Favorite Albums
Buy New or Used via Amazon
Rent via iTunes [?]
Ariel Pink: Pom Pom ~ Wowie zowie! Derivative of Zappa’s first few albums, but who cares? Rosenberg carries on Frank’s absurdist satire and sonic chaos as if he were a genetically-related mutant offspring. You need this for mental health. Listen to: Nude Beach A Go-Go and Black Ballerina
Buy New or Used via Amazon
Rent via iTunes [?]
Beck: Morning Phase ~ After playing Ariel Pink, Morning Phase flows like a gentle stream through the backwoods of my mind. Listen to: Blackbird Chain
Buy New or Used via Amazon
Rent via iTunes [?]
Jeff Bridges and the Abiders: Live ~ Yes, that Jeff Bridges. He’s not a prolific songwriter but Bridges sure has a lot of talented friends to draw material from. An Americana best of ‘live’ that cooks with a strong supporting cast. Listen to: What A Little Bit of Love Can Do
Buy New or Used via Amazon
Rent via iTunes [?]
Rosanne Cash: The River and the Thread ~ Roseanne takes us on a musical guided tour of her Southern routes. Listen to: 50,000 Watts
Buy New or Used via Amazon
Rent via iTunes [?]
Echo and the Bunnymen: Meteorites ~ Like a lot of other older Brits lately, Ian bounces back with one his best albums. Must be the water in the stout. Listen to: Constantinople
Buy New or Used via Amazon
Rent via iTunes [?]
Damien Rice: My Favorite Faded Fantasy ~ 8 years is a long gestation period, but Rice and Rick Rubin have delivered a gorgeously textured scion of O . Listen to: I Don’t Want to Change You
Buy New or Used via Amazon
Rent via iTunes [?]
Sean Rowe: Madman ~ Rowe’s name has been kicking around the margins of my mind the last few years, but this is the first album, his fourth, that’s really grabbed my attention. As a fan of gravel baritones like Tom Waits, Brad Roberts and Bill Callahan, Rowe’s voice makes my liver quiver. Terrific tough and tender indie album, probably my favorite of 2014. Wished I’d seen him at the Colony Café a few months ago. Listen to: Madman and Desiree
Buy New or Used via Amazon
Rent via iTunes [?]
Spoon: They Want My Soul ~ This off-beat funky one’s made me a fan, too. Listen to: Inside Out
Buy New or Used via Amazon
Rent via iTunes [?]
Trigger Hippy: Trigger Hippy ~ Delaney and Bonnie live! Joan Osborne and Jackie Greene have made a Southern rock winner in D&B’s classic style. Listen to: Tennessee Mud
Buy New or Used via Amazon
Rent via iTunes [?]
Jack White: Lazaretto ~ The first Jack White album I’ve actually really liked all the way through. Listen to:Alone In My House
Lucinda Williams: Down Where The Spirit Meets the Bone ~ My favorite since Car Wheels. Can the Queen of Loss actually be content with life? Listen to: Protection
Jesse Winchester: A Reasonable Amount of Trouble ~ Classic Jesse understated humor for this, his last album and album title. My heart aches, just a terrible loss. For over 40 years, he’s been one of my favorite singer-songwriters – I’ll miss his gentle, sweet humor, his luminous melodies and even his silly rhumba dancing onstage. One of my cherished memories is to have interviewed him on his second date in the US after repatriation, at The Salt in Newport in 1977. A gentle soul. Listen to: the entire album
Don Williams: Reflections ~ The Gentle Giant returns with his second album in two years after semi-retirement and it’s an Americana beauty. No originals here but his covers of lesser known Townes, Guy Clark and Jesse Winchester and others’ songs, sung in his soft baritone with spare production, make them all sound like he penned them. Listen to: Stronger Back
Also spongeworthy: Linda Perhacs, Tom Petty, Don Williams, Ex Hex, Old Crow Medicine Show
Favorite Songs
Black Keys: Gotta Get Away
Temples: Shelter Song
Courtney Barnett: Avant Gardener
The Both: Milwaukee
Lykke Li: Never Gonna Love Again
Don Williams: Stronger Back
David Gray: Snow in Vegas
The New Pornographers: Dancehall Domine
Leonard Cohen: Almost Like the Blues
U2: Every Breaking Wave
Ex Hex: Radio On
Doug Seegers: Down By The River
One Direction: Night Changes
Perfume Genius: Queen
Favorite Films
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Boyhood
Get On Up
The Equalizer
Mr. Peabody and Sherman
Belle
Words and Pictures
Interstellar
Birdman
Whiplash
Rosewater
I-Origins
Chef
RIP
Phil Everly, Saul Zaentz, Jerry Coleman, Ariel Sharon, Claudio Abbado, Pete Seeger, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Maximillian Schell, Thoedore Millon, Shirley Temple, Sid Caesar, Ralph Waite, Harold Ramis, Paco de Lucia, Alain Resnais, Paul Colby, David Brenner, Sheila MacCrae, Scott Asheton, Eddie (The Old Philosopher ) Lawrence, Mickey Rooney, Jesse Winchester, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ruben Hurricane Carter, Bob Hoskins, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Maya Angelou, Dave Herman, Don Zimmer, Ruby Dee, Kasey Kasem, Tony Gwynne, Ultra Violet, Gerry Goffin, Horace Silver, Eli Wallach, Howard Baker, Bobby Womack, Teeny Hodges, Paul Mazursky, Tommy Ramone, Charlie Haden, Lorin Maazel, Johnny Winter, Elaine Stritch, James Garner, Robin Williams, Lauren Bacall, Don Pardo, Glen Cornick, Joan Rivers, Bob Crewe, Joe Sample, Christopher Hogwood, Paul Revere, Jan Hooks, Ben Bradlee, Oscar de la Renta, Jack Bruce, Jimmy Ruffin, Mike Nichols, Bobby Keys, Ian McLagen, PD James, Joe Cocker, Edward Hermann
Don Cohen