After the highly acclaimed ‘Skywriting’ in 2018, the band The Yearlings are back with ‘After All The Party Years’. A dark and intense album that combines the best of alt-country and beautiful indie poprock! 

The wolf has always captured the imagination. Just think of the expression ‘howlin’ at the moon’. The animal also appears in fairy tales, mythologies and religions and Chester Arthur Burnett even found his stage name in it as Howlin’ Wolf. But the mighty, always on the hunt wolf also often appeared in music. That is why the German Bear Family Records has bundled 32 songs on this album, all of which have the wolf as their subject, both as a living creature and as a metaphor. Some artists have taken on the role of the animal to adopt a powerful, but also self-centered sexual image.
What immediately becomes clear is that the wolf loves the most diverse music genres. The album opens very powerfully with the jump rhythm & blues of Freddie Bell and The Bell Boys in ‘The Big Bad Wolf’. Round Robin identifies with the animal in the raw and infectious ‘I’m The Wolf Man’, after which Frankie Stein and His Ghouls portray the wolf in a monstrous way in the instrumental ‘Weerdo The Wolf, and pay special attention to that sublime harmonica. More instrumental work, including a ripping sax, comes later with ‘Wolf Call’ by Lord Dent and His Invaders, as well as during the guitar-driven ‘Weird Wolf’ by The Ghouls. Howlin’ Wolf was not only a heavily built person, but also had an impressive appearance. His stage name is therefore more or less self-evident. Here he is present with ‘The Wolf Is At Your Door’, in which he shows a beautiful piece on the blues harp as only he could. Also present are the magnificent Maddox Brothers and Rose with the uptempo ‘Stop Whistlin’ Wolf’. The wolf in a hillbilly jacket is presented by Billy Strickland with ‘Hillbilly Wolf’. Formidable rhythm & blues is rather the ingredient for ‘You Bring Out The Wolf In Me’ by blues shouter Piney Brown. Pianist Amos Milburn portrays himself as the ‘Wolf On The River’ and, as always, shows fantastic work on the black and white keys. Rockabilly in its wildest version is the keyword for ‘Lonely Wolf’ by the indomitable energetic Ray Harris. The King certainly could not be missed. Elvis can be heard here with ‘Wolf Call’ from the soundtrack of his film ‘Girl Happy’. A more than formidable rocking country song comes with ‘Big Bad Wolf’ by Clinton O’Neal & The Country Drifters, after which it becomes slow time with ‘Wolf Bait’ by Henry Thome. The successes that The Coasters booked, formed the reason for the studio project The Idols, who have a nice danceable number with ‘The Prowler’. The fairy tale ‘Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf’ inspired several artists, such as Bunker Hill and the super raw ‘Red Ridin’ Hood and The Wolf’, in which he is accompanied by Link Wray and The Raymen. A perfect combination without a doubt! With ‘Wooly Bully’ Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs had a world hit. For them too, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ provided the inspiration for ‘Lil’ Red Hiding Hood’. Things are more sophisticated with Ace Harris and His Orchestra in ‘Baby, Maybe You’re The Wolf’. Beautiful harmonica work then sets the rocking ‘The Wolf Pack’ by Kid Thomas on the track. It is incomprehensible that the man was not allowed to collect major successes. Blues harp is also prominently present on the successor ‘Wolf Call Boogie’ by Hot Shot Love. He recorded this excellent number for Sun in 1954. For a somewhat poppy wolf you should go to ‘Big Bad Wolf’ by Brian Diamond and The Cutters. As usual, you will also find a number of rare recordings on this album. One of them is certainly the wonderfully sung ‘The Wolf Hop’ by The Anderson Sisters.
With ‘On The Prowl With The Wolf’, Bear Family Records has once again added a very awesome theme album to the catalogue and let’s be clear, this album is anything but ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’!

