Music News & Reviews

Jose James knows jazz. The son of a Panamanian jazz saxophonist, he studied at the prestigious New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, was a finalist in 2004's Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocalist Competition and recently toured with legendary jazz pianist McCoy Tyner.

Sean Lennon, son of John and Yoko, is drawn to musical collaboration and repelled by hydraulic fracturing.

The 37-year-old just released two albums: the improvisational project Mystical Weapons and the score to the independent film Alter Egos.

Writing For Film

Lennon only appears in Alter Egos for a few seconds; the majority of his efforts went into writing the music, which he had to do twice. He describes the film as a "kitsch comedy about superheroes," and his first attempt at the music took a similar vibe.

Coming up on Saturday Feb.

It happened again last Saturday. And boy, when it hit me it felt great — though it left me a little shaken.

I once made the mistake of listening to Portal with the lights off before bed. Other than the night following my near-victory at a fried-chicken-eating contest, I'd never had such messed-up dreams in my life.

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

Widowspeak is a fount of familiar sounds, from early-'90s shoegazer rock to twangily portentous Western soundtracks to the languidly soft pop of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval. But the Brooklyn-based duo of Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas fuses them all into a hazy swirl and gives them a kick of buzzy energy — and, in the process, gives the music a dreamy pop sound of its own.

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

On this edition of All Songs Considered we've got a bunch of new-year premieres for you, including a special collaboration between Tom Waits and Keith Richards. The two veteran musicians recorded a song together for a new compilation album called Son Of Rogue's Gallery, and we guarantee it's not at all what you'd expect. Do the word's "sea chantey" mean anything to you?

Folk rock troubadour Patty Larkin will perform Sat. Jan. 12th at the Columbus Performing Arts Center.    Ari Hest opens the show.  Be sure to listen to WCBE for a chance to win tickets!

Six String Concerts

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

The Danish singer and multi-instrumentalist who goes by the name Indians, a.k.a. Søren Løkke Juul, makes music that retains its intimacy even as it seems to sprawl out into space. On his first full-length album, Somewhere Else (out Jan. 29), he masters a kind of quiet adventurousness; it's remarkable headphone music that reaches both the heart and the loneliest reaches of the heavens.

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

WCBE Presents Keller Williams and Lotus together on Saturday Feb. 2nd at The Newport Music Hall.  Keller's latest CD Pick features The Travelin' McCourys.  Lotus will be coming out with their brand new one Build on Feb. 13th.  Tune in for a chance to win tickets for this upcoming show on WCBE!

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

The soundtrack to the documentary film Hecho En Mexico is ambitious and complicated, but the music more than justifies the journey.

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

The music world suffered a devastating loss when Broadcast's Trish Keenan died of complications from pneumonia two years ago; she was only 42. The U.K. singer could make seemingly random words shimmer with power and poignancy, as if she were casting a spell. With partner and bandmate James Cargill, Keenan released four widely loved albums during the '00s, and in the process left an indelible mark on the history of underground music.

Audio for this feature is no longer available.

Martin Sexton will return to Columbus and The Newport Music Hall on Friday, Feb. 15th. 

It's been almost a decade since Johnny Cash died, but fans still travel from around the world to see the place the music legend often described as key to his development: his boyhood home in the eastern Arkansas town of Dyess. The small house will soon serve as a museum — not only as a tribute to Johnny Cash, but also to tell the history of the town.

Yonder Mountain String Band will return to Columbus and The LC Pavilion on Fri. Feb. 1, 2013.  You'll have many chances to win tickets on WCBE up until the show date!  This is also one of our VIP Concert events to choose from and you can check out all the details here. 

Father John Misty is a character — literally. A persona invented by singer-songwriter Josh Tillman, Father John Misty is there to showcase Tillman's rock-friendly side. In 2008, Tillman joined the Seattle folk-rock band Fleet Foxes as its drummer. After leaving the band at the beginning of the year, he loaded his van and hit the road.

I was given the daunting task to come up with a festive Halloween playlist. What to choose, what to choose!?

When I think festive, I think of songs that either epitomize the night of Halloween or go over board to completely do their own thing. It's Halloween, and some songs should a little weird and creative.