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 […]

Any CD whose two opening lines are – I wanna take you away from all this madness, I wanna take you away from all this crap – has to be a fun feast. And Malcolm McKinney’s BALANCING THE WEIGHT OF LIFE is an egg breaking romp through the kitchen of life. Now some of you […]

If you’d ever been to the Gaslight Café located in the basement of 116 MacDougal Street in NYC’s Greenwich Village during the 1960’s, then you probably heard some pretty famous people play there like Wavy Gravy, Phil Ochs and Robert Zimmerman. You may have also had the pleasure of hearing another great: Paul Zisholtz, a.k.a. […]

The amazing fact about Malcolm Mckinney isn’t the way he melds the soothing emotings of James Taylor (think Sweet Baby Jane, 1970, Warner Bros. Records) with the classic tonal qualities of Burl Ives (think the Hank Cochran tune A Little Bitty Tear that Ives covered in 1961, Decca Records). No, more than anything else it’s […]

Those who spend their entire lives waiting for the sunshine never learn to dance in the rain. Yet many of us go through life just searching for the sun, only to let much of life’s beauty wash by us. How sad for them, but don’t feel sorry for Reina Collins, cause the music on her […]

Perhaps not since Jean Luc-Ponte exploded onto the 70’s music scene with electric fusion violin, or maybe George Tortorelli (www.reverbnation.com/georgetortorelli) made Gainesville, Florida, home to new age music with his mid 80’s album Medicine Wind, has such a powerful and intricate musician burst upon us like Mitch Kopp (www.myspace.com/mitchkoppandthemagicpopulation). Without words, using only sound, you […]

What do the golden voiced Harry Nilsson and maverick rocker Lou Reed have in common? Some would say not much. Nilsson was considered by many to be the sixth Beatle (Pete Best being the fifth Beatle who was replaced by Ringo Starr to make the final fab four), while Reed was often viewed as one […]