This self titled CD is a real nice set from the Scott Amendola Band. Amendola is a well known drummer in the jazz scene of San Francisco. He has played with all sorts of people including the Charlie Hunter Quartet, TJ Kirk, the Oranj Symphonette and Phil Lesh & Friends. If you see Amendola's name on a project, there is a good chance that it will be some interesting music. This CD is no exception. The band is made up of Jenny Scheninman on violin, Dave Macnab on guitar, Eric Crystal on sax, Todd Sickafoose on bass and Amendola on drums. The music is adventurous, but also unmistakably jazz. It is a lot easier to write music that is fun to play than it is to write music that is fun to listen to, but Amendola seems to be able to do both well. Dave Macnab really shines here on guitar. Deadheads may recognize his name beacuse he played guitar with Ratdog for one tour. Eric Crystal also played with Ratdog on their CD. Both these guys are excellent soloists who get a chance to stretch out over Amendola and Sickafoose's rhythms. The most non-traditional jazz instrument here is the violin played by Scheinman, but it seems to fit right in in this context. She plays some beautiful stuff and is often the main soloist. Amendola's drumming is rock solid and inventive. He also wrote most of the tunes here except for a couple choice covers by the likes of Nick Drake and Jimi Hendrix. This is a really interesting release by a band deserving of larger recognition. You can order it at www.scottamendola.com.

One of my favorite bands from the late eighties was Edie Brickell and New Bohemians. They came out of Dallas with a cool blend of smart songwriting, trippy music and great vocals. They recorded two albums before the pressure caused them to splinter. Lead vocalist and chief songwriter, Edie Brickell went on to marry Paul Simon and record a very good solo album, but has been largely unheard from since then. That looks to be changing with this independent release available from the band’s web site. They have changed their name to simply the New Bohemians which was actually their original name before their record company pressured them to put Edie’s name in their title. The original members are all back and this album picks up right right where they left off. Lead guitarist Kenny Winthrow is a real unknown genius. He is a very original and inventive player who deserves more recognition. The New Bohemians were originally known a sort of jamband who relied more on improvisation than pop songcraft and they seem to be getting back to those roots on this release. That is not to say there aren’t any well-crafted songs here, because there are. Edie still writes cool songs like "Spanish Style Guitar", but they are definitely looser and more jammed out. The album was recorded live at Paul Simon’s estate hence the album title. The New Bohemians are a tight band with a cool sound and they are the perfect canvas for Edie Brickell to paint her songs on. This one is not available in stores. Order it from www.newbohemians.com.

Dynablob 3: March 26th, 1999-John Wesley Harding

This is a nice Document of what JWH sounds like live. If you have ever seen him you know that he likes to interact with the audience and tell stories, which is something you don’t get on his studio albums. This is part of his Dynablob series of self released CDs that feature unreleased material. The first two volumes featured outtakes and the such, but this is the first complete live show. It was recorded while JWH was promoting his Trad. Arr. Jones album which was one of my favorite albums of 1999. Quite a few of those songs are included here with some spare accompaniment by Robert Lloyd. Also featured are some songs that I don’t care for as much from his last album of all original material, Stay Awake. The highlight of this set for me though is the "Talkin’ Return of the Great Folk Scare Blues" which I have seen JWH perform many times, but it has never been on an album before. This is hilarious autobiographical song about JWH growing up the only folkie in his industrial English town. It is done in the tradition of the great Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan Talkin’ Blues songs and it's not only funny, but also strangely moving. You can order this one from www.wesweb.net.

This is a very cool side project by the guitarist known as Fuzz from the East Coast funk/jam band, Deep Banana Blackout. If you have never heard them, you should check them out, but don’t miss this disc either. The core band on the CD is Fuzz on guitar, David Shuman on bass and Mark Balling on Drums, but there are loads of guest appearances. The highest profile guests are DJ Logic (Medeski, Martin and Wood and Project Logic) and Michael Ray (Michael Ray and the Cosmic Crew, Kool and the Gang, Sun Ra and Phish). This is a jazzy, funky conglomeration that I have played over and over again and have not gotten sick of at all. Fuzz can play both funky and melodically. Some the tunes are out and out meltdowns while some are more introspective. This is definitely a jazz CD and the band actually covers obscure nuggets by Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery. The tracks with DJ Logic scratching are especially cool and the horn work is funky throughout. These songs are catchy, groovy and memorable. Simply one of the best instrumental CDs I have heard in a long time. Buy it from www.Deepbananablackout.com.

