current listening 1/26
a few items that have earned some spins this week:
* Roy Haynes/Phineas Newborn/Paul Chambers: We Three - A reissue of a brilliant 1958 piano trio session by three soon-to-be giants with still-formative jazz voices. The ultimate Sunday afternoon album.
* Chris Arduser: Hapless - Mainstay of The Bears and Cincinnati’s Graveblankets, drummer/guitarist/mandolinist Arduser serves up a third helping of crisp, infectious pop that doesn’t shy away from a creepy storyline.
* Martin Carthy/Dave Swarbrick: Straws in the Wind - The latest by England’s finest acoustic duo. Carthy’s rustic voice and the light, giddy sway of Swarbrick’s fiddle combine to create living folk history.
* Various artists: The Great Debaters - The hottest soundtrack album of the winter with expert gospel and blues by Alvin Youngblood Hart, Sharon Jones and the Carolina Chocolate Drops.
* The Thrills: Teenager - Chiming folk rhythms, layers of echoing guitars and vocals full of edgy, tentative joy make up this third album by Ireland’s Thrills. One of 2007’s great neglected records.
I am a native Kentuckian and freelance journalist who has been writing about contemporary music for the Lexington Herald-Leader since 1980. I have not a lick of honest musical talent myself, just a pair of appreciative ears for jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, Americana, soul, Celtic, Cajun, chamber, worldbeat, nearly every form of rock 'n' roll imaginable and, when pressed, the occasional tango and polka.