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(Easy Eye Sound, *** 1/2)
"Polk Salad Annie" by Elvis, "Rainy Night in Georgia" by Brook Benton, "Steamy Windows" by Tina Turner â Tony Joe White is probably best-known through others' versions of his songs. But the Louisiana-born "Swamp Fox," who died at 75 in 2018, was a mesmerizing performer in his own right.
"Smoke From the Chimney" contains nine White guitar-and-voice demos fleshed out by producer Dan Auerbach with his usual stable of Nashville studio aces. The Black Keys frontman does a terrific job of capturing the deep-voiced singer's brooding swamp-rock essence, giving this American original a worthy send-off.
Of course, it helps that White is in top form as a writer. The title song is a poetic evocation of grappling with old age and mortality, "Listen to Your Song" imparts a hard-earned lesson, and "Scary Stories" conjures a goosebump-inducing sense of menace.
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(Vanner Records / RCA Nashville; 3.5 stars)
Miranda Lambert and her buddies Jack Ingram and Jon Randall first headed to remote Marfa, Texas, together in 2016. That initial retreat yielded a hit for Lambert in the devastating heartache song "Tin Man," and the trio penned "Tequila Does," a crowd-pleasing staple of Lambert's arena-size country concerts on a return trip.
So with a pandemic putting a stop to the music business, what were the three Lone Star State friends to do but head back to the high-desert home of sculptor Donald Judd's Chinati Foundation and the atmospheric phenomenon of the Marfa Lights? Last September, Ingram, Lambert and Randall gathered around the campfire, seeking to recapture the in-person intimacy that COVID-19 has robbed so many musicians of.
TexasUnited-statesPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaJack-ingramDan-delucaWarren-ellisSteve-klingeJon-randallJesse-bernsteinGuy-clarkMiranda-lambertDinosaur Jr. and Kurt Vile have reconnected for a rocking new release Dan DeLuca, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Dinosaur Jr.
(Jagjaguwar ***)
It was only a matter of time before Kurt Vile and J Mascis got around to working on an album together. Vile was a Dinosaur Jr. fan growing up in Lansdowne in the 1990s, and his loose, discursive style as a singer-guitarist owes a significant debt to the sound Mascis patented on the group’s 1987 album, You’re Living All Over Me.
Vile is credited as coproducer on the new Sweep It Into Space, the fifth album that Dinosaur Jr. has released since Mascis reconvened the original lineup of drummer Patrick Murphy and bassist Lou Barlow. Vile also plays 12-string guitar on “I Ran Away,” a bright, springy ditty that sounds for all the world like a Kurt Vile song.
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Merry Clayton's spine-tingling vocal on the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" is one of the most indelible in rock history, created, as Clayton recounts in "20 Feet From Stardom," during a late-night recording session that had her pairing off with Mick Jagger while wearing a mink coat and curlers in her hair.
That 2013 Oscar-winning documentary finally gave Clayton her due. And then tragedy struck: In 2014, she suffered injuries in a car accident in Los Angeles that resulted in both of her legs being amputated below her knees.
"Beautiful Scars" is the first album the 72-year-old singer has made since then. Produced by Lou Adler, who guided Clayton's underappreciated 1970s solo career, it's a return to the New Orleans-born vocalist's gospel roots, with a contemporary sheen.
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