A Line in the Sand

I was certain Florida-Georgia Line was the worst band I’d ever encountered the first time I attended a performance by the pop-country act.  The duo’s new Can’t Say I Ain’t Country is another batch of calculated bro-country gewgaws, but my antipathy toward the style has waned.  Not only does Florida-Georgia Line no longer offend me, I’ve come to respect the hustle.  Aspiring to be the country version of Maroon 5 is a savvy business decision.  And I genuinely enjoy singing the lyric “lookin’ like a line from a Vandross song” over the canned production of “Talk You Out of It.” I’m also amused by the lustiness of the Ronnie Milsap-style slow jam “Told You.”  Only the infuriating stomp-and-shout “Simple” and the crass corniness of “Women” make me want to break things.


---
I reviewed Elton John’s Kansas City swan song at the Sprint Center.

---
I reviewed Blake Shelton’s collaboration with Trace Adkins, Lauren Alaina, John Anderson and the Bellamy Brothers at the Sprint Center.

---
I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

---
I take note of Karrin Allyson’s Some of That Sunshine at Plastic Sax.

---
“I Love a Groove”.  The “word-jazz” artist Ken Nordine has died.

---
I pray that the inherent pleasures of state-of-the-art pop will never sound stale to me.  While the album is immediately gratifying, the aggrieved tone of Ariana Grande Thank You, Next makes it less enjoyable than last year’s Sweetener.  Here’s “Bloodline”.

---
Shake it on down.  Signs, the latest release by the Tedeschi Trucks Band, makes me want to sell all my earthly possessions in order to follow the groovy blues/soul/rock/jam band around the globe.  RIYL: the Band, tie-dye, Leon Russell.  Here’s “Hard Case”.

---
Sincerely, the P, the bittersweet finale of the longstanding Los Angeles hip-hop duo People Under the Stairs, is endearing.

---
I’m pained to report that Songs of Freedom, Ulysses Owens Jr.’s well-intentioned album of socially conscious songs like “Mississippi Goddam,” has no bite.  Toothless and stuffy, the all-star project sounds as if it’s aimed at the residents of blue state nursing homes.

---
I adore Kid Koala’s new ambient-oriented album Music to Draw To: Io.  RIYL: Pink Floyd, astral projection, Daniel Lanois.  Here’s “All For You”.

---
Even though there’s not a single original note on Texas Queens 5, I can’t can’t stop listening to the collaboration between the Japanese roots revivalist group Bloodest Saxophone and a few Texas based vocalists.  Here’s “Losing Battle”.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Song Review: Ambrose Akinmusire's “a blooming bloodfruit in a hoodie”

Ambrose Akinmusire’s validation of my hot take on his new song “a blooming bloodfruit in a hoodie” gratified me last week.  Minutes after I suggested that the “essential new ‘a blooming bloodfruit in a hoodie’ is the jazz equivalent of Lou Reed’s monumental ‘Street Hassle’” on Twitter, Akinmusire affirmed the assessment.  Like “Street Hassle,” the coarse 13-minute track is simultaneously funny and tragic as it fluently merges high art and popular music.  The opening selection from the forthcoming album Origami Harvest is one of the most exciting things I’ve heard in 2018 and reinforces my belief that Akinmusire is one of the most vital artists of the new millennium.


---
I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

---
I reviewed the Count Basie Orchestra’s new album All About That Basie at Plastic Sax.

---
I’d be lying if I suggested I was a fan of Mac Miller.  Even so, his recent Tiny Desk Concert featuring a band that includes Thundercat and Justus West showed Miller evolving toward a musical direction that appeals to me.  Miller died last week.

---
The rugged saxophonist Big Jay McNeely has died.

---
Maartin Allcock of Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

---
Katherine Paul, the woman behind Black Belt Eagle Scout, is less heralded than many of her similarly winsome indie-rock peers, but I prefer her album Mother of My Children to most of the more acclaimed efforts.  Here’s “Indians Never Die”.

---
Rich the Factor makes a cameo appearance on Rico, the new album by the ostensible drug kingpin and rapper Berner.  Chronixx, Cam’ron and Kevin Gates are also featured.  Here’s the title track.

---
Cedric Burnside’s Benton County Relic is an admirable blues album.  RIYL: R.L. Burnside, family traditions, T-Model Ford.