Them Dirty Dimes is a Dutch quintet that uses guitars, mandolins, banjo, fiddle and upright bass. Their music is based on age-old genres, which they artfully merge into their own sound. Their songs are influenced by blues, folk, gypsy jazz, bluegrass and Americana. In 2021, the band debuted with the album ‘In Gold We Trust’, which was followed up two years later with ‘Empty Pockets’. For their latest album ‘Spare Change’, the band went to the Rode Hert Studios where they recorded the eight acoustic songs live. Let us be clear right away. ‘Spare Change’ has become an extremely fine album. First of all, the live recordings guarantee a great deal of playing pleasure and secondly, all the songs are originals by banjo player Johan Stolk. The album opens with ‘Love On Wheels’, which immediately shows that The Dirty Dimes are masters in fusing roots genres into a tasteful sound of their own. The next song ‘Hang On Rosie’ is a ballad in a wonderful ‘old school’ style. And also note the super beautiful harmonies. ‘Don’t Let Me Be’ sounds rousing, a song that will certainly receive a lot of response during gigs. The title track closes the A side with modest beauty.
On side B, ‘Northern Gals’ stands out, in which the influences from gypsy jazz cannot be denied. The successor is the catchy, soberly accompanied ‘Hangman’.
With ‘Spare Change’, The Dirty Dimes profile themselves as a band that knows how to transform old music genres to contemporary standards with expertise, the applause is the best proof of that. Beautiful album!

Big Al and The Heavyweights, who hail from South Louisiana, have absolutely absorbed the multi rhythms and rich cultural diversity of the region on their newest Vizztone release, BLUES POWER. With the tragic loss of long time keyboard player and vocalist, Wayne Lohr, the band has returned to its original lineup of harmonica, bass, drums and guitar. On their eighth recording of original music, the band is soaring with energy infused from new members, Dangerous Dale Robertson on harp and Dennis the Menace Cedeno on bass, along with longtime guitarist vocalist Marcel Anton and Big Al Lauro on drums. From greasy funk to grinding blues mixed with some dance hall bayou soul and infectious zydeco, this album is truly a fine representation of American Roots Music

Last year you got the review of the first volume. We concluded that review with the fact that we were looking forward to the second volume. That volume is here now and effortlessly meets expectations. Just like the first volume, this album also contains demos (although given the professional performances, this word is not really appropriate here) of new songs that were proposed to Elvis. Songs from which he then chose those that he considered suitable for himself.
Between 1963 and 1968, Randy Starr wrote about seventy songs, of which you get 31 here, which incidentally see the light of day for the first time and can also be heard in excellent sound. In addition to songs that were proposed for Elvis' films, this album also contains proposals for studio recordings. Randy was born in 1930 and can write behind his name that Elvis personally selected no less than 12 of his compositions for the soundtracks of his films. Randy's compositions were sung by himself as well as by Malcolm Dodds, Kenny Karen, Bernie Knee and Mimi Roman. For this, the best studios and musicians were always selected, so that Elvis could form a perfect picture of the direction the songs could take.
The opener is the song ‘Carny Town’ sung by Dodds, which Elvis would sing in the film ‘Roustabout’. Although they are all great songs, they were not always retained by Presley. One of those wonderful recordings is certainly ‘(The) Valley Of Loneliness’, which unfortunately would remain an acetate. The duet ‘You Want What I Want’, performed here by Malcolm Dodds with an unknown female singer, is also beautiful. Another impressive duet that was unfortunately not recorded by the King, is ‘You Can’t Hate Me For That’, here by Kenny Karen and Jean Fox. It is also incomprehensible that the compelling ‘Goodnight Lovers’ was not recorded by Elvis. Yet it is a song that was written for him. The latter also applied to ‘Who Needs Money?’, which fortunately did get a place, namely in the film ‘Clambake’. It is also incomprehensible that ‘Runaway Child’ was rejected. A formidable number that also boasts a sublime guitar part. The same goes for ‘Feelin’ Fine’ that was proposed for the film ‘Speedway’, as well as for ‘(A) Step In The Right Direction’ with a wonderfully sounding guitar in genuine Chuck Berry style and certainly for the captivating ‘People In Love’. Also rejected was ‘Love Is The Name Of The Game’ that would certainly have been in its place in the film ‘Change Of Habit’.
As a bonus track you get the sublime, somewhat jazzy ‘I’ve Got News For You (Read All About It)’ that was sung in the film ‘Girl Happy’ by Nita Talbot and Shelley Fabares. The version that was proposed was sung by Mimi Roman.
The 33-page richly illustrated booklet is by the British Elvis expert Trevor Simpson and is based on interviews he had with Randy. Volume 2 of ‘Randy Starr Presley Style’ is filled with 31 incredibly clever songs. The only question that remains is why certain proposed songs were rejected. Elvis and his entourage must have had a reason for it. Fortunately, we can still enjoy them on this album and again, don’t be discouraged by the term ‘demos’ because these are professional performances.

