EAT. SHOP. PLAY. Discovering the Best in the San Fernando Valley
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BY BILL BENTLEY Los Lobos, Tin Can Trust, Shout! Factory Records Los Lobos has always been about borders, and the way they have to be navigated. Whether you internalize them, cross them or even blow them apart, this East L.A. band has never been … [Read more...]
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BY BILL BENTLEY Marc Cohn, Listening Booth: 1970, Saguaro Road Records Turning a song by Bread into something so soulful it sounds just this side of Al Green is no easy feat. But that's exactly what Marc Cohn does on this intriguing concept album … [Read more...]
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BY BILL BENTLEY Robert Randolph and the Family Band, We Walk This Road, Warner Bros. Records Arriving fully-formed and ready to burn, almost like he'd been transported from another planet and sent to save our souls, pedal steel guitarist Robert … [Read more...]
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BY BILL BENTLEY Mary Gauthier, The Foundling, Razor & Tie Records Concept albums can be deadly. Some seem inspired by the angels and can bring listeners to their knees. Others will make you run for the hills holding your ears and screaming … [Read more...]
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BY BILL BENTLEY Cyndi Lauper, Memphis Blues, Mercer Street Records Good God, ya'll. The Queen of Sheen has traveled a long and dusty road to get to Memphis, Tennessee — home of the blues and all kinds of other sonic shenanigans. Cyndi Lauper … [Read more...]
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BY BILL BENTLEY Mark Chestnutt, Outlaw, Saguaro Road Records The outlaw movement in country music during the 1970s was a little bit like professional wrestling. You could believe some of it--people were actually performing fairly high wire acts … [Read more...]
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BY BILL BENTLEY Tom Petty, Mojo,Reprise Records Two years ago Tom Petty cranked up his '70s Florida band Mudcrutch and made an album. Playing that music might have taken some of the pressure off Petty, allowing him to go to that Southern place … [Read more...]
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BY BILL BENTLEY Bill Kirchen, Word To The Wise, Proper American Just when it seems like every guest artist album has been made, and are even starting to drift into the area of gags—what's next, Paul Anka and Axl Rose sing the songs of Sesame … [Read more...]
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BY BILL BENTLEY Various Artists, The Village, 429 Records To find the spiritual center of New York City, head for Washington Square in Greenwich Village. There is an air of everythingness in the big park, that anything can happen and no one will be … [Read more...]
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BY BILL BENTLEY Long John Hunter, Looking For A Party, Blues Express Records Best blues album of the year, hands down. Long John Hunter has honed his music over tens of thousands of nights starting in the early ‘50s, and taken a serpentine route … [Read more...]
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