of 2018 posted in July’s Bentley’s Bandstand: Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Downey to Lubbock; Niki Bluhm, To Rise You Gotta Fall;...
Album Reviews: Bobbie Gentry – The Girl from Chickasaw County, plus Music from Marianne Faithfull, Ynana Rose, Bob Dylan, & Paisley Underground Bands
When I saw Don McLean in concert some years ago, he introduced “American Pie” by mentioning that people often asked him what the song meant. “It means,” he noted after a pause, “that I never have to work again.” Bobbie Gentry could undoubtedly say the same thing about her brilliant “Ode to Billie Joe,” which replaced the Beatles’ “All You...
Bentley’s Bandstand: December 2018
The Beatles. Always known as “The White Album,” The Beatles 1968 double-disc set stopped a lot of listeners in their tracks when it was first released. It was different, partly because it was twice as long as their other releases, but more because they’d cut loose from the confines of their previous constructs on how to make an album, and...
Blu-ray Review: City Slickers (Collector’s Edition)
New from Shout Factory’s imprint Shout Select comes City Slickers, a collector’s edition Blu-ray that presents a brand new 4K HD scan of the smash hit comedy. For viewers of a certain age (i.e. those who were barely adults in 1991), it may be a shock to contemplate that City Slickers is now 27 years old. Thanks to Shout’s new...