WRUV Reviews

South African township music from the late ’60s and ’70s, released while that nation was under apartheid in the times leading up to the Soweto uprising of 1976. Lots of talent, harmony, energy, & authentic cultural flavor.

Mbaqanga is the name for township music, richly rooted in rural Zulu musical traditions. In Zulu, Mbaqanga means “cornmeal porridge.”  Most record companies were owned by whites who had no interest in this music, and to them the term had the connotation of being “dead-common”. To the people in the Townships, the connotation was “musical daily bread.”

Fresh Afrobeat with just a tinge of hip hop from this African drumming legend and Fela Kuti sideman, featuring a rich horn section and talented female singers from Lagos. This rocks!

Tony Oladipo Allen is self-taught! He began playing drums when he was 18 (1958) while working at a Nigerian radio station as a technician.

WRUV had a copy of this from the UK. The CD is just now being released in the USA.

The Carnivores are a danceable garage psych outfit from Atlanta, from the album’s weird sock hop-ish beginning with “For Griffin” to the tropicalia of “Heart of Copper” will get you to sing along at first listen. I’m awake and liking what I hear. With faint Strawberry Jam era whiny Animal Collective thrown in (eeeespecially in “A Crime” and “Shake Teeth”), this is both something old and something new. “Organ Trail”’s female vocal front has just a bit less kick than The Screaming Females, but then for the sake of not coughing up your lungs it’s nothing to snuff at either. Freshly distorted punches and tambourine shakes and shimmies add some spice at every turn. Dig it.

FCC: clean-o

play: 3, 4, 5, 6, 9

RIYD: Shannon and the Clams, Black Lips

Pleasant retrospective of her best work teams Patty Larkin in a wealth of duets with other folk luminaries including Martin Sexton, Greg Brown, Dar Williams, more.  OK if occasionally innocuous songcraft.

Tasty, country-tinged singer-songwriter folk from the duo of Adam Carroll and Michael O’Connor.  Fans of Sam Baker, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Slaid Cleaves take note.  This is a good ‘un.  Best cuts?  Pick ‘em!

Heartfelt, country-inflected folk from father-and-daughter Hank and Shaidri Alrich.  RIYL:  Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin, Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez, Katy Moffatt.

Solid Americana roots rock immersed in country and blues, calling to mind Rolling Stones, The Band, the Drive-By Truckers, and Old 49s.

Wonderful second outing from North Carolina-based trio mining the deep roots of old-tiimey string band music and blues - music rooted in the traditions of the African diaspora. Virtually every cut is a winner.  Play it!

Texas singer-songwriter Adam Carroll is captured in an intimate, live setting at a small Austin club.  Carroll is one of contemporary songcraft’s most under-appreciated artists.  RIYL: Steve Earle, Todd Snider, Townes Van Zandt.

One of the most in-demand session artists in Americana and a star of the Cajun and zydeco worlds, guitarist Sonny Landreth delivers a mostly instrumental outing ripe with the blues, twang, and roadhouse sounds.