Articles by Doug Collette
Son Volt: Sound Signal Serenades
by Doug Collette
With the purposefully under-the-radar release of Son Volt's Sound Signal Serenades--which was not originally issued on Record Store Day in April 2026--long-time (long-suffering?) fans of Jay Farrar may be subject to raging cases of the “what if"s. In the early days of soon-to-be alternative country icons Uncle Tupelo, the St. Louis native was the chief songwriter and titular leader of the band. By the time the group had migrated to a major label, however, their fourth and final ...
Continue Reading...Danielle Nicole: Fireflies
by Doug Collette
It does not in any way disparage the efforts of bassist/vocalist Danielle Nicole or her fifth full-length album, Fireflies , to state that guitarist Luther Dickinson's sole appearance on these eleven cuts, during “Take Me Back," is the flashpoint of the long player. The co-founder of the North Mississippi Allstars has made a career of reconfiguring his roots in the blues, and along those same lines the distaff Kansas City, Missouri native has pursued a modified sound for herself. Dickinson's ...
Continue Reading...Wesley Stace: One Last Heist
by Doug Collette
With the title of One Last Heist so closely juxtaposed with the album's cover image, the acerbic expression on Wesley Stace's face says it all. Or it might if this were not the same iconoclast who distinguished himself from the likes of Elvis Costello and Graham Parker back in the New Wave/punk heyday of the late Seventies. Then known under the assumed name of John Wesley Harding--a wink of the eye even there!--his all-too-often overly clever attitude even ...
Continue Reading...Matt Choboter: Visceral Totems: Improvisations for Microtonal Prepared Piano
by Doug Collette
Conceived and executed as an extended aural narrative performed on a custom-built microtonal prepared piano, Matt Choboter's Visceral Totems: Improvisations for Microtonal Prepared Piano radiates an orchestral air from its very inception via “Prologue." Intentional or not, the tones recall those of a child's music box, the plucked nature of which complements those bell-like timbres that ensue within “Visceral Sketch part II," immediately commencing in the wake of the former's less than three-minute duration. With the ...
Continue Reading...Luca Benedetti: Slow Down For Turtles
by Doug Collette
Guitarist/composer Luca Benedetti is emerging from the same hallowed Brooklyn community that has nurtured the alchemy of Medeski Martin & Wood as well as the chameleonic likes of his fretboard peer Will Bernard. The winsomely titled Slow Down For Turtles, Benedetti's third album with bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Tony Mason, is an object lesson in the concept of “less is more;" its music in deceptively stark contrast to its intricate cover images, photographs by Benedetti's father of ...
Continue Reading...Grateful Dead: Meet-Up at the Movies 2026 - 6/17/91 at Giants Stadium
by Doug Collette
Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies 2026: 6/17/91 at Giants Stadium Majestic 10, Williston, VT August 20, 2026 Rhino Records/Trafalgar Releasing In the fifteen years since its inception in 2011, the annual Grateful Dead community event dubbed 'Meetup at the Movies' has included more than one repeat of content. Not surprisingly, The Grateful Dead Movie (Rhino, 2004) has been screened more than once--after all, the film documents an inflection point in the iconic band's ...
Continue Reading...Christian Parker: American Cosmic Revival Vol. 2: Miles From Nowhere
by Doug Collette
Cover bands abound within contemporary music circles, both on stage and in the studio. But a chosen artist's interpretation of the songs and music of another rarely matches (and never exceeds) the authenticity of spirit displayed by Christian Parker and those kindred spirits with whom he has been collaborating in recent years on the esteemed canon of that iconic American band, The Byrds. Over the course of four albums now--the most outstanding of which is Change Is Now--A Tribute ...
Continue Reading...Peter Parcek: Most Of The Time
by Doug Collette
The contemporary blues community is densely populated with posers long on affectation and short on authenticity. Not so Peter Parcek for whom the blues carries truths that resonate in such a deep and abiding way that his own musical articulations, plus those of kindred spirits within and without the genre, become expressions straight from the heart and the soul. In fact, as demonstrated on Most Of The Time, this native of Connecticut--who moved to England in the Sixties ...
Continue Reading...Michael Falzarano: Sunrise Over The Unknown
by Doug Collette
With various and sundry activities spanning the continental United States, from Woodstock to San Francisco and in between, guitarist-songwriter Michael Falzarano is something of a master of space and time. Such rarefied status thus renders the title of Sunrise Over The Unknown perfectly appropriate. The album is as full of promise as accomplishment, a premise underscored by the resplendent front cover image, art titled “Burst" by Natalie de Segonzac. Having played with contemporary iterations of Hot ...
Continue Reading...GA20 with Charlie Musselwhite: Blues Now
by Doug Collette
The contemporary blues community is densely populated with posers long on affectation and short on authenticity. Not so GA20 or Charlie Musselwhite, for whom the blues speak truths that resonate in such a deep and abiding way, their respective musical expressions become truly personal statements. Boston-based trio GA20--fittingly named after a vintage Gibson amplifier--have always specialized in that genre style born in Chicago, so it only stands to reason--and suggests a certain level of destiny--that the group would ...
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