The Boneshakers - Live To Be This - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The Boneshakers take a striking left turn with Pull Up The Roots, their second studio album on Gulf Coast Records-a that deliberately strips the band down to it's essence. Fronted by the powerhouse, soul-drenched vocals of Jenny Langer and guided by the masterful, guitar work and vision of Randy Jacobs, the album abandons effects and excess in favor of raw performance and emotional truth. In a time of algorithm-driven Polish, this acoustic approach feels radical in it's honesty.

Mike Whellans - Almost 42nd Street [COMPACT DISCS] date 11/18/2003

United Sounds of America melds the power and rhythms of street poetry with the expressive capacity of the symphony orchestra to bring urgent social questions to the symphonic stage. United sounds is not a traditional musical work, nor is it one individual's attempt at a unified statement. Instead, it's an authentic and deep collaboration that embraces the truth about America's continuing problems and pains as a culture, with uncompromising poetry and music. Intermixed with these weighty subjects are touching childhood memories and uplifting moments of humor and hope, all culminating in a rousing call for unity. Among the collaborators are the award-winning Twin Poets, Albert Mills and Nnamdi Chukwoucha, and the impossible-to-categorize composer Mark Hagerty. Performers joining them are soprano Makeda Hampton, pianist Oksana Glouchko, percussionist-composer Jonathan Whitney, and the University of Delaware Symphony Orchestra, led by James Allen Anderson.