Caroline Polachek is back with her sophomore release called Desire, I Want To Turn Into You. Polachek continues her journey of bending the norms of pop music to her whims, making something out of nothing, and summoning nuance from disorganization. Polachek wrote nine of the twelve songs for the album in London with her close collaborator Danny L Harle. The album is themed with her vision of love and desire, and she explores the obtuse with the sublime.

Polachek’s warm and expressive voice opens the album with “Welcome To My Island,” which displays impressive vocal range and tone. The cybernetic and repetitive lyrics [...]

Paul “Hollywood” Litteral has been an in-demand trumpeter for decades, appearing on over 150 albums. Litteral founded the Uptown Horns with saxophonist Arno Hecht in 1978, and he has since worked with many rock and soul groups (including J. Geils, the Rolling Stones, Robert Plant, Tom Waits, Joe Cocker, James Brown, Pat Benatar, and Ray Charles). In addition, Litteral’s work as a trumpeter, arranger-composer, and musical director resulted in him gaining the nickname “Hollywood Paul.” He currently performs with Angela O’Neill and the Outrageous8, and many others. Litteral is releasing his debut album as a leader titled Legacy, on which [...]

The Winery Dogs are back after a seven-year pause with their latest full-length studio album Called III. The Winery Dogs comprises Ritchie Kotzen on guitar and vocals, Billy Sheehan on bass, and drummer Mike Portnoy. This power rock trio will not disappoint; if you are a long-time fan, you will love III. However, prepare to be rocked out of your seat if this is your introduction to The Winery Dogs. This power trio has virtuosity, great vocals, and well-written songs. In addition, Jay Ruston did a beautiful job mixing the album.

“Xanadu,” the opening track, starts with a bang. The song brings the trio’s talents together in a joyous sound of a catchy [...]

François-Frédéric Guy is releasing his firsrt recording of the music by Chopin. Secret Garden is Guy’s poetic imagination that combines fantasy and consistency in his phrasing in dialogue with his instrument’s unique and charming timbres. This recital, paying homage to the master pianists of the early twentieth century, revives an art of singing in a way that seems utterly natural, such as the clarity and fluidity of the playing. Secret Garden was recorded on a 1905 Pleyel piano, a sublime instrument restored at the workshop of Pianos Balleron.

Nocturne in B-Flat Minor, Op. 9 No. 1, opens the recording. The warm and [...]

Firelight Trio plays European folk music that is evocative, imaginative, and endlessly thrilling. Firelight Trio is their debut album of driving fiddle, and stately nyckelharpa meet deep accordion grooves in a vivid embroidery of lively Swedish polskas and Scottish reels, lilting French waltzes, toe-tapping klezmer, and impressive original tunes. Firelight Trio brings musicians from Moishe’s Bagel, Gavin Marwick’s Journeyman, and Bellevue Rendezvous to create a mighty, exciting sound, wide-ranging and richly textured. Ruth Morris’ resonant nyckelharpa is matched by Marwick’s powerhouse fiddle, all backed up by Phil [...]

Country artist Margo Price is back with another album titled Strays. Produced by Price and Jonathan Wilson (Angel Olsen, Father John Misty), Strays was recorded at Fivestar Studio in California’s Topanga Canyon. The songs were written during a six-day mushroom-filled trip that Price and her husband Jeremy Ivey took to South Carolina – amongst the hallucinatory hills of western Los Angeles, Price experienced the best recording sessions of her career. “I feel this urgency to keep moving, keep creating,” says Price. “You get stuck in the same patterns of thinking, the same loops of addiction. But there comes a point where you just have [...]