SINGER/SONGWRITERS: GENERATIONS
Willie Nelson and Family
Let’s Face The Music and Dance
(Sony Legacy, $13.98)
Willie Nelson is the one of the few people who can sing an Irving
Berlin standard and a Texas Swing hit by Spade Cooley with equal
conviction—and a whole lot of jazzy, behind-the-beat swing.
His newest album with his road-tested band—including sister Bobbie on
piano and standout harmonica player Mickey Raphael—is a great mix of
standards (“You’ll Never Know,” “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love”), a
couple of instrumentals associated with Django Reinhardt (“Nuages” and
“Vous et Moi”), and even a Willie Nelson tune.
Steve Earle & the Dukes (& Duchesses)
The Low Highway
(New West Records, $16.98)
Steve Earle has been writing great songs since the mid-1980s, and his
themes and musical character studies have been remarkably consistent.
If you saw Earle playing the experienced busker on the first two seasons
of Tremé, you also know he plays everything from blues to
Cajun. His new CD with his band the Dukes (& Duchesses) is full of
pianos, fiddles, accordions, and electric guitars, plus a whole lot of
catchy tunes.
Ashley Monroe
Like A Rose
(Warner Brothers Nashvile, $9.98)
Kacey Musgraves
Same Trailer Different Park
(Mercury Nashville, $10.98)
Ashley Monroe’s second album and Kacey Musgraves’s debut came out
within a couple of weeks of each other. Chris Richards of the Washington Post raved about both
albums, and more stories of this “new generation of country singers”
followed. Monroe and Musgraves are both strong writers who go outside
of typical Nashville narratives. And they are the best singers of their
own songs; both albums have a lean, acoustic sound with a few
pedal-steel or electric guitar accents to let the songs stand out.
NEW CLASSICAL
Philip Glass
Symphony No. 3 & The Hours
(Orange Mountain Music, $18.98)
Anne Manson conducts the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in Glass’s Symphony No. 3 for Strings and the Suite from “The Hours,” arranged by Michael Riesman (who also plays piano).
Marc-André Hamelin
Haydn: Piano Concertos Nos 3, 4 & 11
After three highly acclaimed volumes of Haydn Piano Sonatas,
Marc-André Hamelin turns to Haydn’s three most popular piano concertos,
accompanied by the period instrument chamber group Les Violons du Roy,
directed by Bernard Labadie.
Paolo Pandolfo
Couperin: Piéces de Violes
(Glossa, $21.98)
Paolo Pandolfo is undoubtedly one of the great viola da gamba players on the scene today. In Pièces de Violes
he explores the viole repertoire by François Couperin. He is
accompanied by Amélie Chemin, viola da gamba; Thomas Boysen, theorbo
and Baroque guitar; and Markus Hünninger, harpsichord. Read the interview with Pandolfo talking about Couperin from the informative Glossa website.
