Recordings

(Recording Review) Jessie Lee Montague snares listeners with ‘Unhooked’

Jessie Lee Montague, Unhooked Review by Seth Rogovoy Hudson Valley-based alt-rock singer-songwriter Jessie Lee Montague recorded several albums and performed widely around the region and in New York City in the late 1990s and early 2000s under the band name Jake. After a decade-plus hiatus from performing and recording, Montague is back with a terrific…

Which Bob Dylan Album Is His Best Since ‘Blood on the Tracks’?

by Seth Rogovoy (FORWARD, 7.12.20) – It’s as predictable as death and taxes. Bob Dylan releases a new album and critics hyperventilate that it is his best since his masterful 1975 album, “Blood on the Tracks.” The latter was an acoustic song cycle largely about the dissolution of a marriage (his marriage?), and it does…

12 Bob Dylan Songs About Coronavirus

by Seth Rogovoy   (HUDSON, N.Y., April 24, 2020) — In the past few weeks, Bob Dylan has released two new songs, “Murder Most Foul” and “I Contain Multitudes,” which people have combed for references to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Never mind that these songs were most likely written and recorded months if not years…

The Kabbalah of Bob Dylan’s ‘Murder Most Foul’

by Seth Rogovoy   Bob Dylan’s ‘Murder Most Foul‘, a newly released, 17-minute ballad about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, is not only a work of epic genius – formally, structurally, and otherwise – but, like the Talmud itself, it veritably demands a close reading in order to comprehend fully what the Nobel…

CD Review: ‘Passengers’ by Josh Waletzky

Review by Seth Rogovoy   Josh Waletzky, Passengers (Waletzky Music)   Several decades into the Yiddish song revival – part and parcel of the overall revival of the Yiddish language, Yiddish culture, and klezmer music – we are now enjoying a full-fledged renaissance of creativity in the form of new works. Josh Waletzky is at…

Recording Review: Jennifer Kimball, ‘Avocet’

To say that it was well worth the 11-year wait for “Avocet,” the follow-up to Jennifer Kimball’s terrific sophomore effort, “Oh Hear Us,” is at once to state the obvious – I mean, what other choice did we have but to wait? – but also to celebrate the arrival of a new recording by one…

Howard Fishman’s Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

by Seth Rogovoy (October 1, 2010) – For a guy who has won the praise of critics from the New York Times to the New Yorker, the Village Voice, and NPR’s Terry Gross, Howard Fishman has done a pretty good job of not becoming a household name. With a half-dozen albums to his credit, and…