MilkshakeGot a Minute? (self-released)
Milkshake continues to up the ante for kids’ music in Baltimore. Here, the band——led by guitarist Mikel Gehl and singer Lisa Mathews——charges through 34 big-...
ChaconneA Baroque Recital (Tonar Music)In the liner notes, Barrueco writes that he was playing this material around the time his parents died. The guitarist, who teaches at Peabody, certainly...
Dan Deacon - America (Domino), Height With Friends - Rock and Roll (Friends/Cold Rhymes)
Dan Deacon - America (Domino)
I’ve long maintained that Deacon is a natural link between Baltimore’s indie rock/club culture and the classical-music scene at the Meyerhoff, and this disc furthers...
Various ArtistsWorks of Larry Hoffman: Contemporary American Music (DBK)William Ferris, arguably this country’s preeminent scholar on Southern folklore and the blues, has written that Larry Hoffman “...
AlakazamWhat Once Was (Howlin Hog!)
Thanks to Alakazam, the spirit of Frank Zappa—with a little Pink Floyd, a pinch of Captain Beefheart, and a robost prog sensibility—is alive and well in Baltimore...
Johnny CashBootleg Volume 3: Live Around the World (Sony Legacy)In its heyday throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Cecil County's New River Ranch hosted afternoon concerts by the likes of George Jones,...
Lurch & HollerIn the Cabin Below (Thick Syrup Records)For more than 20 years, local luminaries Liz Downing and Michael Willis have been making beautiful music together in Lambs Eat Ivy, Radiant...
Yellow Dubmarine, Tori Amos, and Selected Shorts: New American Stories
Yellow DubmarineAbbey Dub (Gold Lion Records)If a band covers Beatles songs, it should definitely bring something new to the table—after all, the world doesn't need another saccharine version of "...
Tommy Keene, JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, and White Life
Tommy KeeneBehind the Parade (Second Motion)Local favorite Tommy Keene provided something of a smart-pop soundtrack to the 1980s, much like Pavement's Stephen Malkmus did a decade later. But while...
Manuel BarruecoTárrega! (Tonar)The music of Spanish composer/guitarist Francisco Tárrega eluded me before listening to this CD, but I knew one of his tunes. I bet you know it, too, because it’s heard...