If you are a fan of either of the Mermaid Avenue CDs by Billy Bragg and Wilco, this is a cool companion piece. Recorded in Europe with Billy’s backing band, The Blokes (featuring Ian Mclagan on keyboards), this CD captures Billy in fine form performing mostly Woody Guthrie material with a few of his own songs tossed in too. It is interesting to hear how he retools some of the Jeff Tweedy songs from the studio album to fit his own band and singing style. This was recorded after the first Mermaid Avenue CD was released but it contains some songs that were unreleased at that time, but that would later appear on Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2 like "My Flying Saucer". I was lucky enough to catch a show from this tour in Berlin during the Fall of 1998 and it is nice to have this sonic picture of what went down. Now if only Billy and Wilco would tour together and perform this stuff. You can order this one from www.billybragg.co.uk.

The Steve Kimock Band is the latest project from Bay Area guitar phenomenon, Steve Kimock. Kimock first gained recognition with the band Zero whom he played with for years. Lately he has become more famous for his playing with Phil Lesh and Friends and the Other Ones. After Zero went into semi-retirement Steve started a very cool band called KVHW, but unfortunately they too broke up before long. This new band called simply the Steve Kimock Band contains KVHW alumni, Alan Hertz on drums and Bobby Vega on Bass. There are two keyboardists on this live disc. On some tunes it is Hot Tuna and Zero keyboard player, Pete Sears and on some tunes Tom Coster whom I believed played with Santana is the keyboardist. This is a nice little recording with some monstrous jams on familiar Kimock tunes like "Samba" and "5B4Funk". There is also an inspired cover of "Footprints". The backing is great here especially Alan Hertz, but the real star is Steve Kimock who plays his ass off on this disc. Lots of bluesy slide guitar and more fluid jazz licks too. This one is only available on the Furthur Tour right now, but supposedly it will be available at Kimock’s web site soon. Go to www.Kimock.com.

This CD has amazing historic value if you are a Deadhead and the music is pretty damn good too. Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions were one of the first incarnations of what would later become the Grateful Dead. This was recorded a year or so before the Dead really coalesced, but you have some of the essential elements here. This is Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan and some of their buddies who didn’t become famous playing jugband music. Jerry plays lots of banjo in addition to guitar, Weir plays guitar, but doubles on washtub bass and Pigpen sings and plays his trademark harmonica. This tape was from a radio broadcast and has some great moments of audience interaction in addition to the music. There are a few familiar tunes that the Dead did here like "Beat It On Down the Line", "Monkey and the Engineer" and "On the Road Again". All three were sung by Weir in the Dead, but here the first two songs are sung by McCree’s member, Tom Stone and the last is by Jerry. This is real jugband music and even includes lots of kazoo. This doesn’t sound much like the Dead, but nonetheless you can see the roots of where they were going with their music. They never abandoned their jugs band roots and this music informed everything they did afterwards in some way. To top of the disc, there is a hilarious interview with Jerry and Bob at the end and a great CD cover by Tim Truman. Buy it at Grateful Dead Mercantile.

If you have listened to Charlie Hunter before you know that he is one of the world’s only eight-string guitarists. He actually plays bass and guitar and the same time on his custum instrument. Well, you have heard him in a duo, Trio and Quartet on his previous albums, but this one all Charlie solo and its really beautiful. Right after Hunter finished his last album he stayed on at the studio and recorded this record by himself. He plays a few original compositions, but mostly these are jazz and pop covers like Monk’s "Green Chimneys" and Cole Porter’s "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". All by himself it is easier to hear Hunter’s intriquite playing and phrasing. He makes a lot of music for just one person and even sometimes manages to make his guitar sound like an organ. This is a great late night jazz album and its limited to 2000 copies from Charlie’s website, www.charliehunter.com.

These are two live releases by multi-instrumentalist, David Lindley and percussionist, Hani Naser. Lindley has played with everybody from Dolly Parton to Warren Zevon to Bob Dylan and is known as great guitar player. Actually, he can play all manor of stringed instruments. These release showcases Lindley’s playing very well accompanied only by Naser’s spare percussion. They tackle everything from Clifton Chenier tunes to Warren Zevon to JJ Cale to Mallagasy instrumentals. One of my favorite tunes is on the second disc and it is a cover of an unreleased Bob Dylan/Danny O’Keefe collaboration called "Well, Well, Well". The song is about water and the lack of water in parts of the world. It has some classic Dylan lines and some awesome Turkish banjo/fiddle (don’t know what to call it) playing by Lindley. Lindley has these two albums along with some other cool discs available at www.davidlindley.com.