For set one, go here. 1. Magnificent 7 2. Wrong Em Boyo 3. Career Opportunties 4. Somebody Got Murdered 5. Brand New Cadillac 6. I Fought the Law 7. Armagideon Time 8. Should I Stay or Should I Go 9. Clampdown 10.Straight to Hell ZIP FILE

Here’s a neat little record, from Black Hen Records. Steve Dawson’s new album is due on February 5, and it reveals yet another solid Canadian singer-songwriter. I don’t know what they put in the water up there, but whatever it is, it’s working. Accompanied by expert musicians including Keith Lowe (Bill Frisell, Fiona Apple) on [...]

The easy comparison is to Tom Waits, but I’m not gonna say it. Instead, I’m gonna tell you that Brian Grosz is a bluesy and gruff singer-songwriter who weaves tales of problems that can be best solved with bullets to the head and bags of trash that hang like grapefruits from the trees. It’s guitar-based [...]

From the mailbag, I wanna point some of you to Scott Cook, a country-roots artist. Lots of my readers won’t cotton to this easy—it’s simple backporch music that isn’t typically featured here. Some of you will find it corny, or old fashioned, or somesuch. But I’m betting there’s a few of you who will appreciate [...]

“It’s too short,” said the person who gave me this CD, to which I responded in my usual knowitall kinda way that I like short albums because it means the work is not bloated with extras and mystery tracks and all kinds of nonsense that I’ll just end up skipping anyway. But this time, after [...]