---
I’m still mourning the February death of Jóhann Jóhannsson.  The Icelandic composer’s posthumously released score for the horror flick Mandy also acts as an unsettlingly abrasive soundtrack for the current societal discourse.

---
Most people think I’m kidding when I tell them I adore Ariana Grande’s recent music.  Maybe they’ll come around to my way of hearing things after they take in the pop star’s interpretation of Thundercat’s “Them Changes.”

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Elza Soares- Deus É Mulher

I’ve long posited that Miles Davis had a more extreme evolution over the course of a career than any other musician.  Maybe I’ve been wrong.  Elza Soares went from this in 1965 to this in 2017.  The Brazilian octogenarian’s abrasive new samba album Deus É Mulher (God Is Woman) resembles an experimental Bill Laswell production.  Even though I can’t pretend to understand even half of the social, political and artistic implications of Soares’ transformation, I’m awed by her audacious fearlessness.  Here’s the punk-infused “Dentro de Cada Um”.


---
Lazy Lester has died.  I documented a 2008 performance by the blues man.

---
Ed King of Lynyrd Skynyrd has died.

---
Ed “Mr. Bongo” Costanzo has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

---
I love every element of Erykah Badu’s Tiny Desk Concert.

---
I understand the appeal of being one of Nicki Minaj’s minions.  Unfortunately, I can’t bring myself to sign up.  While fascinating, Queen is wildly inconsistent.  That said, all 47 minutes of Sweetener, the blissful pop album by Minaj’s pal Ariana Grande, are delicious.

---
Thee Oh Sees have a full metal freakout on the hilariously gonzo Smote Reverser.  RIYL: Atomic Rooster, acid rock, Spooky Tooth.  The joke wears thin halfway through the hour-long album.  Here’s “Anthemic Aggressor”

---
Slug and Ant on a train!  Atmosphere’s “Virgo” may be corny, but I remain all-in on my generational and regional peers in Atmosphere.

---
I’m a sucker for metallic novelties.  Trappist recently issued an entire album of thrash songs about beer.  Ancient Brewing Tactics opens with the video-of-the-year candidate “No Soldiers Left Behind”.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Juke

Rather than shedding tears of grief upon learning of the death of the aged blues harmonica titan James Cotton yesterday, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for living during an era that enabled me to catch multiple performances by the luminary.  I first witnessed Cotton at the original incarnation of Antone’s in Austin. I heard him for the last time at the Uptown Theater in 2011.  Thanks to the blues scare of the late 1980s and early 1990s, I also attended plenty of gigs by John Lee Hooker, Hubert Sumlin, Jimmy Rogers, Albert Collins, B.B. King, Bobby Bland, Honeyboy Edwards, Koko Taylor, Johnny Copeland, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Z.Z. Hill and many other since-departed giants.  The blues was alright.


---
I reviewed last night’s outstanding concert by Charlie Wilson, Fantasia and Johnny Gill at the Sprint Center.

---
I reviewed Ben Folds’ concert with the Kansas City Symphony.

---
I reviewed the Quality Hill Playhouse production “Unchained Melody.”

---
I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

---
I named Everette DeVan the KCUR Band of the Week.

---
I wrote an extended concert preview about Ariana Grande for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

---
I reviewed the one-man play Live Bird at Plastic Sax.

---
Evan Johns has died.

---
Joni Sledge has died.

---
Tommy LiPuma has died.

---
New albums by the Kansas City based artists Samantha Fish, Hermon Mehari and Matt Otto were released today.

---
The heavy Kansas City rock band Hyborian is off to an auspicious start with ”As Above, So Below”.

---
Based on the stellar quality of the three advance tracks from Valerie June’s new album The Order of Time, I was hoping for a modern-day Astral Weeks.  It’s not even close.  The remainder of The Order of Time is merely good.  RIYL: Van Morrison, celestial boogie, Iris DeMent.

---
I thought I’d outgrown 1980s college rock, but the Rolling Blackouts' The French Press makes me swoon in spite of myself.  RIYL: The Windbreakers, 1985,  the Go-Betweens.  Here’s ”Julie’s Place”.

---
Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives’ Way Out West is a showcase for guitarist Kenny Vaughan.  RIYL: Dick Dale, spaghetti westerns, Marty Robbins.  Here’s the title track.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)