int'l (2) + reggae (1) = new tunes 4 u
COMRADES! Pledge drive week is on, and that means we need some new tunes....or at least some new versions of old ones! Eh?! Right! LUKA BLOOM delivers a solid set, BLACK 47 gets compiled, and RICO RODRIGUEZ continues the curious trend of old skasters making live recordings in Argentina....Artist: Rico Rodriguez & Roots To The Bone Band
Title: Togetherness
Label: Delanunca
Genre: reggae / ska legend pays the bills
Grade: B / B-
Rodriguez is a famed session man from Jamaican proto-ska on through to his work with The Specials. Superb resume, less than stunning performance—still, there’s some nice, live ska tracks here, led by Rodriguez’s trombone. By the way, what’s up with the recent rash of live ska recorded in Argentina?!
Reviewer: bjorn ingvoldstad
Artist: Black ‘47
Title: Bittersweet Sixteen
Label: Gadfly
Genre: int’l / Celtic rock
Grade: A- / B+
Black ’47 were once tipped to be the next Pogues, and I think we all know how that one turned out. On Bittersweet Sixteen, the New York-based band gets the sort-of best-of treatment: their major label material is out of print and out of touch, so this compilation relies a lot on live tracks, early versions, and the like. There’s a surprising amount of drum machine on early demos like “Home of the Brave” (01) and “Funky Ceili” (02), but I think it’s to their advantage in retrospect. Interested parties might want to check out the David Johansen sit-in on “Staten Island Baby” (11), and some of the other live cuts. The band is still playing weekly in NYC—and someday they’re going to get their masters back.
Reviewer: bjorn ingvoldstad
Artist: Luka Bloom
Title: Innocence
Label: Cooking Vinyl
Genre: int’l / acoustic Celtic
Grade: A
On Innocence, Bloom goes deeper and wider than he has ever even attempted before. These songs are illustrated quietly, with his guitar, acoustic basses, reeds and woodwinds, a derbuka on a couple of cuts, a fiddle here and there, some percussion, a harmonica painting the back of a track, and a couple of backing vocalists when necessary. This is a spiritual record, full of love songs and paeans to the spirits of peace, tolerance, and letting the past go. ( 4 stars )
Reviewer: Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
posted by Anonymous @ 8:47:00 PM
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