Alligator
Rocker has been putting out solo albums since 1994. For his fifth studio release, the former Stray Cat has gathered nine originals (including a bluesy remake of his post-Stray Cats band Phantom, Rocker and Slick’s “Runnin’ From the Hounds”) and three covers (Quentin Jones‘ “The Girl From Hell,” Carl Perkins’ “Say When” and the Stray Cats’ biggest hit, Brian Setzer’s “Rock This Town”).
Dualtone
When Bare slowly croons “Are you sincere?” during the opening bars of his first album in 22 years, he leaves no doubt as to his own sincerity. His slightly raspy but still intact baritone cuts clean through the low tremolo of an electric guitar that lays like a blanket over a strummed acoustic, before being joined by the tandem tinkling of piano and not-too-retro keyboard that culminate in a Roy-Orbison-esque chorus, complete with female backup singers and strings. And what’s that toward the end — a musical saw or maybe someone whistling?
La-La Land
Even if GNP Crescendo’s three discs of music from this classic 1960s sci-fi TV show weren’t already out of print, La-La Land’s limited-edition double album would hardly be redundant: It contains more than 65 minutes of previously unreleased music.
Verve Forecast
Blues rocker Tedeschi opted to go a different route for her fourth album: a collection of soulful covers.
Nomad
While some of the songs on his two solo albums undoubtedly are blues, the music of Guitarlos (aka Carlos Daniel Ayala) is unclassifiable — so much of it falls into the rock ’n’ roll, country, boogie-woogie, swing, R&B, Cajun, doo-wop, soul and Tex-Mex domains, as well as grey areas between. Like the one-sheet says: “File under roots/Americana/blues.”
