Blues Acres
Unpretentious, heartfelt, modern country blues played on classic resonator guitars just doesn’t get any better than this. A member of the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame and the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Price’s blues are infused with the residual rock inclinations of his ’70s group, the progressive Mother Blues Band (which spawned another amazing musician, Bo Ramsey).
self-released
Up-and-coming, Austin-based singer-songwriter Rondeau’s sophomore effort is a real beaut. His brand of “I did it my way” country is at once original and traditional; mainstream and avant garde; foreign yet familiar.
Surfdog
Three studio albums into his 21st-century comeback, Hicks is squarely in the groove. Taken as a whole, the melodies, lyrics, vocals and musicianship on “Tales” are nearly as good as on 1972’s “Striking It Rich,” arguably the artistic zenith for his heady mixture of good-time/old-time swing, folk, country and jazz with a lyrical dose of wry humor that never fails to bring a smile.
Rhino
One of these days, someone’s gonna do the 4-CD box set Cooder deserves — with early Rising Sons and Captain Beefheart material, session work, solo stuff, soundtracks, world music collaborations … But until then, this double CD culled from studio albums and soundtracks will have to do.
429 Records
He went from the Northern California foothills (Cameron Park, near Placerville, to be exact) to Sacramento to San Francisco, but as Greene put it in a recent radio interview, “For being on the road a lot, it kind of doesn’t matter where I live.”
