In the past week I’ve attended performances by banda, honky tonk, mainstream jazz and folk artists. I also wrote a short essay about an indie-rock group and talked about a heartland rock band on an NPR affiliate. While it’s all of a piece to me, I’ve regularly employed Cut, a new album by Chicago’s Stirrup, as a proverbial palate cleanser. Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm makes a Sonny Sharrock-esque racket in the unconventional power trio. It's the sort of room-clearing noise that's long appealed to me. Here’s correspondingly unpopular live footage.
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I reviewed a concert by Julión Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda and Poncho Barraza at the Sprint Center.
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I wrote an extended preview of Gwen Stefani’s concert at the Sprint Center.
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I pondered the carreer of the Rainmakers with Steve Kraske on KCUR last week.
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I reviewed Lee Ann Womack’s concert at Knuckleheads.
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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.
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I wimped out at Plastic Sax by not identifying the perpetrators of a dismal jazz performance.
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The folk star Glenn Yarbrough has died. Fun fact: he and Jac Holzman, the founder of Elektra and Nonesuch Records, were college roommates.
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I love E-40. The Bay Area rapper’s latest single ”Petty” tickles my ears.
(Original image of KCI floor tile art by There Stands the Glass.)
