Dixie Chicks – Taking the Long Way (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) I’m no big fan of the Dixie Chicks, or of country music in general — in fact, during my…
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Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Glen Phillips – Mr. Lemons (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) Third time’s the charm. Glen Phillips’ first solo album, 2001’s Abulum, found him taking his first steps away from the widescreen…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
A.J. Croce – Cantos (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) He started his career, with 1993’s A.J. Croce, as the obviously talented, yet musically undeveloped offspring of his late, lamented dad Jim;…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Goo Goo Dolls – Let Love In (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) The Goo Goo Dolls have sucked since they hit it big with 1995’s perfect power ballad, “Name.” If I…
Jeff Giles
3 Min Read
Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) As with all things Springsteen, there’s an avalanche of press surrounding Seeger Sessions, and it would be…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris – All the Roadrunning (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) It might seem like an odd pairing at first — she’s known for her voice, he made…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Survivor – Reach (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) You read that right, bitches. Survivor, as in “Eye of the Tiger,” and 2006, as in this year. Didn’t know the band was…
Jeff Giles
3 Min Read
The New Orleans Social Club – Sing Me Back Home (2006)purchase this albumWe set up shop at Wire Recording, a deep-dyed down home studio on a strip of highway along…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Erasure – Union Street (2006)purchase this album Erasure unplugged? It’s an idea that would have raised an awful lot of eyebrows fifteen years ago, when sad, black-clad girls all over…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Calexico – Garden Ruin (2006)purchase this album For lucky album #7, Calexico has opted to complete its journey into mainstream rock territory; ironically, this means your odds of enjoying Garden…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The Yayhoos – Put the Hammer Down (2006)purchase this album The Yayhoos are Eric Ambel, Terry Anderson, Dan Baird, and Keith Christopher Á¢€” and if those names don’t ring any…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Hotel Lights – Hotel Lights (2006)purchase this album Holy crap, is this record mellow. It couldn’t get any mellower if it had been recorded by Mellow McMellowstein and His Mellow…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Luka Bloom – Innocence (2006)purchase this album I must begin by saying that, for a guy who spends so much time writing about these singer/songwriter types, my knowledge of Luka…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The Weepies – Say I Am You (2006)purchase this album The Weepies Á¢€” or, as their moms call them, Deb Talan and Steve Tannen Á¢€” don’t have an original bone…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Matt Nathanson – At the Point (2006)purchase this album Matt Nathanson killed my career as a recording artist. Well. Not really. But opening for Nathanson at a house concert was…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Sean Watkins – Blinders On (2006)purchase this album Sean Watkins is the guitarist for Nickel Creek, which, if you’ve listened to any of the pop/folk/bluegrass trio’s albums, tells you a…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Since running my original post on Chicago’s unreleased Stone of Sisyphus album, I’ve received a ton of requests to repost the songs. That probably won’t happen, at least not anytime…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Al Anderson – After Hours (2006)purchase this album For those expecting an album of bad-attitude rockers, a la Anderson’s last solo record, or much of what he did with NRBQ,…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Jackie Greene – American Myth (2006)purchase this album I don’t know what it is that drives me to studiously avoid heavily promoted titles for months, then turn around and take…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006)purchase this album You know what? I’m wrong. A lot. And when I am, I don’t mind admitting it. So, readers who…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Josh Rouse – Subtitulo (2006)purchase this album With last year’s perfectly wonderful Nashville, Rouse bid farewell to the titular city and hello to Spain; now, barely a year later, with…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The Wood Brothers – Ways Not to Lose (2006)purchase this album It’s like I was saying to my esteemed colleague Jason this morning: For a “jazz” label, Blue Note sure…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Teddy Thompson – Separate Ways (2006)purchase this album For those of us who have ’til now thought of Teddy Thompson as the least-talented member of his peer group — and…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The Little Willies – The Little Williespurchase this album Well, well, well. No sooner do I proclaim Richard Julian’s latest to be utterly fantabulous than his other outfit Á¢€” this…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Donald Fagen – Morph the Cat (2006)purchase this album I know a lot of people (my wife, for instance) who literally cannot stand the music of Steely Dan. I can…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Jules Shear – Dreams Don’t Count (2006)purchase this album What do Danny Kortchmar, Ric Ocasek, Elliot Easton, Cyndi Lauper, The Bangles, Peter Gabriel, Marshall Crenshaw, Tommy Keene, The Waterboys, The…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
The Veronicas – The Secret Life Of… (2006) purchase this album There was this girl when I was in high school — I forget her name, but it was probably…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Jack Johnson and Friends – Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the film Curious George (2006)purchase this album I’ve developed sort of a reputation around my house for hating Jack Johnson’s music,…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Long Walk to Freedom (2006)purchase this album Believe it or not, people of my generation, but this marks the 20th anniversary of Paul Simon’s Graceland album…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Rosanne Cash – Black Cadillac (2006) purchase this album It’s about the attempt to connect the dots. It’s about how relationships go on even after a person dies. How when…