Bloggerhythms

Let's start out by saying that alternative country music artist Jimmie Dale Gilmore is an acquired taste. To put it mildly, he has an odd voice, which can be off-putting to a lot of people. But he always sings in tune which is more than can be said about many of his contemporaries. One critic wrote that Gilmore's voice is not appealing enough to listen to him do an album of covers. I disagree. (He wrote only two of the thirteen songs on this disc.) Gilmore, who is devoted to his beloved Texas, performs these songs by well known rock and country composers in a style that compensates for his voice. He performs with a full electric band, playing light rock or country arrangements and brings an appealing originality to the songs. If Gilmore ever wanted to be a rock' n roller rather than a country singer he would have done it well. Gilmore covers songs by singer-songwriters such as Jesse Winchester, John Hiatt and Walter Hyatt. There is a cover of Jerry Garcia's Grateful...

Twenty-eight year old Brandi Carlile just released her third CD last week to much deserved critical acclaim. Unlike 2007's The Story , produced by T Bone Burnett, Give Up The Ghost , is a more rocking affair with Rick Rubin at the helm. The livelier first half of the disc trumps the more folky singer-songwriter oriented songs of the second half but that does not mean Carlile should have left the quieter stuff on the cutting room floor. To the contrary, the second half only pales by comparison. If tracks one through five were released as a separate EP, and songs six through eleven were issued the same way, and you listened to either one without ever hearing the other, you would still be very impressed by everything you heard. The buoyant melodies, harmonies, and arrangements of the rockers may have you tapping your toes even while Carlile continues to be a serious songwriter. The opening track, "Looking Out" contains the heavy lines, "I laid a suitcase o...