Album Reviews

Presaging the "Christian rock" phenomenon of the 1990's, this Farfisa-filled fire and brimstone exercise in religious guilt asks where you will hide when Armageddon happens and your personal judgment day is at hand.

Let’s get one thing straight here first. No reissue label and mean none goes to the trouble Classic does to get the packaging right. Get your hands on this Tommy reissue and compare it to the original UK Track edition and you will see that Classic has gone the extra 3000 miles to give you as close a facsimile of the original British pressing as is humanely possible.

Sure, being a shy, self-conscious kid from a rural western town trying to come to terms with life in the big city who constantly yearns for the reciprocity of love to come to fruition, may make it all very easy to cast Jon- Rae Fletcher as the consummate underdog. He even looks the part- tall and sinewy in stature, with a disheveled mane, a goofy grin, and big, thick glasses that may have been popular in the 1950�s; Jon Rae practically begs you to root for him.

Johnny Cash’s final album is a tender and moving tribute to the resilience of the human spirit. The power and fascination of folk music is that the story is in the telling not in the technique.

Decide for yourself whether The Lovin’ Spoonful took their name from Mississippi John Hurt’s “Coffee Blues” (not to mention the tune for “Darlin’ Companion”) but fans of Taj Mahal will have no doubts about this gentle soul’s influence on Taj when you hear this earlier take on “Corrina, Corrina” and compare it to Taj’s on The Natch’l Blues (CS9698).

Twelve Broadway chestnuts from the days when Broadway shows were produced for New York sensibilities instead of for the midwest bus-hoards. Nothing poisonal, mind you, but Broadway today is aimed at tourists, not New Yawkers.

If there’s to be a second blues revival after the first one in the early ‘60s that led to the “rediscovery” of neglected artists like Son House and even Robert Johnson, the first great analog revival occurring right now will lead the way.