Discover the unknown musical world of the island Corsica with beautiful polyphonic songs and poignant laments.

Matt T Mahony (BE), artist name of Matti De Rijcke, is a guitarist, singer and songwriter located in Ghent's thriving music scene. Since the early days of blues and roots club Missy Sippy, he has organized the now legendary 'Sunday Sessions' every first Sunday of the month. As host, he always puts the heat on his guests. Finally, the release of the long-awaited new album is here! 'Good man blues' represents a wandering in search of a lost sense of home. The artwork was created by designer Mark Schmeitz. He drew inspiration from one of Matt T Mahony's favorite films, Wim Wenders' 'Paris, Texas'. In a melancholic mood, you cast your eyes on an arid landscape where the scorching heat makes you wonder if it is reality or rather a reflection or shadow you see. The music reflects this feeling just fine. A blues-dripping guitar, cutting harmonica, deep grooves at the bass and exotic rhythms in the drums provide the foundation for Matt T Mahony's songs. You hear a clear foundation of blues tradition but also wild organic improvisations that lean more towards Jazz.

Creativity and talent are in abundance with David Ronaldo and his Dices. With "Six String Preacher", they have once again delivered an impressive album featuring eleven absolute top tracks.

Modern compositions  of our traditional memory.  A revelation in the French folk scene.

When the opportunity for DeWolff to head to Muscle Shoals to record it was a dream come true. "Even before we were into Southern Rock, as a kid, Luka got an album of Southern Soul, and most of it was recorded at FAME." says singer/guitarist Pablo van de Poel of his brother. "Our introduction to Soul didn't start with James Brown; we started with Wilson Pickett.” In May 2024, they travelled to Muscle Shoals to record their 10th studio album between the two studios with Grammy Award-winning producer Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes). "You can really feel some kind of rock 'n roll magic in the air there," Pablo adds. "Right when we played our first notes there, I got goosebumps. This definitely was one of the best recording experiences we've ever had. Even the grand piano Leon Russell used was still there, just like the electric Wurlitzer piano that was used on "I Never Loved A Man" by Aretha Franklin!" Over the past 18 months, the enchanting psychedelic soul ‘n' rollers have preached their Electric Gospel on a cruise, in a castle, sold out countless headline tours across Europe and transformed festival crowds into their own disciples. They've toured with The Black Crowes and have previously played shows with Blues Pills, Deep Purple, TOTO, and count Seasick Steve as a fan.

The release ‘Coming Down From Heaven’ is the twelfth album, and the successor to ‘In Wording’, the conceptual experimental from 2023 and ‘Chromosome’ from 2024. So, now there is ‘Coming Home From Heaven’. Jorge made these recordings in a very turbulent year. He was next to me several times in an inhospitable exilium with a broken heart. Fortunately, he had his guitar with him and designed a lot of beautiful music. Once out of exile, he was authorized to fail everything. All this was a way of self-expression, of finding himself again and a way to survive. ‘Coming Down From Heaven’ has nine sung near nine instrumental compositions. Fourteen recordings date from 2011, and they construct with four new songs. On the album 'Coming Down To Heaven', vocal and acoustic songs sit neatly next to each other. What a wonderful piece to listen to! Admirably beautiful! 

A chicken without head runs like crazy, so does the experimental songs of Julián Mayorga.
You love it or you hate it!

Lovesick is an Italian based band formed of Paolo Roberto Pianezza, Francesca Alinovi and Alessandro Cosentino. They are all multi-instrumentalists, whose influences are deeply rooted in the American Country, rock'n'roll and western swing music of the 40s and 50s. In some songs The Mavericks are never far away. What a wonderful voice Pianezza has! And then that tight and cool rhythm section. 'Remember My Name' is a brilliant release... 

What a peaceful debut from this Brussels trio.  Strong in apparent simplicity.  Love it!