Send lawyers, guns and money....

Beth Hart –Good, but frustrating.  There are some great moments on this, notably the Waits cover and the first 6 minutes of “I’d Rather Go Blind”.  Conversely, there were a couple of tracks where I thought Hart overdid the vocal hysterics to the detriment of the song.  Its pretty clear she’s got a hell of a voice in the first few minutes, she didn’t have to keep going out of her way to prove it.  Guitar work is top-notch.  Should have been about 15 minutes shorter. 3.5 stars

Dennis Coffey – Coffey is a talented guitarist, and a couple of these songs settle into some nice funky grooves, notably “7^th Galaxy” and “Ubiquitous”.  The issue I had with this one was the over-production and the vocals at times.  “Knockabout” is a perfect example, it gets started with some nice soul guitar and all of the sudden the extraneous vocals pop in, and completely overpower Coffey and the beautiful Hammond B-3.  In short, good Coffey but too much sweetener.  3 stars

Jayhawks – Man, the first couple of Jayhawks albums are great.  Fantastic vocals delivering sharply written songs that just jump out of the speakers.  The lineup changes and on again/off again state of the band has resulted in a wildly inconsistent recent past, but this one is a classic.  Short and sweet, comfortable groove throughout, and not many bands can match their harmony singing.  4 stars

Trombone Shorty – Good stuff that would no doubt sound better live and with a few beers in me.  So many influences here, the R&B, the Nawlins street march beat, etc, but there’s more than a touch of James Brown and Prince in here as well.  Incredibly tight band that seems to stop and turn on a dime.  Could have done without some of the vocals, but overall, I dug this one.  3.5 stars

Queen – I’ve come to re-appreciate these guys over the last few years.  While “Jazz” isn’t their strongest batch of songs, it’s their most versatile.  The Middle-Eastern influence of“Mustapha”, the dance rock of “Fun It”, and the ballads that the band seemed to be able to turn out unconsciously.  Of course, the strength of Queen is May’s guitar work, and he delivers in spades.  Holds up very well, save for the 2 singles, which through no fault of the band have been beaten into the ground by unimaginative classic rock programmers.  4 stars

Warren Zevon – It bothers me that he’s best known for his novelty hit, which was deliberately left off.  Zevon was a tremendous writer whose songs transition seamlessly from shamelessly romantic to biting irony to Hunter S Thompson-esque flights of fantasy.  Musically, he mostly reflects that 70’s laid-back California sound, evidenced by the presence of Henley, Browne, Ronstadt, etc on much of his early output.   That said, he was not afraid to throw in a full orchestra or the occasional guitar shredding.  One of my all-time favorites, who was gone much too soon.