New Releases

Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear the Reaper - Best Of
Chuck Moe

Greg Brown - Covenant
Marc Mickelson

Bebel Gilberto - Tanto Tempo
Todd Warnke

Go Fast - Great American Get Down
Chuck Moe

Tish Hinojosa - Sign of Truth
Marc Rigrodsky

Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde
Todd Warnke

Steve Young - Primal Young
David J. Cantor

Jimmy Haslip -  Red Heat
Srajan Ebaen

B.B. King & Eric Clapton - Riding With the King
John Crossett

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Magic Touch
Srajan Ebaen

Christy McWilson - The Lucky One
Marc Rigrodsky

Chris Smither - Live As I'll Ever Be
Gile Downes

Steve Turre - In the Spur of the Moment
John Crossett

Andreas Vollenweider - Cosmopoly
Srajan Ebaen

Robin & Linda Williams - In the Company of Strangers
David J. Cantor

Remasters

Wynton Kelly - Piano
Marc Mickelson

Phineas Newborn, Jr. - Harlem Blues
John Crossett

Art Tatum - The Art Tatum Group Masterpieces, Vol. 6
John Crossett

The Alan Parsons Project - I Robot
Greg Smith

• SoundStage! Talks with
  Alan Parsons (8/2000)
  Andy Narell (7/2000)
  Bob Ludwig (11/1999)
  Jay Aston (10/1999),
  
  

• The James Taylor Collection
  
  

• Book Review - Gramophone Classical Good CD Guide 2000
  
  

• On That Note
  Hard Bop (9/1999)
  Alternative Rock (5/1999)
  
  
• The Best Recordings of
  1999
  
  
• Bustin' Out Our Best
  1998, 1997

SnapShot! Archives

Dave Stuckey and The Rhythm Gang - Get a Load of This
HighTone/HMG 3010, 2000

SnapShot! Rating:

A musical orgy attended by an abundance of like-minded pickers and players, Get a Load of This is sweet roots/rockabilly/western-swing candy. Dave Stuckey, formerly of Dave & Deke, fronts a cast from other CDs I've reviewed over the last year or so: The Hot Guitars of Biller and Wakefield, Kim Lenz and her Jaguars' The One and Only, The Hot Club of Cowtown's Tall Tales. Collectively they are referred to as The Rhythm Gang, and they display their rhythm and lead chops on a collection of covers and Stuckey originals that intertwine perfectly. There's a lot of soloing -- on steel guitar, fiddle, piano, clarinet, and trombone -- but the entirety of this disc is toe-tapping and addictive. The sound is closed in, even monophonic, but this gives it some old-timey charm. There's really nothing I can criticize here, and if you've bought and enjoyed any of other the discs I mention above, you'll want this one too....Marc Mickelson

David Wilcox - What You Whispered
Vanguard 79564-2, 2000

SnapShot! Rating:

In the acute and heartfelt observations of his songs, David Wilcox brings James Taylor to mind. And like Taylor, Wilcox proves that being, ahem, emotionally literate, even almost to the point of melodrama, can be cool. "This Tattoo" begins with some plinkly banjo, then goes on to tell the under-the-skin story of choices and actions. "Rule Number One" explains the critical first rule of dating: "better to run, get away clean" instead of overlooking or accepting less-than-ideal traits in others. Thus it's small observations that are bedrock on What You Whispered and perhaps the reason why most of the songs hover around three minutes in length. Why belabor the point? Wilcox's voice and enunciation are so clear that you won't need the non-existent liner notes to understand his words or delivery, and this makes these songs of heart and soul all the more attention-grabbing, even vital....Marc Mickelson