This is the final posting in this series of reviews: an extended Interview with Hunter Altschul (www.hunteraltschul.bandcamp.com) about his 2011 CD titled THE NIGHT SKY. 1. Your lyrics have a near Nick Drake like virginal quality to them, at times full of innuendo and ambiguity, yet always retaining a certain distant innocence. Only two songs, […]

Hunter Altschul (www.hunteraltschul.bandcamp.com) is 20 years old. He is a singer/songwriter with four CD’s already to his name: PEDESTRIAN (2008), LO-FI TRACKS (2009), BELOW THE CURRENT (2010), and TINY THERMOSTATS (2010). He plays guitar in a style that at times represents the honesty of John Prine (think Angel From Montgomery, 1971, Atlantic), the sincerity of […]

Okay, so I mostly do CD reviews of local, south Florida musicians, but one day I get an email from a Jersey guy asking me to review his CD. So, I say sure and he sends it to me in the mail. When the CD arrives, I’m busy so I just do a quick, fifteen […]

Many of us sat awestruck in the early 80’s as David Bowie rapidly aged during Catherine Deneuve’s and Susan Sarandon’s power struggle in The Hunger (MGM, 1983). For me, however, the film was most memorable for its opening scene which featured Peter Murphy of Bahuas performing Bela Lugosi’s Dead (label: Small Wonder; 1979). Even though […]

When I die, I want to take George Worthmore (www.georgeworthmore.com) with me. No, I don’t have anything against George. It’s just that I see life as the prologue to a much greater journey that begins when we depart this planet, a journey that demands universal music. Now I know, most people would say the Rolling […]

I’m about to do something very un-Dr-Bobish. Rather than review a CD, I’m going to review a single song. I’m doing this because every so often a piece of artwork passes through my ears which is so stellar that it instantly captures a seat in my lineup of all time one hundred favorite folk and […]

Personally, I always thought of the dulcimer as one of those quaint Americana instruments, kind of like the autoharp. But in the right hands, an autoharp can be a joy to hear, and in Butch Ross’s (www.butchross.com) hands the dulcimer becomes a wonder to behold. It’s almost as if Stradivarius himself had come back, invented […]

Jester (jes-ter); noun; a personage in medieval high courts typically adorned in a cap with bells and whose sole function was to critique royalty. Why? Because kings knew they were prone to yes men, and so the wise kept a reality check close at hand. And Steve Minotti’s CD titled THE GALLERY (2005) is just […]

If you were going to buy Joel Zoss (www.joelzoss.com) in a liquor store, rather than a CD store, you’d obviously be looking for 50 year old malt scotch, likely in the Highland Park or Macallan lines. And what could be finer than a CD adorned with a picture of the stick-wielding rabbit chasing the “Monkey […]

COLLAPSING INTO REALITY by Toni Wylder is a quantum leap into the infinite world of musical mentations. It is the type of CD that would make Allen Ginsberg stand up in his grave and howl. It’s the type of CD that a music major at Harvard could do their doctorate thesis upon. It’s the type […]