I'm KC

My latest audio feature for KCUR aired this morning.  I enjoyed my hangs with Walter Edwin, aka The Popper.  The segment lives online here.


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I reviewed James Taylor’s concert at the Sprint Center for The Kansas City Star.

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I also reviewed Jimmy Buffett’s concert at the Sprint Center for The Kansas City Star.  Opening act Caroline Jones was a revelation.  Her overproduced new album is almost unlistenable, but her solo renditions of songs like “Old Blue” charmed me on Saturday.

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I reviewed Harold O’Neal’s Piano Cinema at Plastic Sax.

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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star.

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I previewed Greta Van Fleet’s appearance at the Middle of the Map festival.

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Reggie Lucas has died. (Via BGO.)

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I woke up three hours earlier than usual today because I was so eager to hear Pusha T’s Daytona.  Kanye West’s production is stupendous.

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Old-boy networks can be good things.  Don Was, the current top dog at Blue Note Records, signed his old Was (Not Was) bandmate Dave McMurray.  Music Is Life is an old-school instrumental party album.  RIYL: Maceo Parker, Detroit, Lou Donaldson.

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The Brad Mehldau Trio is a victim of its own success.  If Seymour Reads the Constitution doesn’t sound revolutionary, it’s only because so many imitators have made the trio’s attack seem commonplace.  It’s not.

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What sorcery is this? Elina Duni’s magical Partir is unlike anything I’ve encountered.  RIYL: June Tabor, Albania, Márta Sebestyén.

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I don't hear what everyone else claims to hear in Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour.  Post-Christine McVie pop doesn’t appeal to me.  Musgraves’ new songs remind me of the formulaic music I hear during my periodic digs through the closeout racks at Macy’s.

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I hadn’t encountered the striking music video for “Ndogal,” a track from Cheikh Lô’s 1995 album Ne La Thiass, until World Circuit uploaded it this week.

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Iceage’s Beyondless is a mess- and I like it.  Strings, horns and other unlikely embellishments complement the slurred vocals of Elias Bender Rønnenfelt on the Danish band’s strung-out fourth album.  RIYL: The Saints, hitting rock bottom, Nick Cave.

(Original image of The Popper by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Vieux Farka Touré- Mon Pays

Vieux Farka Touré has served as my mental health counselor for the past ten days.  It's my understanding that his new album Mon Pays addresses the horrors afflicting his native Mali, but the album has consoled me as I struggle with my decidedly less dramatic personal issues.  The rapturously beautiful album lacks the startling "new thing" element that characterized his father Ali Farka Touré's crossover albums in the 1990s.  Yet Mon Pays' sense of familiarity brings me comfort.  Blessed relief is just a click away.

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Tim Finn wrote a remembrance of Abigail Henderson.

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Sathima Bea Benjamin has died.

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ReJoyce, a new Joyce DiDonato compilation, contains six previously-unreleased tracks.

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I reviewed Harold O'Neal's Man On the Street album at Plastic Sax.

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I recently stumbled across Dereck Higgins talking about the French label BYG Actuel on his YouTube channel.  I love everything about this guy.

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Kentucky Knife Fight's Hush Hush is RIYL: The Hold Steady, Lucero, Vic Chesnutt. 

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A$AP Ferg's Trap Lord is as harrowing as Mon Pays is comforting.

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The EPK for Linda Oh's Sun Pictures reflects the album's charms.  RIYL: Kurt Rosenwinkel, Matt Wilson, Todd Clouser.

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Light In the Attic is releasing a massive box set of material originally released by Lee Hazelwood Industries.

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Here's footage of Steve Coleman's Five Elements tearing it up.

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Four Fists is a new collaboration between P.O.S and Astronautalis.  RIYL: TV On the Radio, Nine Inch Nails, Beck.

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The trailer for Narco Cultura is fantastic.

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This week's new releases of interest to There Stands the Glass include Tamar Braxton, Richard Buckner, Neko Case, Joyce DiDonato, Dave Holland's Prism (here's a fusion-tastic sample), Jaheim, King Khan & The Shrines, Kreator, John Legend, Glenn Lewis, Nine Inch Nails, North Mississippi Allstars, Okkervil River, Raheem DeVaughn, a collaboration between Julian Lage and Fred Hersch, a new version of Verdi's Requiem and the Numero Group's Forte compilation.

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)