“Wait a minute,” you might think, after hearing about The Rolling Thunder Review: The 1975 Live Recordings. “Didn’t Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series already devote a volume to that concert tour?” Yup, and the very first paragraph of the liner notes for this new package concedes that the earlier one collected “what we thought were the...
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May 1, 2019May 1, 2019Entertainment
Album Reviews: Bob Dylan – Carnegie Chapter Hall, Plus Little Steven – Summer of Sorcery
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...
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March 27, 2019March 27, 2019Entertainment
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...
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March 20, 2019March 20, 2019Music
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...
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December 17, 2018December 17, 2018Music
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...
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October 16, 2018October 16, 2018Video
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...
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October 16, 2018October 16, 2018Entertainment
Album Reviews: The Ramones – Road to Ruin (40th Anniversary Edition), Plus New Music from Johnny & Jaalene, Dave Keller, Permanent Green Light
By the time the Ramones got around to crafting their fourth album, they must have been feeling a little nervous. Several of their contemporaries on the punk/new wave scene— including Blondie, Elvis Costello, and Talking Heads—had begun to break through commercially. They had not. Their first two albums had flopped; and while their third, Rocket to...
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September 5, 2018September 5, 2018Music
Album & Book Reviews: Steve Forbert – Big City Cat (book) & The Magic Tree (CD) + Music by Vanessa Peters, Anthony Geraci, Chris Darrow & Max Buda
Particularly if you’ve been listening to Steve Forbert’s music for many years, you’re bound to have some fun with his new memoir, Big City Cat: My Life in Folk-Rock. The book—which lifts its title from that of a track on Alive on Arrival, his 1978 debut LP—offers lots of commentary on the inspiration for Forbert’s...
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August 26, 2018August 26, 2018Music
Music Review: Paul McCartney – Egypt Station
Much of the most interesting work of Paul McCartney’s career has been issued over the course of the last 20 years or so. Albums such as Flaming Pie (1997), Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005), Memory Almost Full (2007), and New (2013) have contained some of the more varied, introspective, and downright creative songs...
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August 10, 2018August 10, 2018Video
Blu-ray Review: Avengers: Infinity War
Epic. Engrossing. Thrilling. Funny. Tragic. What else do you want from a blockbuster spectacle? Avengers: Infinity War is all these things, ably proving that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is far from exhausted. In fact, however improbable it might be, it just seems to keep getting better. The 19th film in the now-20-strong franchise, Infinity War...