Joanne Lurgio scores big on Rise From The Storm CD
Joanne Lurgio’s third album Rise From The Storm is a fully realized collection of songs focused on recovery and survival. Every number focuses on loss, struggle, and spiritual injury. Never maudlin, Lurgio presents each one as a story of hope, as there is almost always a way to change course, even if the only course is acceptance. Wrapping her singer-songwriter themes with flinty, gritty, emotive roots style instrumentation, she presents these nuggets as something wholly organic and earthy.
Jon Chi reaches great singer-songwriter heights on rockin’ roots album Another Rising Sun
Jon Chi’s latest album Another Rising Sun is sure to bring him ever greater recognition in his two fan bases. An artist who divides his time between Boston and Milwaukee, Chi’s Berklee education and his flinty life experience in a mill town make him an artist that many can relate to. He also has a lot to draw from in his musical palette, using it to create painterly stories from his well spring of encounters with interesting characters, including a childhood bully who grew up to be a convicted killer.
Anne Stott masters the musical quirk on Love Never Dies
Anne Stott’s third album Love Never Dies percolates with thick, irresistible grooves and sly rhythms. Stott’s voice is so strong that she raises each of her personal reflections into anthems, declarations, statements that her backing players punctuate with hefty slabs of bass and drums and incisive melodic lines from guitar and keyboards. At times, this Provincetown singer casually slides into a down tempo whispery piece of prettiness. Yet, her voice and her message remain as powerful as they come across in her more driving numbers. She also takes some different twists and turns in her song crafting, moving in directions refreshingly unpredictable.
Rob Lytle offers a lot of warmth and honesty on stand out CD A Hypocrite Of Heart And Hope
Rob Lytle has released another album of charming, winsome singer-songwriter material. His new disc, A Hypocrite Of Heart And Hope, travels many personal paths. One cannot help but fall in love with Lytle’s witty, heartfelt reflections on all that has befallen him in his past. He sings these wistful memory songs, down on his luck stories, and failed relationship songs with gentlemanly aplomb and easy going country music influences. These songs gain most of their quality from the palpable personality Lytle injects into each one.
Carolyn Walker shows brilliant potential on Incarnadine album
Carolyn Walker’s sophomore CD Incarnadine offers many shades, nuances, and interpretations of the singer-songwriter genre. Walker is also a masterful multi-instrumentalist who plays violin, viola, acoustic guitar, Chinese instruments and many others. There are enough golden nuggets on this ten track album to suggest Walker is a brilliant artist with the potential for a very bright future in the music business.
Lori Diamond & Fred Abatelli share the love on Lifted album
Lori Diamond & Fred Abatelli have come up with another album of lovely, accessible singer-songwriter material. Lifted is an expression of the love the two share with one another, and they use their sophisticated musical and vocal abilities to share that love with the world through moving, uplifting soundscapes. Though this album clearly falls within the singer-songwriter genre, it offers sweeps of sound and lush harmonies that make it something larger than a pair of players with their acoustic instruments. There is a grander artistic vision than on their previous recordings.
Conrad Warre side project Invisible House scores with A History Of The World album
Invisible House is a super charged duo which includes Boston’s guitar wiz Conrad Warre. This debut album finds Warre teaming up with New York City drummer Giacomo Servetti. On this recording, titled A History Of The World, the duo displays fine chops and exciting musical concepts. This album is something to listen to when one wants to engage one’s mind with tasteful interplay between skillful musicians while having a quiet drink. Savor the flavors on each track because they’re too good to let go to waste as background music while cruising the highway or working out at the gym.
Hilton Park outdo themselves with Strings album
Hilton Park’s latest CD Strings plays out with a shiny vibrancy that often makes the three piece acoustic act sound like a full electric band. Every note from every instrument is brimming with life on this album, and it would be an understatement to say this trio have outdone themselves.
Keep Safe Boston compilation offers many gems and pearls, while supporting a great cause
A community organization calling itself Keep Safe Boston compiled these fifty gems and pearls onto one disc to raise funds for Planned Parenthood. Spearheaded by local on air personality Anngelle Wood, this compilation pretty much compiled itself when many notable Boston music acts responded to a mass e-mail she went out requesting song contributions. For a little as a dollar, music fans can support this cause while checking out some incredible good local music.
D-Tension keeps it real on Secret Project album; benefits from leaving his comfort zone
Boston‘s 20 year veteran of the hip hop recording studio D-Tension has briefly put aside his penchant for rap. Here, on his Secret Project album, he picks up a keytar, a bass, a guitar, plays some drums, and brings in a bunch of locally and nationally known lead singers to flesh his compositions. On this album, D-Tension dives headlong and headstrong into alternative indie rock synth pop idioms and swims back to the surface with something very successful in his new found genre love.
