Roots Music Report

Latest Album Reviews

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  Rachel Brooke
  Album: The Loneliness in Me
  Label: Mal
  Genre(s): Americana Country
  
  Posted By: Robert Silverstein
  Oct 28, 2020

  Authentic sounding country music is getting harder to find yet, walking a fine line between the past and present, Rachel Brooke gives it her all on the 2020 CD release of The Loneliness In Me. Recorded in Traverse City, Michigan, the 12-track CD is an entertaining showcase for Ms. Brooke and her appealing voice and solid songwriting ability. Some music writer even described Ms. Brooke’s music as a cross between Hank Williams and Memphis Minnie. Throughout the album, the electric guitar work, played by a range of musicians, is noteworthy with the added Pedal Steel twang of Dave Feeny giving the overall sound a truly authentic country music effect. She grew up with parents that were in a bluegrass band and later she played in an all-girl punk band, yet with The Loneliness In Me, Rachel Brooke gives the neo-traditional, modern-day American
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  Pekka Tiilikainen & Beatmakers
  Album: Guitar Town
  Label: Turenki
  Genre(s): Surf
  
  Posted By: Robert Silverstein
  Oct 27, 2020

  Listening to the 2020 studio album by Finland's great surf-rock band Pekka Tiilikainen & Beatmakers, is kind of like setting the wayback machine for the early 1960s. Although the back to the beach instrumental sound was in its heyday over half a century ago, the kinder, gentler sound of the twangy guitar sounds of The Ventures and The Shadows can be reexperienced again with the new Beatmakers album, simply called Guitar Town. As the band’s rhythm guitarist and namesake, Pekka Tiilikainen gets able backing from a number of players, including Juha Heinonen (lead guitar), Jori Venemies (bass guitar) and Mikko Lund (drums). A number of other players assist the core group, including fellow Finnish guitar ace Erkki Sutela and Australian guitarist / composer Martin Cilia, to name just a couple. As the follow-up to the Beatmakers double CD retrospective, A Collection Of Great
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• 

  Desensitized
  Album: Hemispherica Portalis (Portal of 1000 Years)
  Label: Spotted Peccary
  Genre(s): Electronic
  
  Posted By: Robert Silverstein
  Oct 27, 2020

  A timeless pairing between two electronic music mavens, Hemispherica Portalis (Portal Of 1000 Years) is the 2020 album release by Deborah Martin and Dean De Benedictis. Southern California-based Dean De Benedictus has been a mainstay on the electronic / synth music scene since the late 1990s while Deborah Martin has been releasing music on Spotted Peccary since the label began in the mid 1990s. Together, here recording at Ms. Martin’s studio in Vancouver, Washington under the name Desensitized, the seven-track, 65-minute CD features a breathtaking display of original sound samplings, live recorded textural beds and electronic elements that unite for a deeply profound ambient music revelation. Fans of Eno’s discreet music and even some of Jon Durant’s recent electronic music albums will do well to check out Desensitized. Like each of Spotted Peccary’s releases,
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• 

  George Benson
  Album: Weekend in London (Live)
  Label: Provogue
  Genre(s): Mainstream Jazz
  
  Posted By: Robert Silverstein
  Oct 27, 2020

  NYC-based Provogue remains on the cutting edge of jazz and fusion with a 2020 comeback CD by guitar hero George Benson, called Weekend In London. The 14-track Weekend In London features the guitar ace drawing upon his vast catalog of pop-jazz vocal tracks and he kicks the album off with a cover of his 1980 hit “Give Me The Night”. The album was recorded in 2019 at the famous Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London England. Benson is no stranger to Ronnie Scott’s, the nightclub he first performed at way back in the early 1970s. Weekend In London mostly focuses on the guitarist’s funk meets jazzy pop vocal numbers although the album does feature a version of the Fats Domino classic “I Hear You Knocking” featured on Benson's latest studio album Walking To New Orleans, and “Cruise Control” – an instrumental favorite from
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• 

  Carolina Blue
  Album: Take Me Back
  Label: Billy Blue
  Genre(s): Traditional Bluegrass
  
  Posted By: Joe Ross
  Oct 25, 2020

  Carolina Blue has a clear vision for their cohesive, appealing bluegrass. Presenting solid, well-crafted original material, the band also preserves a traditional style of music as played by Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys. While “Grown Cold” is a hard-driving opener with powerful intensity, “Take Me to the Mountains That I Love” exudes rustic purity that is at the heart of this genre. Based in North Carolina, the band formed in 2007 after release of their first album "Nothing So Blue." The 2020 Pinecastle label release of “Take Me Back” follows their well-received “Sounds of Kentucky Grass" (2017) and “I Hear Bluegrass Calling Me” (2018) album projects. As with previous releases, “Take Me Back” emphasizes an enchanting original repertoire from Carolina Blue’s songwriters, guitarist Bobby Powell
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